JIM MCKEE

Butler County, Nebraska is sometimes, erroneously, thought to be named for David Butler, elected as Nebraska’s first state governor. In fact, the man for whom the county is named, never set foot in Nebraska, knew little about it, and evidently was specifically uninterested in it.

There were several trails established from the Missouri River at what first established as Fort Kearny and would later become Nebraska City heading west to Fort Childs, ultimately becoming the new Fort Kearny. What was first known as the Woodbury Trail parts of which in Butler County are now on the National Register of Historic Places, originated at Table Creek, today’s Nebraska City.

Woodbury Trail headed northwest, instead of straight west, crossed Salt Creek just north of Lincoln and merged with an

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