On September 3, 1855, the U.S. Army's 600-man Sioux Expedition, commanded by Col. William S. Harney, attacked and destroyed a Lakota village located three miles north on Blue Creek. The fight became known as the Battle of Blue Water, sometimes the Battle of Ash Hollow after the nearby landmark, or the Harney Massacre.
The army's attack avenged the Indian annihilation of Lt. John Grattan's command near FortLaramie in 1854. Harney concluded the more than 250 Brules and Oglalas camped on Blue Creek were the guilty parties. He divided his force and led his infantry towards the village. While Harney engaged in a delaying parley with Chief Little Thunder, the mounted troops had circled undetected to the north.
The infantry opened fire with its new, long-range rifles and forced the Indians to flee toward the mounted soldiers, who inflicted terrible casualties. Eighty-six Indians were killed, seventy women and children were captured, and their tipis were looted and burned. This first, yet often overlooked, military campaign against the Lakota kept the Overland Trail open, but only postponed until 1863-64 a war between the two nations.
]]>It has been estimated that at least 20,000 persons died on the overland trail, between 1842 and 1859. This averages ten graves per mile over the 2,000 mile trail. Of the hundreds who died while crossing Nebraska, only seven identifiable graves remain.
Most trail graves had crude wooden or animal-bone markers. A very few had formal stones or iron wagon wheel rims. The nearby grave of John Hollman, like others in Western Nebraska, was marked by a roughly fashioned local rock. Though most of the others have disappeared, Hollman's still stands, its crude lettering giving his name and that he died in June 1852.
Many overland travelers died from accidents, while a few were killed by Indians. The great majority died from disease. Asiatic cholera was the main killer, coming up the Mississippi from New Orleans. Parties crossing Missouri spread it across the Plains. It is not known how John Hollman died, but 1852 was a very bad cholera year and numerous deaths were recorded in this vicinity. Wagon ruts are still visible in parts of Garden County. Local rock formations were commented upon by many diarists. These remain today as a part of our historical heritage. The adjacent directional stone marker has been moved from its original site.
]]>Ash Hollow is a focal point for understanding the geologic history of the Central Great Plains prior to the onset of the Great Ice Age. It is the type locality of the Ash Hollow Formation, named by Henry Engelmann after a visit in 1858-1859. These sediments were deposited in ancient valley-systems that drained east from the Rocky Mountains.
Much of the ancient valley-fill is exposed in cross section in the cliff faces along Ash Hollow. The basal pebble-gravel forms the roof of Ash Hollow Cave in the exhibit area. Some of the overlying hard ledges or mortar-beds probably represent hard-pan or caliche soils, and others contain fossil grass seeds and root-casts of yucca, all indicative of a semi-arid climate and plants somewhat like today. But the animals found in these rocks were very different, including camels, rhinoceroses, and long-jawed mastodons, most of which became extinct before the Ice Age. The Ice Age animals were likewise mostly distinct from those now living here.
The earliest collections of fossils were made for E. D. Cope near here in 1879. Explorers who made geological contributions include John C. Fremont in 1843 and G. K. Warren in 1855.
]]>The stones surrounding this marker are the remains of the homestead dwelling of Reverend Dennis B. Clary, a pioneer Methodist Minister, who received final patent for his homestead May 22, 1899. Mr. Clary was born September 1st, 1822, in Maryland and immigrated to Nebraska in 1885. Using a horse drawn cart fashioned from available materials, he hauled stone to this site for a two room house. For years this was a land mark in Ash Hollow and marked the location of Windlass Hill. It was a popular stopping place for settlers traveling from the North Platte Valley area to the railroad at Big Springs, some twenty miles to the south.
The wagon road used at that time is still visible nearby. The Oregon Trail passed here, and the area surrounding the house was used by early travelers to repair damages caused by the hazardous trip down Windlass Hill.
This site was used July 29 - 30, 1967, as the stage setting for the "Ash Hollow Centennial Pageant" when a nearby sod house was reconstructed. Funds from this successful historical event provided this marker.
]]>Ash Hollow was famous on the Oregon Trail. A branch of the trail ran northwestward from the Lower California Crossing of the South Platte River a few miles west of Brule, and descended here into the North Platte Valley. The hollow, named for a growth of ash trees, was entered by Windlass Hill to the south. Wagons had to be eased down its steep slope by ropes. Ash Hollow with its water, wood and grass was a welcome relief after the arduous trip from the South Platte and the travelers usually stopped for a period of rest and refitting. An abandoned trappers cabin served as an unofficial postoffice where letters were deposited to be carried to the "States" by Eastbound travelers. The graves of Rachel Pattison and other emigrants are in the nearby cemetery. In 1855 a significant fight, commonly called the Battle of Ash Hollow, occurred at Blue Water Creek northwest of here. General Harney's forces sent out to chastise the Indians after the Grattan Massacre of 1854 here attacked Little Thunder's band of Brule Sioux while the Indians were attempting to parley, killed a large number and captured the rest of the band.
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