Military Avenue is a central thoroughfare located in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. A segment of the road located at the junction of West 82nd and Fort Streets was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1993. Today Military Road, which begins at

Nebraska Highway 64 Nebraska Highway 64 is a highway in Nebraska. There are two segments to the highway. The western segment lies in Butler County between U.S. Highway 81 and Nebraska Highway 15. The eastern segment goes through Saunders and Douglas counties betw ...

as Nebraska Highway L-28K, ends at Bennington Road near North 204th Street (

Nebraska Highway 31 Nebraska Highway 31 is a highway in Nebraska. The southern terminus is near Louisville at an intersection with Nebraska Highway 50. The northern terminus is near Kennard at an intersection with U.S. Highway 30. The highway serves as a main nort ...

History

Originally part of the

Overland Trail The Overland Trail (also known as the Overland Stage Line) was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail w ...

, Military Avenue was laid out from

Downtown Omaha Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, U.S. state of Nebraska. The boundaries are Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha's 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and ...

westward through the town of Benson and past in 1857 by Captain Edward Beckwith for the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

. Originally designated as a shipment road for moving military supplies to

Fort Kearny Fort Kearny was a historic outpost of the United States Army founded in 1848 in the western U.S. during the middle and late 19th century. The fort was named after Col. and later General Stephen Watts Kearny. The outpost was located along the Ore ...

, thousands of travelers moving to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

used the road for the next fifty years. Purposely laid out over high ground, emigrants and freighters had a clear view of the surrounding country as a protection against attacks."Street Names"

Douglas County Historical Society The Douglas County Historical Society, or DCHS, is located at 5730 North 30th Street in the General Crook House at Fort Omaha in north Omaha, Nebraska. The mission of the DCHS is to collect, preserve and present to the public the history of Douglas ...

. Retrieved 11/26/07.

Currently

The original graded wagon track can be seen near the

Omaha Public Power District Omaha Public Power District, or OPPD, is a public electric utility in the state of Nebraska. It is a publicly owned electric utility in the United States, serving more than 855,000 people in Omaha and 13 surrounding counties in southeast Nebraska. ...

substation located near North 90th and Fort Streets. A section of the road is listed on the

Elsewhere online

"A History of the Military Road in North Omaha"
by Adam Fletcher Sasse for NorthOmahaHistory.com

References

{{Registered Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Omaha, Nebraska Streets in Omaha, Nebraska Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska Military roads

History

Currently

See also

Elsewhere online

References