Although it is often stated that certain trails began in certain cities on the Missouri River, in reality, emigrants following all three trails typically left from one of three "jumping off" points on the Missouri: Independence, Missouri, Saint Joseph, Missouri, or Council Bluffs, Iowa (the most common departure point after the early 1850s). The trails from these cities converged in central Nebraska near present-day Kearney, following the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers westward across present-day Nebraska and Wyoming, crossing the continental divide south of the Wind River Range in southwestern Wyoming.