Fur Trade and Overland Routes

The Lewis and Clark expedition, exploring the newly acquired Louisiana territory for the federal government, traveled up and down the Missouri River, 1804–06. In 1807 Manuel Lisa set up a fur-trading post on the west bank of the Missouri, north of the Platte, but it was abandoned in 1812. The army arrived in 1819, establishing what became Fort Atkinson, north of where Omaha now stands. (It was abandoned in 1827.) The first permanent settlement grew up around a trading post at Bellevue, founded about 1820 south of the fort.

Meanwhile, the Platte Valley was becoming the main overland route west. The Oregon Trail was first traced by fur traders in 1811–12, and was later used by Rocky Mountain trappers and by wagon trains. By the 1840's, an almost continuous stream of pioneers was passing through Nebraska on the way west. Fort Kearny was built in 1848 where the trail from Missouri reached the Platte. Additional trails crossing Nebraska were the Mormon Trail (established in 1847) and the Overland Stage Route (about 1859).