It was in the spring of 1865 that the author of this book and several other noteable people visited Fort Laramie, coming by way of "The Leavenworth and Fort Laramie Military Road," as the Overland Trail was then called. This line was along the south side of the Platte to the Fort Sedgwick Crossing (near Julesburg), thence via Wind Springs and the south side of the North Platte to the mouth of Horse Creek where it crossed to the north side and continued to a point opposite the fort.

In this distinguished party was Schuyler Colfax, then speaker of the house of representatives, and in the west, wherever he met a body of people, hunters, trappers, miners, or military forces, he would deliver to them a message from Abraham Lincoln, who, a few days before his death, had held a conference with Colfax, whom he had heard was about to take a journey into the west. The words of the martyred president seem prophetic in the light of years. "I have been thinking of a speech I want you to make for me. I have very large ideas of. the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it is practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of million dollars to our national debt every day, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of the precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now. that the rebellion is overthrown and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, makes the paymenl of that debl so much easier. Now, I am going to encourage that in every possible way.