Trails of the Smoky Hill

Book excerpt: Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press First it was Coronado in 1540; then came Vilasur, Bourgmont, Pike an Fremont. All of these explorers found the Smoky Hill valley to be among the riches buffalo pastures on the continent. When gold was found in Cherry Creek and the miners and settlers soon learned that the Smoky Hill River and the trails that ran along it provided the shortest path to Denver and thus the gold in the Rockies the resulting conflict between native peoples wanting to protect their hunting grounds and the encroaching white men became the stuff of legend.