Camp Clarke became the most important place of crossing the North Platte river, and it was on the center line of the Texas Trail. In the days of the cowmen it became a place of tremendous significance.

According to stories of the early days the bridge also served other purposes than for crossing the river. A white desperado was found hanging there one time, with a placard rudely daubed pinned to him, which read : "In some ways he was a bad man, and in others a damnsite wuss."

Here the round-ups of Nebraska and Wyoming met and the Nebraska chuck wagons, many of them turned back, sending only representatives farther west to collect scattering strays.

Some times thirty or forty outfits would assemble at the "Sidney bridge." as the cow men called it. And, talk of your Wild Wot die iw ! There has been nothing like it in history. There was nothing artificial in the bucking bronchos, or the roping, branding, or other hardy adventures incident of the round-up.

Five hundred cowpunchers of the real sort gathered here in the early eighties, and they made a show of such marvelous dexterity and horsemanship that the trained athletes of Buffalo Bill's and Frontier Aggregations seem like fading images on the sky-line of a glorious past.

Camp Clark was situated on the south bank of the river, and the fort and a trading post, afterwards named Wellsville, were at the north end of the bridge. Here also was the famous old sod saloon.