I will note here that we never heard of Scott's Bluss before we planned this trip. Our overall trip philosophy was to visit as many places in the National Park system as we could, while keeping our driving time limited to about six hours maximum. So Scott's Bluff met both our requirements, not more than six hours from Colorado Springs and the area has three National Monuments.

Scott's Bluff sits along the North Platt River and two major trails, the California and Oregon from Missouri and Iowa to the Pacific coast in California and Oregon. A third trail, the Mormon Trail followed the same route to southwest Wyoming where it turned southwest to Salt Lake City, UT.
In 1843 the pioneers started their westward migration. By 1847, 4,000 had traveled the trails. By 1850, 12,000 braved the Oregon Trail to settle in Oregon. By the time the railroad reached Portland, Oregon (1883), 80,000 had made the trip by wagon over the Oregon Trail. Overall, over 250,000 people made their way through the Scott's Bluff area between 1843 and 1869. The Indians rarely attacked the trains, but cholera took its toll. The Oregon-California Trail was called the worlds longest graveyard, with an estimated 10 deaths per mile.

There are no actual ruts from the wagons visible, but west of the bluff, there is a deep depression called a "swale" showing where the wagons travelled single file. Outside the visitor's center there are replicas of some of the wagons the pioneers used.

About 20 miles east of Scott's Bluff is a lone slender spire rising 325 feet out of the floor of the plains. This is Chimney Rock, the most mentioned landmark along the trails. It can be seen for many miles. We saw it for about 15 miles before we got to it.

The last of the area's monuments, Agate Fossil Beds, lies north of Scott's Bluff and preserves important information about the life of mammals 20 million years ago.

Inside the visitor's center is an extraordinary collection of American Indian artifacts. These items are part of a collection of James H Cook. James was a friend of Red Cloud, Ogalala Lakota Sioux nation chief. James' collection includes items given to him by Red Cloud and his people. Also inside the visitor's center is tanned hide of the the battle of the Little Big Horn (the battle of Greasy Grass). Another painting, on buffalo or cow hide, is called "Wintercount", by a living artist, Dawn Little Sky. Both paintings are very moving.

And now on to South Dakota and Custer Satate Park.