An eastbound UP manifest traverses a landscape once traveled by immense herds of buffalo hunted by plains Indians, wagons filled with pioneers on the Oregon trail, surveyors and builders of the first transcontinental railroad, thousands of servicemen on their way to war and home again, and countless millions of tons of cargo. In all that history, I count myself fortunate to have seen the wide valley of the Platte River on such a beautiful morning as it was transformed by lingering fog and frost.
