Wyoming, Natrona County, Casper
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The North Platte River that we see today is considerably different than the river that the 1847 pioneer party had to cross. As series of dams upstream from this site strictly regulates the flow of water on a year round basis.
(Map of Platte River and Ferry Crossings Sites)
Brigham Young arrived at a point near this site with the Mormon Pioneer 72-wagon company of 143 men, three women and two children on June 12, 1847. Strong winds and high water (150 yards wide and 10 to 15-feet deep) made crossing the river difficult and extremely dangerous. After various attempts to cross and frustrated by slow progress, Brigham Young commissioned the construction of a larger ferry boat. After just three days, the ferry was complete and had been provided as well with two oars and a rudder for control. Brigham Young realized that subsequent Mormon companies would require the ferry to cross the North Platte, and he also appreciated the revenue-generating potential of helping other pioneers cross the river. Wilford Woodruff recorded that “…President Young thought it wisdom to leave a number of the brethren here and keep a ferry until our Company Came up. Emigrants will pay for ferrying $1.50 cents per waggon…”(sic).
On June 19, one week after their arrival, Brigham Young named nine men to remain and operate the ferry:
Thomas Grover, Captain (professional ferryman)
William Empey, Assistant Captain
Appleton Harmon, Carpenter-Mechanic
Luke Johnson, Doctor and Hunter
James Davenport, Blacksmith
James Higbee, Herdsman
Edmund Ellsworth, Hunter
Francis Pomeroy, Hunter
Benjamin Stewart, Coal miner
A tenth man, Eric Glines, elected himself to stay behind with the ferrymen.
(Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
The North Platte River that we see today is considerably different than the river that the 1847 pioneer party had to cross. As series of dams upstream from this site strictly regulates the flow of water on a year round basis. (Map of Platte River and Ferry Crossings Sites)
Brigham Young arrived at a point near this site with the Mormon Pioneer 72-wagon company of 143 men, three women and two children on June 12, 1847. Strong winds and high water (150 yards wide and 10 to 15-feet deep) made crossing the river difficult and extremely dangerous. After various attempts to cross and frustrated by slow progress, Brigham Young commissioned the construction of a larger ferry boat. After just three days, the ferry was complete and had been provided as well with two oars and a rudder for control. Brigham Young realized that subsequent Mormon companies would require the ferry to cross the North Platte, and he also appreciated the revenue-generating potential of helping other pioneers cross the river. Wilford Woodruff recorded that “…President Young thought it wisdom to leave a number of the brethren here and keep a ferry until our Company Came up. Emigrants will pay for ferrying $1.50 cents per waggon…”(sic).
On June 19, one week after their arrival, Brigham Young named nine men to remain and operate the ferry:
Thomas Grover, Captain (professional ferryman)
William Empey, Assistant Captain
Appleton Harmon, Carpenter-Mechanic
Luke Johnson, Doctor and Hunter
James Davenport, Blacksmith
James Higbee, Herdsman
Edmund Ellsworth, Hunter
Francis Pomeroy, Hunter
Benjamin Stewart, Coal miner
A tenth man, Eric Glines, elected himself to stay behind with the ferrymen.
(Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Fages, Commandante at Monterey, vainly looked for a way across San Francisco Bay. With Juan Crespi, Franciscan missionary, 14 soldiers, a muleteer and an Indian servant, he trekked along Carquinez Strait, thence eastward nearly to Antioch. Turning back, these first white men to explore what became Contra Costa County, passed this point and camped near Danville March 31, 1772.
From the late 1840s through the 1860s, an exodus of more than 70,000 Mormons passed by here on their way to their “New Zion” in Utah. Starting from Nauvoo, Illinois in February 1846, the first group of at least 13,000 Mormons crossed into Iowa to escape religious persecution, then spent the next winter in the area of present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska. 
Commonly called the "Main Street of America" and also the "Mother Road," Route 66 became the first paved transcontinental highway in the U.S. spanning from Chicago to Los Angeles, the route in Texas crossed 7 panhandle counties over 177 miles. Route 66 was popular with automobile tourists. The road was important in the development of Sixth Street and the San Jacinto area in Amarillo, which was the only large urban city on the Texas route. In 1994 the area was listed in the National Register of historic places, and has become the focus of local preservation efforts.
Built by 
The Natatorium, an open air building surrounding a swimming pool that measured 36' by 101', opened in July 1922. "The Nat" was enclosed in 1923 for year round use. In 1926 the building was converted into a dance hall with 10,000 square feet of maple flooring covering the pool area. "The Nat" also provided dining and at its peak employed 40 staff members. Well known bands traveling along Route 66 often stopped here to entertain. Though closed as a public dance hall in the 1960's, "The Nat" served the Amarillo area as a significant social center for decades.
The center piece of the Platte Bridge Station and Fort Caspar was the bridge built here by Louis Guinard in 1859-1860 and used until Fort Caspar was abandoned in 1867. The bridge superstructure stood on 28 timber cribbings filled with rock and gravel. Not counting the approaches, the bridge was 810 feet long and 17 feet wide. The total cost of construction was estimated at $40,000 dollars. The toll for wagons to cross was $1.00 to $6.00, determined by the height of the river. An additional toll was charged for animals and people. This bridge symbolized the changes being shaped by the expansion of America during the middle 19th Century.
The Frying Pan Ranch was founded in 1881 by Amarillo Pioneer Henry Sanborn and J.F. Glidden, the inventor of barbed wire. The partnership was dissolved in 1894. Glidden sold the ranch to his son-in-law, W.H. Bush, who later endowed the free library and park in his birthplace, Martinsburg, New York. Bush was a patron of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Amarillo Public Library. His gift of land in 1900 established the site of St. Anthony's Hospital. The round up house built in 1926 was a present to his daughter, Emeline, on her sixteenth birthday.
This house was built for early Amarillo settlers James Bynum and Marie Lowery Smith c. 1904, and was originally located at 1101 south Taylor Street. The home was purchased in 1945 by Jesse A. Rogers, who planned to move his car dealership to the site. Instead of razing the house, he had it moved to its present site to serve as his family's home at the time of its relocation. Architect C.W. Brott made changes to the original design. The classical revival style house now features leaded glass windows, roof cresting and interior woodwork from the 1900s and brick veneer, balustrades and full-height columns from the 1940s.
Erected 1968, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of discovery of helium in the gaseous atmosphere surrounding the sun. (The discovery of traces of helium on earth was first announced in 1895.)
The Helium Monument was moved from its former location at I-40 and Nelson Street to this location on December 16, 1982. The 8 ½ ton stainless steel monument was moved around the southern limits of Amarillo, by an Army 'Chinook' helicopter from Fort Hood, in twenty minutes from lift-off to set down.
Amarillo's status as the “Helium Capital of the World” can be traced back to the efforts on one man, Jack B. Kelley.
This plant, operated by the United States Bureau of Mines, was the first to produce helium from the extensive helium resources in the Texas Panhandle. From 1929 until 1943, it furnished almost all of the world's supply of helium.
Early settlers to this area included the J.C. Womble family, which came in January 1892. The next year, the community obtained land on which to build a schoolhouse, known as the Union School. In May 1893, George D. Whitfield, a young cowboy, was buried in what was the schoolyard. His is the first marked burial, although two earlier graves were known to exist at the time.
At the time of the great migration of emigrants through Wyoming to the Pacific coast and Utah, Indians were the largest group of residents in Wyoming. Many of these tribes such as Utes and Blackfeet, were semi-permanent and nomadic, traveling in and out of Wyoming as warrior-hunting societies. The roaming buffalo supplied the Indians with all their subsistence, and the introduction of the horse provided the mobility to hunt the buffalo in great numbers. 
Approximately eight miles southwest of here, Robert Stuart built the first cabin in the state of Wyoming. The cabin was built in a three day period in early November,1812, at a site on the North Platte River at Bessemer Bend. 
Brigham Young led the first group of Mormons west from winter quarters in Nebraska in 1847, finally settling in the Salt Lake Valley. When these pioneers crossed the river here, they left nine men to operate a ferry. This ferry served fellow Mormons as well as Oregon and California bound emigrants and provided much needed money and supplies for the settlements in Utah. 
John C. Fremont, the “Pathfinder”, was born in 1813 and explored a large portion of central Wyoming including the Casper area. He made an independent survey to the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming in 1842, and the 13,743’ Fremont Peak of the Wind Rivers is named in his honor. Fremont tried unsuccessfully to navigate the North Platte River through a canyon southwest of Casper in August of 1842. The boat capsized, resulting in the loss of important mapping equipment, journals, registers, maps and supplies. Subsequently, he received the dubious honor of having this area come to be known as Fremont Canyon. Through the recommendation of Fremont, the government purchased and garrisoned Ft. Laramie in 1849. 
