Though it's the shortest of Colorado's twenty-one byways, the South Platte River Trail is long on history. Thousands of Fifty-Niners passed this way to Denver and the mines beyond in the early days of the Pikes Peak rush. The 19-mile loop includes stops at the site of the only Pony Express station in Colorado, where 15-year-old William F. Cody - Buffalo Bill - signed in as a rider; the location of old Fort Sedgwick, established in 1865 to guard westward migrants from Indian raids; and the spot where Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux warriors attacked a detachment of cavalrymen to avenge the Sand Creek Massacre. The route also follows the old Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast automobile road in the United States.