Oregon Trail

Leaving Des Moines Saturday morning, with our sights now clearly set on reaching Oregon, it was easy for Betsy and me to relate to the pioneers that shared our goal.

Most of the Oregon-bound emigrants started their journey west from Independence, Mo. We began from our camp site at a state park in Indianola, Iowa and joined up with the Oregon Trail at Kearney, Nebraska.

Many of the journals of the pioneers talk about the hardships and drudgery of the trip west; rising early each morning, packing the wagons and pushing westward all day only to unhitch the wagons, make camp for the night and then get up and do the same thing the next day. 

We can related to that.

Saturday was one of the longest driving days of the entire trip, 380 miles. Theoretically that’s an easy jaunt westward on I-80 from Des Moines to west-central Nebraska. However, an overturned truck on I-80 in Iowa and an ill-fated decision to gas up at a Costco in Omaha burned a lot of time.

Despite these delays we still managed to get settled into our camping spot at a jam-packed Nebraska recreation area before sunset. Nebraska has about 80 of these recreation areas around the state, mostly at man-made lakes. While far from luxurious, we’ve used them several times over the years with good results. In this particular case, we were glad we had reservations because the place was brim-full of recreating Nebraskans when we got there.

On Sunday we drove about 250 miles to reach Scott's Bluff in far western Nebraska where the connection with the Oregon Trail deepened.

The most consistently mentioned place in the pioneer journals is Scott’s Bluff, a yellowish butte that rises out of the featureless plains like a sentinel. Some 500 miles of featureless plains west of Council Bluffs, Iowa the bluffs signaled that the "easy" part of the journey was over and the mountains were not far ahead.

Another prominent landmark in the same area is Chimney Rock. Both have been preserved and protected.

Scott’s Bluff is a national monument managed by the National Park Service and Chimney Rock is a national historic landmark administered by the Nebraska Historical Society. We stopped at both of them.

Look closely to see Chimney Rock in the background.

Hopefully it is obvious how Chimney Rock got its name. Scott’s Bluff was named for fur trapper Hiram Scott who was wounded by Indians and then abandoned by the men that were assigned to transport him to safety. His body was found the next year near the bluff.

Seeing these two prominences that were so often mentioned by Oregon Trail pioneers was cool; but it was a trip north of the city of Scottsbluff – to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument – that really drove home the vastness of the western plains and the daunting task faced by those travelers on the Oregon Trail.

Driving the lonely road out to Agate there was nothing but rolling plains and sky. No irrigated fields, just ranch land. With rain and clouds in the distance it was a spectacular drive and we got more of a feel for what it must have been like in the 1840s.

The Agate fossil beds were discovered by an astute and erudite rancher in the late 19th century. He invited some of the college boys back east out to his place to look around and, lo and behold, they found these.

We had enough daylight left when we got back to hike to the top of Scott’s Bluff and enjoyed he amazing views of these beautiful high plains.

Given that we had just been at the Apostle Islands – famous for its light houses – it was a bit of shock to learn that Nebraska’s Lake Minatare Recreation Area (where we camped for the night) features Nebraska’s one (and only) lighthouse. Actually, it is just an observation tower made to look like a lighthouse, but we climbed to the top anyway.