Scotts Bluff National Monument

Scotts Bluff National Monument is about twenty miles northwest of Chimney Rock on Hwy 26/92, in Nebraska. Since it was late in the day I drove into the city of Scottsbluff to settle in for the night and plan my visit to the park on Sunday morning, Father’s Day. 

On the way to the park I couldn’t resist stopping along the road to get some photos. Alonzo wrote his impressions from the trail on Aug 30 - “Scotts Bluff is a huge pile of ruins the wreck of an ancient city.”

(Click on photos to view a larger image)

Dome Rock (left) and Saddle Rock looking southwest

Saddle Rock looking southwest

One of the first sights the visitor sees after entering the park is Eagle Rock that stands on the north side of Mitchell Pass. Examples of three different modes of transportation can be examined near the base of Eagle Rock, and on this day there were experts there to provide interesting information and answer questions. 

I was surprised at the narrow interior of the covered wagon used by early travelers. I learned that wagons usually had two layers of canvas over the top. The first was plain canvas, but the second was often painted and could provide some protection from the elements to the goods inside.

After the number of emigrants increased covered wagons were manufactured on a large scale. Among them were the Studebakers of automobile fame.

Scotts Bluff visitors and Eagle Rock

Emigrant Wagon and volunteer

In the next photo, a portion of Sentinel Rock, at the left, and Eagle Rock, right, guard Mitchell Pass which can be seen through the opening at the rear of the wagon.

Wagon Interior

Just beyond the emigrant wagon stands a larger one. This is a Hollywood version of the pioneer covered wagon, but not one that the emigrants, in reality, would have used. It’s based on the Conestoga wagon that was used on the plains for hauling freight. The angled ends were designed to keep the load from shifting. It required a large team of oxen where the smaller wagon could be pulled by horses. Notice the larger rear wheels on both wagons.

Emigrant wagon and Eagle Rock

Conestoga style wagon

Close by is a replica of a handcart used first by Mormon emigrants in 1856. Those who could not afford a horse and wagon used this mode of travel—a total of almost 3000 pioneers—most of them from the British Isles. The first company, made up of English emigrants, left Iowa City on June 9^th. The most famous is the James G. Willie’s Handcart Company of July 15, 1856, the fourth to leave Iowa City. It was one of the largest with 500 individuals, 100 carts, and 5 wagons. Both the Willie and the Martin handcart companies were caught in a snowstorm in October just before reaching the South Pass in Wyoming, and several members of the party froze to death. 

Mormon handcart and Eagle Rock

According to the National Park Service information, Scotts Bluff is a remnant of the ancestral high plains—hundreds of feet higher than the present Great Plains—that formed in the continent’s interior after uplifting of the Rocky Mountains.

Examining the 10-million-year timeline of Eagle Rock, geologists have determined the origin of the various materials deposited on the ancient plains by wind, water, and occasional volcanic eruptions, as well as the approximate age of each layer. 

Scientists have also studied the disappearance of the high plains. Four of five million years ago, the land began to erode faster than new strata were deposited. Some limestone concretions in isolated patches near the surface happened to be more durable than the surrounding material. Known as cap rock, this stone roof has protected Scotts Bluff so far from the same fate as the adjacent badlands.

In the Eagle Rock photo below you can identify the cap rock at the top, beneath it is a sandstone deposit, beneath that a thin volcanic ash layer, farther down another thin layer of volcanic ash, and the broad base in made up of siltstone, estimated age to be 31 million years.

Eagle Rock 

Sentinel Rock stands on the south side of Mitchell Pass.

Sentinel Rock looking northwest

Mitchell Pass on the Oregon Trail (now Hwy 92) was not open in 1849 when Alonzo traveled west, but I followed it west and north as I left Scotts Bluff.

Eagle Rock and Mitchell Pass by William Henry Jackson

Courtesy of the William Henry Jackson Collection, Scotts Bluff National Monument

Eagle Rock looking east