The Gibraltar of Nebraska

Scotts Bluff, named for the unfortunate Hiram Scott, a Rocky Mountain Fur Company clerk whose companions abandoned him to his fate near the bluff, is also nicknamed the Gibralter of Nebraska.  

This photo of Scotts Bluff (right) was shot through a bug-splattered windshield.

That’s not surprising since the bluffs tower 800 feet over the North Platte River Valley, the “highway” that pioneers bound for Oregon traveled.  

After walking almost the length of Nebraska, the pioneers, many of whom were barefoot by this point, were undoubtedly thankful that they had made it to this milestone, a landmark that a USA Today article, published June 25, 2013, called a pioneers' version of GPS.

Knowing that we had several stops to make during this day’s segment of the Oregon Trail, Tim and I arrived at Scotts Bluff National Monument soon after the park opened at 8:00 a.m.  

We watched the National Park Service video in a room lined with watercolors painted by William Henry Jackson, the notable photographer and American West artist.  

Scotts Bluff by William Henry Jackson

In fact, the Scotts Bluff National Monument houses the largest collection of Jackson's works in the world.  

William Henry Jackson 

In 1866, after serving in the Union Army and following a lover's spat with his fiancee, Jackson headed west.  He signed on as a bullwhacker with a wagon train bound for California.  His artistic ability as a watercolorist and his knowledge of photography picked up while tinting photos in a studio in Troy, NY led him to other employment, first as a photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad and later for the United States Geological Survey.  Towards the end of his life, he turned to painting watercolors and by doing so, he documented the settlement of the West.  He died at age 99.

Tim and I hopped aboard the park's first shuttle to the top of the bluffs.

Tim in the rearview mirror
Cindy in the interior mirror
One of the tunnels straight ahead

Our shuttle driver was a loquacious, gentlemanly volunteer with a wealth of knowledge about the area which he imparted to us on the climb through three tunnels built by the Civilian Conservation Corps to the summit.

Although Chimney Rock, visible 23 miles to the east, is made of the same layers as Scotts Bluff, it lacks the limestone that serves as a cap stone for these bluffs.  But that limestone cap will not save these bluffs forever.  Just like Chimney Rock, wind and weather are chipping away at these bluffs, too.

Geodetic Marker 

Our driver could testify to that; he told us to look for the geodetic survey marker at the summit.  The marker was once flush with the surface.  Since its placement, it has eroded more than a foot.

So who knows how much longer these bluffs will last.  I'm only glad that I, like the pioneers, could visit this place.

Chimney Rock

Two days before pioneers reached the sandstone formation of Chimney Rock, they could see its solitary finger that, in the words of A. J. McCall, 1849, looked like "an old ruin, then a very sharp cone, more the shape of a chimney than anything else."

The Indians in the area, unfamiliar with the architecture of the white man's buildings, had another name for this landmark; they called it Elk's Penis.  Oh, my!  I really wouldn't know if that's appropriate so I'll just assume their reference is correct.

Fort Kearney to Chimney Rock

Tim and I drove the 250 miles between Kearny, Nebraska to Chimney Rock National Historic Site in approximately four hours, arriving in plenty of time to stop at the small visitors center a walkable half-mile from the campground.

As we trudged up the hill to the center on a miserably hot summer day, I wondered how the pioneers walked, many of them barefoot, mile after weary mile.  Just imagine...On a good day, the pioneers on the Oregon Trail could cover 30 miles; it would have taken them more than a week to walk the same distance our RV, the Dawntreader covered in an afternoon.

Approaching Chimney Rock, a painting by William Henry Jackson

“We halted in the neighborhood of the Chimney Rock…It is visible at a distance of thirty miles and has the unpoetical appearance of a hay-stack with a pole running far above its top.”  Joel Palmer, 1845

A 1870 engraving of Chimney Rock juxtaposed to my photo.

Chimney Rock rises 300 feet above the Platte River Valley.  Approximately 40 million years ago, volcanoes lifted the Colorado Plateau; then wind and water chiseled away the rock and soil until its spire appeared.  Those forces are still at work today.

Margaret Irving Carrington accompanied her husband, Colonel Henry Carrington, and 2,000 troops on their way to northeastern Wyoming to build Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman Trail.  In an 1879 book, she pondered the fate of this formation:

"Chimney Rock is fast gathering about it the debris of waste and will soon lose the bold outline and marked symmetry of its present proportions.  It is now much more beautiful than when Fremont visited it, and is worn to such a fine delineation that it seems that the first summer's storm or winter's blast must topple it from its base and destroy it utterly."

Of course, the Army soldiers who used it for target practice in the 1860s did not help matters.  Nor did the thunderstorm in 1992 when lightning struck it, causing rocks the size of shuttle buses to fall from the spire.  One wonders how much longer its soft sandstone tower will stand.

Tim and I stopped overnight at Chimney Rock Pioneer Crossing campground which is less than a mile as the crow flies from this outcropping.  Our site, one of 16 in the small campground, gave us a ringside seat to watch the sun fade from the rock's spire.

Chimney Rock is illuminated at night.  It is and was a beautiful--and to the pioneers--welcome sight.

Westward, Ho!

Pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail began their 2,000-mile-plus journey at Nauvoo, IL or St. Joseph or Independence, MO.  I think Stafford, KS should be added to that list.  At least, that's where Tim and I began our journey to Oregon.

Traveling 230 miles due north of my family's farm near Stafford, KS to Kearney, NE, we joined the ghosts of the 300,000 pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail, beginning in 1836 and diminishing in 1869 with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.

Old Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory by William Henry Jackson

"We passed Fort Kearny this day; it is the first western fort I have seen.  It consists of about twenty houses made of sod, some roofed with the same material, walls two feet thick.  They must be very warm.  There is neither blockhouse nor palisade.  A few soldiers and two or three cannon are all the evidence one has that it is not some outlandish village." John Banks, 1849

Established on the banks of the Platte River in 1848, Fort Kearney was the first fort built to protect travelers on the Oregon Trail.  It also served as a home station for the Pony Express riders and the Pawnee Scouts, those Indian warriors who joined the U.S. Army as scouts and cavalrymen.  The fort began a regular once-a-month mail service when a stagecoach route ran from Salt Lake City to Independence, Missouri.  Later, it sheltered crews building the Union Pacific railroad.

“We arrived at Fort Kearny after noon.  Here we had an opportunity of sending letters to our friends.  The officers are going to send a mail to the States in the morning and kindly offered to transmit any letters we wished to send.”  Joshua D. Breyfogle, 1849

Today at the Fort Kearney State Historical Park there is a wooden fortification, a blacksmith shop and  wooden posts that show where soldiers' and officiers' quarters once stood.  The small museum in the Visitors Center is definitely worth a stop.

The Kearney Hike and Bike Trail

We stayed two nights at the scenic Fort Kearney State Recreation Area beside the Platte River and very near the fort.  Anxious to get back in the routine of walking after a month's hiatus, we were delighted to find that the Kearney Hike and Bike Trail begins at the park and extends for 1.8 miles.

Settlers heading west on the Oregon Trail described the Platte River as a mile wide and an inch deep.  Due to farming practices and irrigation, today's Platte is not nearly as wide as it once was, but it's hard to dismiss its significance to the pioneers headed west along its 1,050 mile length.

The Great Platte River Road Archway

That importance was driven home to us when we visited The Great Platte River Road Archway just three miles east of Kearney.  

The Great Platte River Road Archway

Stretching across busy Interstate 80, this tourist attraction is hard to miss.  

For a nominal fee and equipped with an audio headset, we rode the escalator to the top of the arch and stepped off underneath an expansive sky painted on the ceiling.  

As we walked the length of the archway and back again, we listened to the stories of the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express stations, the joining of the Union & Pacific railroad and finally the Lincoln Highway.  Each followed the Platte River Valley; all served to impress upon us the history and importance of this valley.

As we retrace the route along the river that the pioneers bound for Oregon took, we'll be stopping at famous landmarks along the way.  I think we're off to a good start.

“Eastward I go only by force but westward I go free…that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progresses from east to west.”  Henry David Thoreau