1948 3 Cent Fort Kearny Issue Plate Number Block of Four Stamps Scott 970 By USPS

U.S. #970 commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of Fort Kearny, Nebraska. It was an important trade center in the middle of the 1800s. Fort Kearny – The First Fort Built on the Oregon Trail Fort Kearny was the first of many forts built to protect the large numbers of settlers traveling on the Oregon Trail, the longest of the overland routes to the West. Established in 1848, it was originally called Fort Childs, but renamed. Soldiers transferring from the original Fort Kearny on the Platte River renamed the fort in honor of General Stephen Watts Kearny. Kearny was a U.S. Army commander in the frontier West, and the commander of the forces conquering New Mexico and California in the Mexican-American War.