Years ago--a quarter century past--the author, then a little chap herding cattle in the valley above Ord, according to his daily wont, reclined one day in his retreat in a shaded nook on the banks of the river, while his charges were left to shift for themselves; and well they might, for was not the prairie theirs for miles around! He dreamed all enrapt in the charm of the virgin prairie, dreamed of things yet to be. As he lay there, listening to the gurgling, eddying water swishing by, he saw visions and heard 

      And they came, those pioneers, and they are as silently leaving us again, passing away to the mysterious realm beyond; while the great human sea, wave upon wave, rolls over the prairies first trodden by them, obliterating their very footprints, making this a new land, almost beyond the recognition of the old timers.

They endured much, those pathfinders, for us their children, that we might reap the fruits of their industry and toil. And shall we then repay them thus, leaving the history they made, unchronicled, unsung? No! a thousand times no! Let it be taken down, that the generations yet unborn may know at what a cost "The Trail of the Loup" was blazed, and how the fathers suffered and toiled, and even died, that the trail might remain open.

     To write an old settlers' chronicle is at best difficult; and when, as in the instance of the North and Middle Loup valleys, no systematic efforts have been made to collect and save historic data or to spare from untimely destruction historic structures, the task becomes almost impossible. In the following pages the author has had to depend, in great part, upon the memory of the first settlers. When more than one version of an episode or event was offered, the materials were carefully sifted, and the version which seemed the most likely made use of.

     I lay no claims to have exhausted this interesting field of investigation, but I do claim that I have, in the work as far as it has been carried, stated the facts just as I found them, without fear or favor. This is not a partisan history, but the story of a limited section of our commonwealth, and, as such, the individual has in every instance been accorded a space in the narrative in due proportion to the part played by him.

     Finally, I wish to make grateful acknowledgment to the men and women who have assisted in the work by valuable information, freely given, and by furnishing photographs and other materials for the illumination of the text. Special obligation is due Hon. Peter Mortensen, Elder Oscar Babcock, Messrs. George McAnulty, David Gard, George Miller, Truman Freeland, James Barr, C. J. Rood, W. G. Rood, John Kellogg, W. B. Weekes, Jorgen Miller, Tom Hemmett, Will Johns, William S. Mattley, Melville Goodenow, W. H. Rood, Mansell Davis, Miss Ina Draver, Mrs. George McAnulty, Mrs. A. M. Robbins and Mrs. Emma Haskell.

HAROLD W. FOGHT.