He crossed the Kaw river on pontoon bridges and drove his herd through the streets of Topeka, when it was but a village.

These were among the first of the ranchers west of the junction of the Platte rivers. This magnificent cow country which lies west of the forks of the Platte, and east of Fort Laramie, soon was filled with great herds. The first herds were gathered about the places protected by forts, no doubt for that very reason.

Phil and Jim Dater, who helped to blaze the Texas trail brought their cattle up from the south in 1872, and established the 66 brand on the north side of Sixty-six mountain. This brand, and the location of the Sixty-six ranch, has given rise to many mistakes in early tradition. Some have said that the brand indicated the year of the starting of the business there, and others tell us that the brand is what named the mountain. John Hunton would not be sure about that, but he thought the mountain was unnamed pior to the locating of the 66 brand. However, a number of old timers, namely: D. McUlvane, Colin Hunter, H. M. Ingraham, and others have said that the mountain was named before the Daters appeared in this country. The thrilling events that led to the naming of mountain forms another chapter in the history of the west. It was one of the strangest mysteries, and unwritten events in all the chronology of western Nebraska.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA