Jackie Burrell, Writer

Nineteenth-century fort? Gold Rush ghost town? Historical museum straddling the Platte River in Nebraska? I’m so there.

The Platte River is striking, a braided river whose waterways eddy and surge around willow-dotted islands and sandbars some 310 miles, with a tributary — the North Platte River — that takes the river’s entire length to more than 1,050 miles through Nebraska and up into the Rocky Mountains. Merrill Mattes, an Oregon Trail historian who spent 40 years with the National Park Service, called it the pioneers’ Great Platte River Road in his 1969 book of the same name.

If you’re headed that way, you’ll want to emulate those 19th-century trail pioneers and stop at Fort Kearny and Fort Laramie. The Archway on the Great Platte River Road makes a good spot to stretch your legs, too. Open since 2000, it’s an interactive museum built into an arching bridge over the river. It offers walk-through exhibits from the pioneer perspective, stampeding bison and all. The displays also cover the Pony Express and Transcontinental Railroad and onward to the midcentury era of diners and drive-ins. There’s plenty of parking, a gift shop (of course) and picnic tables outside.