Fort Mitchell was a US Army post established in 1864 near the North Platte River crossing, a few kilometres west of the later town of Scottsbluff. The fort was built to protect emigrant traffic on the Oregon Trail and the Overland Stage line at a time when tensions with Sioux and Cheyenne were running high along the trail. It was abandoned in 1867 as the army consolidated its posts along the new Union Pacific route to the south.
Little remains of the original fort structures, but the site is a tangible link to the military history of the Oregon Trail corridor. The location is close to Scotts Bluff National Monument and fits naturally into a day that also covers Mitchell Pass and the visible wagon ruts at the monument. For visitors interested in 19th-century western expansion, Fort Mitchell rounds out the picture of what a trail crossing looked like at its most contested moment.