THE OVERLAND ROUTE COUNCIL BLUFFS TO OGDEN. 29 



deeply by canyons with precipitous walls of loess nearly 200 feet 

 thickj which is overlain hj sand and gravel containing pebbles of rock 

 brought by the streams in past ages from the Rocky Mountains. 



West of Gothenburg the train passes Vroman, Brady Island, 

 Hindrey, ^faxwell^ Keith^ and Gannett before entering North Platte. 



The city of North Platte (see sheet 5, p. 30), the seat of Lincoln 

 County and the chief commercial center of western Nebraska, stands 



at the junction of North Platte and South Platte 

 North Platte. rivers. . It is in the middle of an irrigation district, 



Elevation 2,800 feet, where sugar beets, hay, and other farm products are 

 omahSmiies. raised. About 1,000,000 tons of hay is shipped 



annually from this town to the mountain markets. 

 Here are a United States land office and a station of the United State 

 Weather Bureau, and 4 miles south of the city there is a State experi- 

 mental farm. 



North Platte is a raiboad division point. Here the railroad main- 

 tains extensive shops and an icing plant, said to be one of the largest 

 in the United States, where more than 10,000 cars of fruit and other 

 edibles are iced annually. The plant may be seen to the left by the 

 westbound traveler as he leaves the station. At this station the 

 change is made from central time to mountain time, one hour earher. 



Just before entering the city the train crosses North Platte River, 

 which generally carries a considerable volume of water. The 

 South Platte is dry except during times of floods, because its water 

 is used for irrigation farther upstream. The North Platte is 650 

 miles long and drains about 28,500 square miles. At North Platte 

 it has a maximum discharge of about 20,000 cubic feet a second and a 

 minimum discharge of 70 cubic feet a second. Its average volume of 

 flow during the nine months from March to November is 3,490 cubic 

 feet a second. 



Southeast of the city are prominent bluffs of loess, rising abruptly 

 400 feet above the bottom lands. The loess is about 350 feet thick 

 and lies on the ^^ mortar beds^' described on page 30. 



West of North Platte there are many small towns and stations cbn- 

 cernino- which no information need be p^iven excent that shown on the 



accompanying maps 



yommg 



some 



Beyond North Platte the valley widens considerably, being the 

 double valley of the two rivers^ and the train passes for several miles 



through an irrigated district, in the center of which 

 Hershey. stands Hershey. Tlie fields in the bottom lands are 



Elevation 2,901 feet, called farms, but similar fields on the highlands are 

 ^Ti!'o^^fi^* caUed ranches. This district is in the transition zone 



imaha 303 mil 



rural 



a farm, and the West, where each plot other than a 1 

 less of size or uses, is a ranch, .ilthough the term 



