Grand Island on the Platte River is approximately forty miles long and two miles at its widest. With abundant wood and water, it often served as a campsite for Pawnee Indians. Journalists with the expeditions of Astor in 1813 and Stephen Long in 1819 noted the island. In 1843 John C. Fremont recommended that a fort be built near the head of the island. Fort Childs, later renamed Fort Kearny, was established in 1848 as the first military outpost on the Platte River section of the Oregon and California trails. The Mormon Trail ran beside 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 when the company went bankrupt. The present Grand Island was not platted until 1866, when the Union Pacific Railroad reached Hall County. The town grew rapidly, became the county seat, and in 1869 received a U.S. General Land Office to record land filings for the region north of the Platte. Grand Island was incorporated in 1872 and became a major industrial and agricultural city in the central Platte Valley.