Near the Platte River's famous Grand Island, approximately forty miles long and two miles at its widest, abundant wood and water often made it a campsite for Pawnee Indians. Journalists for the expeditions of Astor in 1813 and Stephen Long in 1819 noted the island, and in 1843 John C. Fremont recommended that a fort be built near its head. Fort Childs, later called Fort Kearny, was established in 1848 as the first military outpost on the Platte River portion of the Oregon and California trails, while the Mormon Trail ran adjacent to the island along the river's north bank. In 1857 a town company composed mainly of Germans settled the area north of the island, but this first Grand Island failed to develop after the company became bankrupt. The present Grand Island was not platted until 1866, when the Union Pacific Railroad reached Hall County, and the town then grew rapidly and became the county seat. In 1869 a U.S. General Land Office was established to record land filings for the region north of the Platte, and Grand Island was incorporated in 1872, becoming a major industrial and agricultural city in the central Platte Valley.