As pioneers on the Mormon Trail as well as the Oregon, California and Pony Express trails continued along in what is now western Nebraska, they came to a site known as Ash Hollow. The Lewellen (Nebraska) Lions Club has placed an interpretive panel at the site. It notes that the hollow was “named for a growth of ash trees″ and that the site was entered by descending Windlass Hill, where wagons were lowered down its steep slope by ropes. Ash Hollow with its “water, wood and grass was a welcome relief” for travelers making this arduous trip. Consequently, most stopped at Ash Hollow for a period of rest and refitting.
Brigham Young and the pioneer camp of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived at Ash Hollow and stopped for lunch on May 20, 1847. The site was about 1 mile southeast of present-day Lewellen, Nebraska (see "Sacred Places, Vol. 5," by William G. Hartley and A. Gary Anderson, edited by LaMar C. Berrett ) Written accounts indicate that a spirit of peace and unity pervaded the company. Elder Wilford Woodruff there recorded: “The Spirit of God rules over the camp.” Two days beyond Ash Hollow, President Young expressed to the pioneer camp that he “had never seen a company of people more united than the camp had been thus far” (see "We’ll Find the Place," by Richard E. Bennett).
Presently, the site is protected and maintained as Ash Hollow State Historical Park. The park’s visitors center is located on U.S. Highway 26 about 3 miles from the town of Lewellen.