July 27. Crossed the Nebraska line about 180 miles from St. Joseph. Here we saw the first Jack Rabbit. They have larger legs bodies, longer legs and longer ears than our rabbits.
"By and by we passed through Marysville, and over the Big Blue and Little Sandy; thence about a mile, and entered Nebraska. About a mile further on, we came to the Big Sandy—one hundred and eighty miles from St. Joseph. As the sun was going down, we saw the first specimen of an animal known familiarly over two thousand miles of mountain and desert—from Kansas clear to the Pacific Ocean—as the “jackass rabbit.” He is well named. He is just like any other rabbit, except that he is from one third to twice as large, has longer legs in proportion to his size, and has the most preposterous ears that ever were mounted on any creature but a jackass."
Passing by Marysville, in old maps Palmetto City, a county-town which thrives by selling whisky to ruffians of all descriptions, we forded before sunset the "Big Blue," a well known tributary of the Kansas River. It is a pretty little stream, brisk and clear as crystal, about forty or fifty yards wide by 2.50 feet deep at the ford. The soil is sandy and solid but the banks are too precipitous to be pleasant when a very drunken driver hangs on by the lines of four very weary mules. [p 34]
(The City of the Saints) [page 29]