Military Road is a central thoroughfare located in Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

. A segment of the road located at the junction of West 82nd and Fort Streets was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1993. Today Military Road, which begins at Nebraska Highway 64

Nebraska Highway 64

Nebraska Highway 64 is a highway in Nebraska. There are two segments to the highway. The western segment lies in Butler County between U.S. Highway 81 and Nebraska Highway 15. The eastern segment goes through Saunders and Douglas counties between U.S. Highway 77 and U.S. Highway 75.-Western...

 as Nebraska Highway L-28K, ends at Bennington Road near North 204th Street (Nebraska Highway 31).

History

Originally part of the Overland Trail

Overland Trail

The Overland Trail was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an alternative route to the Oregon, California and Mormon...

, Military Road was laid out from Downtown Omaha

Downtown Omaha

Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. The boundaries are 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and the centerline of Leavenworth Street on the south to the centerline...

 westward through the town of Benson

Benson, Nebraska

Benson is a historic neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska. Now a pocket within North Omaha, Benson Place was originally platted in 1887 and was annexed into the City of Omaha in 1917.-History:...

 and past in 1857 by Captain Edward Beckwith for the U.S. Army in 1857. Originally designated as a shipment road for moving military supplies to Fort Kearny

Fort Kearny

Fort Kearny was a historic outpost of the United States Army founded in 1848 in the western U.S. during the middle and late 19th century. The outpost was located along the Oregon Trail near present-day Kearney, Nebraska, which took its name from the fort .-Origins and various missions of the...

, thousands of travelers moving to the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

 used the road for the next fifty years. Purposely laid out over high ground, emigrants and freighters had a clear view of the surrounding country as a protection against attacks.

Currently

Original wagon tracks from Military Road can be seen near the Omaha Public Power District

Omaha Public Power District

Omaha Public Power District, or OPPD, is a public electric utility in the State of Nebraska. It is one of the largest publicly owned electric utilities in the United States, serving more than 340,000 customers in 13 southeast Nebraska counties. OPPD was formed in 1946 as a political subdivision of...

 substation located near West 90th Street. A section of the road is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.