Reveille on the Overland Trail

The Red Buttes landmark, now known as Bessemer Bend, went west along the Oregon Trail from the North Platte River to the Sweetwater River. The bend is very close to where 23 U.S. soldiers were killed on July 26, 1865, the same day Lt. Caspar Collins was mortally wounded at the Battle of Platte Bridge. William Henry Jackson most likely photographed the Hayden Survey five years later as the survey’s wagon train trailed to its camp