SCOTTS BLUFF, NEBRASKA

We left Rapid City on Wednesday. We had been staying at Rushmore Shadows RV Resort.  It is part of Coast to Coast. We paid $10 a night, the Coast to Coast fee, plus an additional $5 per night for 50 amp electricity. That was the park's fee. It has nice sites. It has a laundry, pool/hot tub (which they closed for the season the day we arrived), a nice office, putt-putt golf, pickle ball courts, a food truck and basketball courts. Very nice place and convenient to almost everything. We headed to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska to spend the night. Scotts Bluff is famous for being a famous landmark used as part of the Oregon Trail. Seemed like a good place to visit.

The National Park Service administers Scotts Bluff National Monument to protect 3,000 acres of unusual land formations that rise over the otherwise flat Nebraska prairieland. Scotts Bluff itself is an ancient landmark that was once part of the ancient High Plains.  Erosion over a long period cut the surrounding valleys down to their present level leaving the bluff and the adjoining hills. The unbroken plains now lie farther to the west. In addition to being a prominent geological feature, Scotts Bluff was a major landmark to travelers in the North Platte Valley who were part of the great westward overland migration during the 19th century. American Indians lived in the area for many years prior. The vast herds of buffalo that inhabited the region made Scotts Bluff a major hunting ground of the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. An Indian name for the bluff is Me-a-pa-te or "the-hill-that-is-hard-to-go-around." Yes, I'm sure it definitely was!

The first white men to pass through the Scotts Bluff area were the fur trappers of the Astorian Expedition, who wintered there from 1812 to 1813. Until the beginning of the overland trail routes in the 1840s, most of the whites who saw Scotts Bluff were either trappers or missionaries. The bluff takes its name from a fur trapper, Hiram Scott, who died in the vicinity in 1828. During the 1840s and 1850s, thousands of emigrants traveling along the Oregon-California trails moved through the North Platte Valley seeking land in Oregon, California, or Utah.  Although a prominent landmark on the journey west, the bluffs were also a barrier to travelers, who used two passes to traverse them. Robidoux Pass was the primary trail until 1851, when Mitchell Pass became the major route. Pony Express riders, stage and freight wagons, the first transcontinental telegraph, and the military all moved through the Scotts Bluff passes over the next several decades. The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 marked the decline of the Oregon Trail, including the portion through Scotts Bluff, although locals continued to move through the area.

Early in the 20th century, local and State interests devoted themselves to promoting Scotts Bluff as a symbol of the nation’s pioneering past. Following an intense lobbying effort, Scotts Bluff became a National Monument on December 12, 1919. Since we were spending the night in Scotts Bluff, why not go see a National Monument? It was some very unusual scenery and totally not what I expected to see in Nebraska.  The Visitor's Center has covered wagons positioned where the Oregon Trail began. You can walk out on a path to see an up close view of the wagons. We left the next morning to head to Monument, Colorado for a few days.