Battle of the Bridges

Crossing the North Platte River on the Cheyenne and Sidney routes to the Black Hills

“Lonesome” Charley Reynolds trudged through the August 1874 heat of eastern Wyoming’s High Plains carrying one of the most significant messages in the history of the American West. Reynolds – a civilian scout with the 7th U.S. Cavalry – was part of a large Army expedition into the Black Hills. The expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, was officially tasked with scouting the Black Hills for sites suitable for military posts. The roughly 1,200 men of the expedition departed Fort Abraham Lincoln (near modern Bismarck, ND), and headed for the Black Hills in the summer of 1874. While camped along the banks of French Creek (near modern Custer, SD) in the southern Black Hills, miners with the expedition “discovered” gold. Tasked with carrying the news of gold in the Black Hills to the nearest telegraph, approx. 120 miles away at Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, Reynolds navigated his way through “hostile Indian territory” and the August heat of the Plains. When Reynolds arrived at Fort Laramie, he handed the message over to the Fort’s telegraph operator. From Fort Laramie, the message blazed across the telegraph “talking wire,” there was gold in the Black Hills! Custer wrote to his commander at the Department of Dakota, “examinations at numerous points confirm and strengthen the fact of the existence of gold in the Black Hills.” Custer’s news of gold was most welcome to a nation suffering from an economic recession known as the Panic of 1873.

The race to the gold fields in the new “El Dorado” was on. But getting to the Black Hills was no mean feat in the 1870s. A timbered island in the sea of the High Plains, no railroads yet reached the Hills. According to historian Phillip Hall, prospectors had a choice of five “jumping-off points” to start their journey to the Hills. Some miners headed for Bismarck on the Northern Pacific Railroad and then traveled south following in Custer’s Black Hills Expedition's footsteps. Others took the Dakota Southern Railroad to Yankton and then a steamboat to Fort Pierre before heading overland to the Hills. Still others made their way up the Chamberlain Road across what is now southern South Dakota. But, the route most picked to take them to the Black Hills was to ride the Union Pacific’s trans-continental tracks across Nebraska disembarking in either Sidney, Nebraska or Cheyenne, Wyoming before heading north to the Black Hills. The Sidney route and the Cheyenne route soon became the most popular and intense competition between the two sprang up.

​Fort Laramie Iron Bridge. 1923. View from the south bank of the North Platte River looking north. Fort Laramie NHS.	The Iron Bridge on September 26, 2021. View from south bank of the North Platte River, form approx. same place as 1923 photo. In the intervening 98 years, the approach to the bridge was built-up to make it level with the bridge's roadway. Author.

One advantage both the Sidney and Cheyenne routes held over the other options of getting to the Black Hills was that the southern half of these routes was already well established, and well traveled since 1868. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty stipulated a single Sioux Agency be located somewhere within the Great Sioux Reservation. The government envisioned a single agency along the Missouri River making supplies by steamboat essay. Red Cloud’s Oglalas and Spotted Tail’s Brules had different ideas, wanting their agencies closer to their ancestral homelands. The agencies moved several times, but by 1874 both the Red Cloud Agency and the Spotted Tail Agency were established in Nebraska’s northwest panhandle. To help guard and supply these two Agencies, the Army established Camp Robinson and Camp Sheridan nearby. The Agencies and Army Camps both needed supplies.

A group of Native Americans taking the Ferry across the North Platte River in 1868.

To get supplies to the Camps and Agencies, the Army made use of both Sidney and Cheyenne. From the Sidney Barracks, established in 1867 along the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, supplies moved northward across the Nebraska panhandle to Camps Robinson and Sheridan. A second means of supply was for the cargo to arrive via the Union Pacific at Cheyenne’s Fort D.A. Russell. Wagons had made their way from Cheyenne up to Fort Laramie since the Continental Railroad tracks reached Fort D.A. Russell in 1868. Once at Fort Laramie, supplies could continue on to the Nebraska Agencies on the newly established Fort Laramie-Robinson Road. Supplying the Army Camps and Indian Agencies via the Cheyenne or Sidney routes meant the southern half of these routes was well traveled and it was only the northern half – backtracking on Charlie Reynold’s journey – which needed to be blazed.

​View from north bank looking south along the Iron Bridge. While not visible, historic Fort Laramie sits two miles distant. The three pedestrians are unknown. 1900. Fort Laramie NHS.	View from the north bank looking south. The author’s motorcycle is in the parking area at the far end of the bridge. September 26, 2021. Author.

When compared to each other, the Sidney and Cheyenne routes held their own advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage Sidney claimed was a shorter distance. The Omaha Daily Bee made the most of this and claimed at various times the distance between Sidney and the Black Hills was 70, 80, or even 90 miles shorter than the Cheyenne route. In reality, the routes were nearly the same distance. In fact, Sidney is 225 miles from Deadwood as the crow flies, while Cheyenne is only 5 miles further. Even more astonishing, put directions from Cheyenne to Deadwood in Google Maps, and then Sidney to Deadwood in as well, and both modern drives are 274 miles. Of course, miners in the 1870s did not have Google Maps nor did they have airplanes to let them fly as the crow over the rough terrain of Wyoming, western Nebraska, and South Dakota. One of the more formidable obstacles both routes needed to cross was the North Platte River.

Visit the North Platte today, and this may surprise you. But, historically, the North Platte River used to be up to a mile wide in many places as evidenced by the old streambed and written records. Today, it is much smaller due to the extensive water taken from it for irrigation. There are also several dams which control the flow of the water throughout the year. In the nineteenth century, before the dams and irrigation, the river was far more formidable. In June 1850, at least six men drowned while attempting a crossing of the North Platte. The main way to cross the river was at farriers, such as the ferry at Fort Laramie. Crossing by ferry could still be dangerous and was a slow process. A bridge over the Platte would make travel far safer and faster. Here, the Cheyenne route gained the advantage. Beginning in 1876, travelers on the Cheyenne to Black Hills trail crossed the North Platte River at Fort Laramie and made use of the Fort’s newly constructed Iron Bridge.

Fort Laramie Iron Bridge. View from the north bank looking east. Note the relatively high water level of the North Platte River. 1900. Fort Laramie NHS	Fort Laramie Iron Bridge. View taken from 1958 concrete bridge. View is from the northside of the River looking southeast. Note the low water level of the North Platte. September 26, 2021. Author

Commander of the Department of the Platte, General Edward Ord initially approved construction of a bridge in 1872. Cheyenne business – fearing they were losing traffic to the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies in northwest Nebraska to the Sidney route – petitioned Congress to fund the bridge, and Congress authorized $15,000 for its construction in January 1874. The King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio fabricated the iron girders and plates for the bridge which were then shipped by railroad to Cheyenne and then by bull-train to Fort Laramie. The bridge was completed in late 1875, but the Army did not accept the bridge until February 1876 when 13 wagons loaded with stone were placed on each arch of the bridge proving its strength. The Army then deemed the bridge to be “well built and first-class in every respect.” The Iron Bridge was indeed strong, as it still stands at Fort Laramie National Historic Site to this day.

Cheyenne boosters liked to claim their city as the “Magic City of the Plains.” If Cheyenne was the “Magic City,” then the Fort Laramie Iron Bridge was the “Magic Key” to the forbidden land of gold in the Black Hills. According to the Cheyenne Leader, the completion of the Fort Laramie bridge marked “the beginning of a new era in the material development of Cheyenne and Laramie county, for it assures us the travel to and from the Black Hills and makes this city, beyond question, the great entrepot for all who now are in the new gold regions and all others who propose to go to the Black Hills in the future.” The completion of the bridge marked a significant change in the mission of military Fort Laramie. The military Fort was founded to help guard immigrants on their westward journey on the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails. Historian Douglas McChristian notes, “the new bridge signified that the axis of travel had shifted from east-west to north-south,” as the travel was now to the gold fields of the Black Hills.

Cheyenne - Black Hills Stage in 1885. Fort Laramie NHS.	Cheyenne - Black Hills Stage at Lusk, Wyoming in the 1880s. Fort Laramie NHS.

The importance of the competition of the Fort Laramie Iron Bridge cannot be overstated in the story of the race to the Black Hills. Historian Agnus Spring writes, had the Fort Laramie Bridge not been approved, “the Cheyenne to Deadwood route and the Cheyenne and Black Hills stage line might have had an entirely different history, or, perhaps, none at all.” Spring’s assertion is bolstered when we consider that the Fort Laramie bridge was officially opened in February 1876, and that the Sidney route did not get its own bridge until June 1876.

By June 1876, the Clarke Bridge across the North Platte River was opened near modern Bridgeport, Nebraska. The competition of Clarke Bridge once again made the Sidney route popular as both Sidney and Cheyenne could claim bridges of the Platte. But the opening of the Fort Laramie Bridge five months before Clarke Bridge gave Cheyenne boosters the edge. Cheyenne had five months to market their route as the safest and most practical way to the Black Hills.

​Clarke Bridge, Nebraska. Fort Laramie NHS.

Not only could the Cheyenne route claim to have a bridge over the North Platte before the Sidney route, the bridge at Fort Laramie was free to travel over. Clarke Bridge in Nebraska was privately built, and thus charged a fee to cross. The bridge at Fort Laramie was constructed by the government at taxpayer expense. Initially, there was a fee to cross the Iron Bridge at Fort Laramie, but Cheyenne politicians were successful in convincing the Secretary of War and the Judge Advocate General that, since the bridge was government property, only Congress had the legal right to place a fee on the bridge. Since the initial $15,000 provision Congress allotted to build the bridge had not made allowance for tolls across the bridge, Congress had not set a fee to cross the bridge, therefore the Iron Bridge at Fort Laramie was toll free.

While the Iron Bridge breathed new life into old Fort Laramie and made the post relevant for another decade, ultimately the grand old post outlived its usefulness as Fort Robinson, Nebraska superseded Fort Laramie in strategic importance. In 1890 the Army closed Fort Laramie, and sold the Fort’s buildings at auction. The Iron Bridge also came up for action, but failed to sell. Wyoming’s territorial representative J. M. Carey requested the Iron Bridge be turned over to Laramie County, as the Bridge still remained an important government asset to move troops between Fort D. A. Russell and Fort Robinson. Congress officially donated the Iron Bridge to Laramie County in 1894. The Bridge then fell under Goshen County jurisdiction when it formed out of Laramie County in 1911. The Bridge continued to serve as an important crossing over the North Platte River until 1958 when Goshen County constructed a new concrete bridge just adjacent to the Iron Bridge. In 1961, Goshen County waived its rights to the Iron Bridge, the Bridge reverted to federal government control and came under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service’s Fort Laramie National Historic Site.

The fate of Clarke Bridge in Nebraska was less romantic than that of Fort Laramie’s Iron Bridge. By 1886, the Omaha Bee reported Clarke Bridge “gives evident signs of old age.” After 1900 travel on Clarke Bridge greatly diminished. From an article in the Omaha Bee, it appears Clarke Bridge remained standing in 1918. But traffic and local commerce had all moved from the Bridge to Bridgeport, NE a few miles down stream. In 1933, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a monument at the site commemorating Clarke Bridge.

By 1886, railroad lines reached Rapid City, SD greatly reducing the need for stage coaches. The route from the Black Hills to Fort Laramie Charlie Reynolds took ceased to be the fastest and safest way to the goldfields once rail travel became available. As a result, the last regular stage left Cheyenne for the Black Hills in February 1887. The Cheyenne and Sidney routes became a thing of the past, and the Fort Laramie Iron Bridge and the Clarke Bridge were reduced to supporting mainly local traffic, with only a legacy as the “magic keys” to the Black Hills.

Bibliography:

Primary Sources:

Crawford, Jack. Ho! for the Black Hills: Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War. Edited by Paul L. Hedren. Pierre, SD: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2012.

Custer, Brevet Major General U.S. Army George A., to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Dakota, St. Paul. quoted in Cozzens, Peter. Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890: The Long War for the Northern Plains, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004.

King, Charles. Campaigning with Crook. First edition, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. New edition, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.

Newspapers:

“Ft. Laramie Bridge Free!,” The Wyoming Weekly Leader [Cheyenne]. April 29, 1876. wyomingnewspapers.org

“Historic Spots of the State are Marked by D.A.R.,” The Plattsmouth Journal [Nebraska]. April 10, 1933. nebnewspapers.unl.edu

“The Fort Laramie Bridge.” The Wyoming Weekly Leader [Cheyenne]. March 25, 1876. wyomingnewspapers.org

“The Route to the Black Hills.” Cheyenne Daily Leader. November 30, 1875. wyomingnewspapers.org

“The Tide of Home Builders: A Continuous Procession of Settlers - Extortionate Tolls at Clark’s Bridge.” Omaha Daily Bee. May 4, 1886. nebnewspapers.unl.edu

“Views, Reviews and Interviews,” Omaha Daily Bee. June 16, 1918. nebnewspapers.unl.edu

Secondary Sources:

Monographs:

Cozzens, Peter. Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890: The Long War for the Northern Plains, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004.

Hedren, Paul L. Fort Laramie in 1876: Chronicle of a Frontier Post at War. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1988.

Mattes, Merrill J. Fort Laramie Park History 1834-1977. Rocky Mountain Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. September 1980. www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/fola/history/index.htm

McChristian, Douglas C. Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.

Parker, Watson. Gold in the Black Hills. Pierre, SD: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 1966. books.google.com/books?id=aHs922gcTikC&q=laramie#v=onepage&q&f=false

Spring, Agnes Wright. The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1948.

Journal Articles:

Hall, Philip S. “The Ephemeral Chamberlain Road: A Freight Rail to the Black Hills.” South Dakota History Vol 26. No. 1. Spring 1996: 1-23.

Hedren, Paul L. “Camp Sheridan, Nebraska: The Uncommonly Quiet Post on Beaver Creek.” Nebraska History Vol. 91. Summer 2010: 80-93.

Hedren, Paul L. “Garrisoning the Black Hills Road: The United States Army’s Camps on Sage Creek and Mouth of Red Canyon, 1876-1877.” South Dakota History Vol 37. No. 1. Spring 2007: 1-45.

McDermott, John Dishon. “Fort Laramie’s Iron Bridge.” Annals of Wyoming Vol 34. No 2. October 1962: 136-144.

Web sources:

“Camp Clarke Bridge,” The History Nebraska Blog, accessed December 26, 2022, history.nebraska.gov/publications_section/camp-clarke-bridge/

“Camp Clarke Bridge and Sidney Black Hills Trail,” Nebraska State Historical Society Historical Marker. mynehistory.com/items/show/364?tour=3&index=41