This blog post was originally created and published as a feature length video featuring Junior Ranger Leif on our Solstice Quest YouTube channel. Watch it here!
Hi. I’m Junior Ranger Leif Silva and today I’ll be completing my epic journey across the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails with stops at Scottsbluff National Monument and Chimney Rock National Historic Site in western Nebraska.
At the end of my last episode, I had completed four Junior Rangers in one day! It was a super hot and exhausting journey across Wyoming, and I felt like I really got to experience and understand some of the hardships that pioneers faced on the Trail. Thankfully, my “wagon” – campervan Elsa – had air conditioning!
I finished up my exploration of Fort Laramie National Historic Site in the late afternoon and crossed the state border into Nebraska.
Papa Moon Vineyards through Harvest Hosts
We stopped for the night at Papa Moon Vineyards and Winery, another Harvest Hosts that is located in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska. Even though the main product at this Nebraska farm are wines and ciders that my mom enjoyed after the long hot day, this farm is also very family friendly. The owners and staff have their own children and grandchildren who are my age and younger running around, feeding the farm animals, and enjoying the onsite playground.
They serve delicious food including homemade cider donuts. I may have eaten all the cider donuts they had that afternoon while I hung out in the cool and refreshing tasting room and took notes on my day’s adventure in my Junior Ranger journal.
When the sun went down and the temperatures cooled off a bit, they started up a fire in their beautiful firepit and gave me marshmallows to roast along with fixings to make smores.
We slept out in the field by a little lake and enjoyed the sounds of summer in Nebraska – bullfrogs croaking and cows mooing in the distance. The next morning, Mom did a morning meditation in the field and then cooked up a delicious breakfast of fresh scrambled eggs with some of the cheese leftover from last night’s charcuterie plate before we headed out for the day’s adventure along the Pioneer Trails of Nebraska.
America’s Most Mentioned Pioneer Landmark
Our first stop the next morning was Chimney Rock National Historic Site. It is located about 30 minutes east of Scotts Bluff.
Chimney Rock is one of the most famous geologic landmarks along the Pioneer Trails. The unique pillar is made up of layers of clay, volcanic ash, and sandstone deposits, and it is over 300 feet tall. During the time of the pioneers, it was even taller, but the rock is eroding over time.
Someday, there will be nothing left but the writings and pictures taken by the early travelers … and my pictures of course!
The rock could be seen up to 30 miles away and pioneers would write in their journals how happy they were to see the rock because it let them know they were traveling in the right direction. Historians have found mention of Chimney Rock in over 300 pioneer journals, making it by far the most mentioned landmark along the Trails.
The 80 acres of land surrounding the rock are managed by the Nebraska State Historical Society, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1956. The visitor center is very small but loaded with informative and fun interactive exhibits that help you to truly understand life along the Trails, and definitely worth the small entrance fee.
In one exhibit, you have to load a wagon with the supplies you think you will need to make it to the West Coast. It was like playing a live action version of our Oregon Trail card game! A scale weighs the items as you put them in your wagon and tells you when you can’t carry any more weight. It was really challenging to get all the items I would need to survive life as a pioneer without going over the weight limit.
The Mormon Pioneer Trail
Many of the most detailed journals kept by pioneers who traveled through this area were written by the Mormons. While the pioneers who headed west towards Oregon or California did so by choice in search of new opportunities, the Mormons’ journey along the Trail was not entirely voluntary.
By 1846, the newly established Mormon Church was headquartered in Illinois. Hostility, fear and controversy surrounding their religious and cultural beliefs resulted in deadly attacks upon their church members. Church leaders decided to find an isolated area out West where they could safely establish a permanent settlement and practice their religion in peace.
The Great Salt Basin of the Rocky Mountains was chosen and the first group of Mormons set out in 1846. The winter of 1846 was spent in a camp called Winter Quarters near present day Omaha, Nebraska.
In April of 1847, the Mormons left Winter Quarters passing by Chimney Rock, stopping briefly at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, and eventually reaching the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in present day Utah by July.
Rebecca Winters Gravesite: Memories of a Cherished Community Member
As we headed back towards Scotts Bluff, we stopped at a unique site along the Mormon Trail.
“This is the gravesite of Rebecca Winters. She was a Mormon who died along the trail. She was so belovedly loved that her fellow Mormons carved her name into a wagon wheel as a grave marker.” – Leif
Sadly, like many emigrants, Rebecca became ill with cholera and died during the journey.
Most of those who died along the journey were buried in unmarked graves in the center of the trail. As hundreds of wagons rode over top the graves, it would pack down the dirt and prevent wild animals from digging up those who had passed.
Materials like wagon wheels that could not be easily replaced along the trail were very valuable, so the fact that they buried Rebecca off the trail with a wagon wheel headstone shows us how treasured she was to them. In fact, when the railroad was built through this area in 1899, the path of the tracks was changed to preserve her gravesite.
In 1995, 143 years after her death, her gravesite was moved 100 feet to protect it from the growing highway traffic in the area. 125 of her descendants attended the reburial, including her 16 year old great-great-great granddaughter, also named Rebecca Winters.
Scotts Bluff National Monument
Finally, we completed our three day journey along the Pioneer Trails with a visit to Scotts Bluff National Monument.
Like Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff is a large geographic formation of clay, volcanic ash, and sandstone that loomed so large on the horizon pioneers could see it in the distance for many days before they reached it. They sometimes called it the “Nebraskan Gibraltar”.
Also like Chimney Rock, the high plains ridge that makes up the bluff is eroding over time and will eventually cease to exist. The most recognizable feature of the bluff, Eagle Rock, is 800 feet tall and is protected from erosion by a layer of harder cap stone.
Scotts Bluff was a hub of activity for Native Americans, and later, for fur traders long before it became associated with the Pioneer Trails. In fact, it is named after fur trader Hiram Scott who died at the base of the bluff in 1828.
Originally, the tall continuous badlands of the bluff intimidated pioneers and they passed this area about nine miles to the south. Even the Native Americans called Scotts Bluff “Me-a-pa-te”, or “hill that is hard to go around”. In 1850, an area closer to Eagle Rock known as Mitchell Pass was widened to allow wagons through, and this cut 8 miles off the journey.
The visitor center has a great short movie about the history of Scotts Bluff to get you started. Many of the answers to the Junior Ranger booklet can be found in the visitor center exhibits.
The visitor center also has the largest collection of William Henry Jackson watercolors in the world.
William Henry Jackson is best known as the first person to photograph the majestic and mysterious Yellowstone. He enlisted in Vermont’s Light Guard and his regimen served in the Gettysburg campaign in June of 1863. His many drawings and paintings of the Civil War show what life was like as an infantryman.
In 1866, he set off towards Montana to seek his fortune as a gold miner. But his true gift was his ability to capture the beauty and life of the frontier in photos, paintings, and sketches. He was quickly offered a job as the official photographer for the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, and he was employed by the Department of the Interior for many years after that.
He lived to the age of 99, and completed some of his most famous paintings of the Oregon Trail in his early 80s!
My favorite painting on display at Scotts Bluff is called Three Island Crossing.
Once I completed my Junior Ranger down in the visitor center, Mom and I drove to the top of the bluff on the Scotts Bluff Summit Road to hike along both the North and South Overlook trails.
Along the hike, we met up with Ranger Ty again – he was the Ranger who swore me in down at the visitor center. We played a fun game of matching the names of native plants to their pictures. He taught us how to make soap and rope out of leaves from the yucca plant.
The top of the Overlook was quiet and peaceful. I could see out over Mitchell Pass and the many miles along the Oregon Trail.
By the time the wagons reached the bluff, they had already traveled one third of the 2,170 mile trip to Oregon, so very few pioneers had the energy to climb up to this beautiful viewpoint. They didn’t get to see the long distance they had already traveled or where they were headed to off in the distance.
Even though this was the end of my journey along the Pioneer Trails, it’s only the third day of my 5 week Every Kid Outdoors epic road trip, so I felt like I knew a little bit about the anticipation and also the excitement that the pioneers must have felt as they continued on their journey past Scotts Bluff.
I completed two more Junior Rangers here in southwest Nebraska, bringing my total to nine! Now I’m headed north through the lonely Nebraska plains to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and the Nebraska badlands at Toadstool Geological Park. And who knows, maybe I’ll see you out there!
This post includes an affiliate link to the Harvest Hosts program. If you choose to purchase a membership after clicking the link, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I chose to affiliate with Harvest Hosts because I too am a member and absolutely love the program. Harvest Hosts offers RVers unlimited access to farms, breweries, wineries, and attractions across North America. Your membership allows you to stay overnight at any of their 4000+ host locations and in return, they ask that you support your host’s business during your stay. The program also offers tons of amazing partner discounts, route planning, and you can upgrade to include community locations and golf courses. It’s a great way to explore new places and try new things!
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