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The Way West: Landmarks

© Rick Muenchow

In our last venture we visited the departure points of some of America's great historic trails (known generically as overland trails). Let's take a look at some of the things the pioneers saw as they traveled those trails.

The voyage west was very arduous. Thousands of miles separated what was then civilization from the lands of golden opportunity. Some of the terrain was mountainous. Most of it was prairie - in other words, flat and very boring.

Physical landmarks thus became a very important part of the journey. With no mile markers or exit signs to guide them, the early pioneers relied on natural wonders to show them they were on the right path. More importantly, landmarks served as a tremendous psychological boost in what would have otherwise been a monotonous trip. Many of these landmarks were truly awe-inspiring. Arriving at a landmark thus became not merely a cause for celebration, but also a time for exploration and reflection.

You'd never know it from looking at the area today, but millions of years ago the basins around the Rocky Mountains were part of a giant sea. Gradually, the water shifted, massive erosions took place, and as the water finally receded it left many bizarre rock formations - odd-shaped promontories rising hundreds of feet in the air with nothing else surrounding them but bare prairie. The early settlers who saw them must have thought they had crossed into another world.

Scott's Bluff National Monument in the Nebraska panhandle was one such formation and was located along all three of the major trails: the Oregon, the Mormon, and the California. Rising some 800 feet above the North Platte River, it certainly must have looked odd to someone used to the seemingly endless Adirondacks or the Appalachians. It is no wonder the Spanish called such features mesas or tables, for like a table positioned in the center of a living room, these geological structures sat in the middle of the prairie with nothing else around.

(There are actually three types of such tablelands - bluffs, mesas and buttes. I don't know the technical difference between them, and none of the locals I talked to could tell me either. Suffice it to say these natural wonders are spectacular, whether it's looking toward them or away from them. On a clear day from the top of Scott's Bluff, for example, you can easily see a hundred miles.)

One thing you can definitely see from the top of the bluff is Chimney Rock, which lies some thirty-five miles to the east. Often considered the most spectacular landmark along the Oregon Trail (it is certainly one of the most photographed), this rock formation rising 325 feet above the prairie does indeed look like a chimney. (At least it does to the white man. Native Americans thought it resembled a certain anatomical feature of the male elk.) Breathtaking though the rock is today, in pioneer days it was even higher, and while many settlers attempted to scale the whole thing, none ever got beyond its base.

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