Bessemer Bend

The distinctive Red Buttes stand above Bessemer Bend, the last fording site of the North Platte River on the Oregon Trail. This river, which the emigrants had followed for hundreds of miles, now turned to the south and became impassable. Toll ferries and bridges downstream of the Bend were established after 1847, but emigrants, including the handcart companies of 1856, who did not want to pay the tolls, used Bessemer Bend as a low-water crossing. There is a BLM interpretive site at the crossing. This site has a parking area, picnic tables, a vault toilet and an interpretive trail. It is a non-fee area and is ADA accessible.