Located within a large watershed that includes Rice, Skunk and Mud Lakes, Platte and Skunk Rivers, Rice and Buckman Creeks, and sedge meadow wetlands, it harbors one of the largest nesting populations of greater sandhill cranes in Minnesota.
In 1718 he was decorated with the Cross of St. Louis and given an order of nobility for being the first European to map the Missouri and Platte Rivers and for enlisting the Native Americans to side with the French against the Spanish.
After brief assignment to the 11th Infantry, Stewart was transferred to the 8th Infantry Regiment, served three years on the Platte River and was detailed to topographic service before the outbreak of the Spanish–American War.
The central Platte River valley is an important stopover for migratory water birds, such as the Whooping Crane and Sandhill Crane, in their yearly traversal of the Central Flyway.
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The 37th Infantry Regiment established "Sidney Station" at a point midway between the Platte Rivers, where the modern community of Sidney, Nebraska, now stands.
Much of the route lies on an alignment next to the South Platte and Platte Rivers.
Other notable explorations included the Pike expedition of 1806–07 by Zebulon Pike, the journey along the north bank of the Platte River in 1820 by Stephen H. Long to what came to be called Longs Peak, the John C. Frémont expedition in 1845–46, and the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 by John Wesley Powell.
Prior to the Dust Bowl era, agriculture in this section of the state had relied upon sources such as Boulder Creek, St. Vrain Creek, Little Thompson River, Big Thompson River and the Cache La Poudre River, all of which are a part of the South Platte River basin and flow into the South Platte River before the South Platte reaches Greeley, Colorado.
In 1822 the Missouri Fur Company built a headquarters and trading post about nine miles north of the mouth of the Platte River on the site of Fontenelle's Post.
In 1851 U.S. Army Topographical Engineer Captain Howard Stansbury returning east from an expedition to the Salt Lake Valley described a route from Fort Bridger via the Bitter Creek valley and Laramie Plains to the North Platte River.
The first decade of the boom was largely concentrated along the South Platte River at the base of the mountains, the canyon of Clear Creek in the mountains west of Golden City, at Breckenridge and in South Park at Como, Fairplay, and Alma.
Following a 12-month assessment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2012 determined the Platte River caddisfly was not suited to be listed as an endangered species.
Those traveling south of the Platte crossed the South Platte River with its muddy and treacherous crossings using one of about three ferries (in dry years it could sometimes be forded without a ferry) before continuing up the North Platte River valley to Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming.
MS 4457 (1865-1879 AD), Cheyenne Chief Little Shield's Ledger Book recording the Indian War of the Platte River in 1865.
One highlight of his years in office was the South Platte River Corridor Project, involving commercial and residential redevelopment, as well as reclamation of park land, along the South Platte River in central Denver.