FORT KEARNEY

ON THE REAL TRAIL

The U.S. Army founded Fort Kearny on the Platte River in Nebraska in 1848, the same year the game is set, to protect travelers on the trail. (The official spelling is Kearny; many emigrants wrote it the way the game does.)

From here the trail followed the broad, shallow Platte River west for hundreds of miles. Emigrants joked that the Platte was "a mile wide and an inch deep."

IN THE OREGANO TRAIL

The first fort. Its store charges a quarter more than Independence did, so top up only what you need.

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