Between 1855 and 1867, companies such as Russell, Majors, and Waddell shipped millions of pounds of freight across the plains to supply military posts and mining camps in the West. After 1861, freighters used the Nebraska City-Fort Kearney Cut-off rather than the longer Ox-Bow Trail along the Platte River, and this new route crossed York County to the northwest. Road ranches along the trail offered provisions, livestock, and lodging. Porcupine Ranch, the first of five road ranches in York County, stood at Porcupine Bluffs on Beaver Creek near the county's western border. Benjamin F. Lushbaugh, Agent to the Pawnee, established it in 1863. During the 1860s, it supplied water and provisions to thousands of emigrants and freighters and also served as a relay station for the Overland Stage Company carrying passengers and mail. When the transcontinental railroad was completed through the area in 1867, emigrant, stagecoach, and freighting traffic declined, and Porcupine Ranch and the other road ranches were soon abandoned as towns developed along the railroad.