Scotts Bluff National Monument

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Scotts Bluff National Monument

IUCN category III (natural monument or feature)

Covered Wagon on the Oregon Trail at Scotts Bluff

Scotts Bluff

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Location Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, U.S.

Nearest city Gering, Nebraska

 41°50′05″N 103°42′26″WCoordinates:  41°50′
Coordinates
05″N 103°42′26″W[1]

Area 3,005 acres (12.16 km2)[2]

Created December 12, 1919

Visitors 166,007 (in 2019)[3]

Governing body National Park Service

Website Scotts Bluff National Monument

Scotts Bluff National Monument is located west of the City of Gering in

western Nebraska, United States. This National Park Service site protects over 3,000
acres of historic overland trail remnants, mixed-grass prairie, rugged badlands, towering
bluffs and riparian area along the North Platte River. The park boasts over 100,000
annual visitors.
The monument's north bluff is named after Hiram Scott, who was a clerk for the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company and died near the bluff in 1828. The bluff served as an
important landmark on the Oregon Trail, California Trail and Pony Express Trail, and
was visible at a distance from the Mormon Trail. Over 250,000 westward emigrants
passed by Scotts Bluff between 1843 and 1869. It was the second-most referred to
landmark on the Emigrant Trails in pioneer journals and diaries.
Scotts Bluff County and the city of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were named after the
landmark.[4]

Contents

 1Geography
 2History
o 2.1Charting the Landmark
o 2.2Emigrant Trail Landmark
o 2.3Settlement in the Scotts Bluff Area
o 2.4National Monument
 3Name
o 3.1The naming of Scotts Bluff
o 3.2Proper spelling
 4Geology
 5Trails at the Monument
 6Legacy
 7Gallery
 8See also
 9References
 10External links
Geography[edit]
Although called "Scotts Bluff National Monument," the site includes two separate bluffs,
"South Bluff" and the northern bluff called "Scotts Bluff." There are five major
outcroppings on the bluffs, known as Dome Rock, Crown Rock, Sentinel Rock, Eagle
Rock and Saddle Rock.[5] The area between Scotts Bluff and the North Platte River is
known as the "Badlands."[6]

History[edit]
Charting the Landmark[edit]
The collection of bluffs was first charted by non-native people in 1812 by the Astorian
Expedition of fur traders traveling along the river. The expedition party noted the bluffs
as the first large rock formations along the North Platte River where the Great
Plains started giving way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Their findings were not
widely communicated because of the War of 1812. Explorers rediscovered the route to
the Rocky Mountains in 1823, and fur traders in the region relied on the bluffs as a
landmark. European Americans named the north, and most prominent bluff, after Hiram
Scott, a fur trader who died in 1828 near the bluffs. The local Native Americans had
called it Me-a-pa-te, "the hill that is hard to go around." [7]