A Good Ford Determines Site of Marysville
Marysville’s story really began in 1845 when Colonel Stephen W. Kearny “with 280 well mounted and equipped dragoons” was ordered to lay out a direct road from Fort Leavenworth to the Oregon Trail some miles west of the Big Blue. At that time the most traveled branch of the Oregon Trail was the Independence-California Road, which came through the county from the southeast. Wagon trains forded the Big Blue at Independence Crossing, about six miles south of the present site of Marysville. (A ford was a place where the water was low enough for oxen or horses to wade across.) Colonel Kearny spent some time searching for a more favorable ford, finally deciding on a location near what is now Marysville.
When Fort Kearny was established along the Platte River in 1848, the route through the future site of Marysville became part of the official Fort Leavenworth-Fort Kearny military road. Troops crossed the Big Blue with hundreds of wagons hauling supplies to Fort Kearny and Fort Laramie. Often large amounts of cash for payrolls at these forts were transported across the river by small parties of officers and dragoons traveling with only a few wagons.
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