Scotts Bluff

The words

1. Buffalo Chips

   Dried bison dung.

   Where firewood was scarce on the plains, emigrants collected buffalo chips for cooking fires. This fuel linked the daily work of preparing meals to the bison herds along the trail.

   Park Service: Life on the emigrant trails (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Travel along the Platte (opens a new tab)

2. Covered Wagon

   Covered wagons carried emigrants’ belongings, usually pulled by oxen or mules. The monument’s replicas interpret this transport, including Murphy wagons with straight boxes rather than the curved beds of Conestoga freight wagons.

   Did you know?

   The Murphy wagon displayed at the monument was built by Dewitts Buggy Works in 1979, a later reconstruction of trail transportation.

   Park Service: Wagons and their replicas (opens a new tab)

3. Eagle Rock

   Eagle Rock forms the northern side of Mitchell Pass, facing Sentinel Rock across the gap. Its half-dome shape marked the narrow passage used by wagon trains and Pony Express riders.

   Did you know?

   In an 1853 description of the pass, traveler Mariett Foster Cummings called this formation Sugar Loaf Rock.

   Park Service: The bluff’s named rocks (opens a new tab)

4. Emigrants

   Emigrants traveling toward Oregon, California and Utah faced deadly cholera and accidents. The Park Service describes how their wagons and livestock depleted grass and displaced game used by Indigenous communities.

   Park Service: Choosing a route west (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Travel along the Platte (opens a new tab)

5. Handcart

   Some Mormon converts used handcarts when they could not afford wagons. People pushed or pulled their possessions west, with limited carrying capacity restricting what they could bring.

   Did you know?

   The monument’s replica handcart was researched by Arnold Bateman and built by LeRoy Bateman.

   Park Service: Human-powered handcarts (opens a new tab)

6. Hiram Scott

   Scott appears in an American Fur Company pay list as a clerk in 1827. He died near the bluff in 1828, but the Park Service cautions that the circumstances remain uncertain.

   Park Service: Hiram Scott’s uncertain story (opens a new tab)

7. Mitchell Pass

   After improvements around 1850, Mitchell Pass offered wagons a route back to the North Platte sooner than Robidoux Pass. Its narrow track forced wagon trains into dusty single-file traffic.

   Park Service: Routes through Scotts Bluff (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Choosing a route west (opens a new tab)

8. Mormon Trail

   Mormon emigrants heading to Utah generally followed the North Platte’s north bank. Those who began on its south side often stayed there on the Oregon Trail, so their routes around Scotts Bluff varied.

   Park Service: Choosing a route west (opens a new tab)

9. North Platte

   The North Platte’s broad valley provided a natural corridor for westbound wagons. Near Scotts Bluff, badlands extending from the bluff to the river forced travelers to seek passes away from its banks.

   Park Service: Geology guiding the trails (opens a new tab)

10. Oregon Trail

    The Oregon route linked Missouri River departure towns with western river valleys and mountain crossings. Scotts Bluff stood along a journey that typically took four to six months by wagon.

    Park Service: Life on the emigrant trails (opens a new tab)

11. Pony Express

    Pony Express riders carried mail through the Scotts Bluff corridor in 1860–1861. Nearby stations included Ficklin Spring; telegraph construction through Mitchell Pass helped end the short-lived service.

    Park Service: Routes through Scotts Bluff (opens a new tab)

12. Robidoux Pass

    Before Mitchell Pass was improved, wagons detoured through Robidoux Pass. A spring, trading post and blacksmith offered supplies and repairs, helping compensate for the longer route away from the river.

    Park Service: Choosing a route west (opens a new tab)

13. Saddle Rock

    Saddle Rock takes its name from the hollow between two thin spires along the bluff’s edge. Its namesake trail crosses part of this narrow rock buttress on the way to the summit.

    Park Service: The bluff’s named rocks (opens a new tab)

14. Scotts Bluff

    Scotts Bluff survives because hard limestone caprock slows erosion of the layers below. Wind, streams and volcanic ash supplied sediments that record an ancient landscape very different from the emigrant corridor.

    Did you know?

    Some layers preserve invertebrate burrows, possibly dug by beetles or other insects, recording animal activity within the sediments.

    Park Service: Geology guiding the trails (opens a new tab)

15. Wagon Swales

    Broad swales mark the old wagon route through Scotts Bluff. The softer sandstone and siltstone have eroded, widening the traces and obscuring the paired wheel ruts that once marked the ground.

    Park Service: Reading the wagon swales (opens a new tab)