"Pick" your history

Last Saturday 38 people went for a historical adventure on Pick Ranch.

Led by local historians Ken Olson, Dick Perue, Ken Swanson and Chilly Rollison the group followed the Platte River and were treated to stories about Sheep Rock, the original location of Pick Bridge and its more recent incarnations, Bennett's Ferry crossing, the Cowan and Haymaker houses, the river crossing at the Shultz/Ward/Sanger place, the Frazier place, the Evans/Bryan trail, Pick Springs and tipi rings near the "Old Perue Place."

Along the way the tour group discussed what they knew of the former landowners, ranchers, ferry operators and Native American use of the area. A lively dialogue with Olson and the other guides developed through tales of ghost deer, notable local characters and the men and women who settled the Platte Valley in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

With Rollison filling in the Native American component the story of Pick Ranch spans more than 10,000 years. Pick Springs in particular has been attracting people since the earliest inhabitants of the continent.

According to information compiled by Perue, Pick Ranch was originally established in the late 1870s with its headquarters near the Overland Trail and Bennett's Ferry. Bennett's Ferry was important to emigrants using the Overland Trail because it allowed them to cross the North Platte River in times of high water. The ferry remained a profitable operation until 1885 when a bridge was built in Saratoga.

In the early years of the ferry it was the only ferry on the North Platte south of Fort Steele. In 1867 a military post was constructed to protect emigrants, the ferry and a stage stop from Native Americans who were known to raid the stage route. The violence of the raids is evidenced by Howard Corpening's account of finding human bones in the area when he was a child. Some accounts attribute the bones to a small pox epidemic in 1874-1875 which killed many Native Americans.

A litany of people owned, operated and worked Pick Ranch starting with Englishmen Henry Seton-Karr and J. H. Jefferson. The ranch changed hands many times until it was sold to a corporate outfit in 2006. It is now operated as part of the TA Ranch.

The Olson family owned Pick Ranch from 1950 until 2006, the longest span of ownership in the ranch's history.

The original Pick Bridge is long gone, but Perue presented a photograph of the cribbed log and wood stringer bridge. The Pick Bridge that was installed in 1934 still spans the river and Olson and Perue told the story of how that steel Parker Through Truss bridge was moved up river from Fort Steele.

In what is now known as the Sanger access area of the North Platte the group learned about where Bennett had another ferry location in the 1870s and 1880s. A historic photo presented to the trekkers shows three log building attributed to E. W. Bennett which was sometimes called a fort.

In the final stop of the trek Rollison took the group further back in time showing them tipi rings which likely predate the Pick Ranch.

The trek was presented in memory of Jerry Ward who spent many years collecting historical information and artifacts associated with the ranch.

 

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