Scotts Bluff

Scotts Bluff National Monument
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Covered Wagon on the Oregon Trail at Scotts Bluff
Scotts Bluff
Location	Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, USA
Nearest city	Gering, Nebraska
Coordinates	41°50′05″N 103°42′26″W / 41.83472°N 103.70722°W / 41.83472; -103.70722Coordinates: 41°50′05″N 103°42′26″W / 41.83472°N 103.70722°W / 41.83472; -103.70722
Area	3,005 acres (12.16 km2)
Created	December 12, 1919 (1919-December-12)
Visitors	128,811 (in 2011)
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	Scotts Bluff National Monument

Scotts Bluff National Monument in western Nebraska includes an important 19th-century landmark on the Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail. The National Monument contains multiple bluffs (steep hills) located on the south side of the North Platte River; it is named for one prominent bluff called Scotts Bluff, which rises over 800 feet (240 m) above the plains at its highest point. The monument is composed of five rock formations named Crown Rock, Dome Rock, Eagle Rock, Saddle Rock, and Sentinel Rock.

Scotts Bluff County and the city of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were named after the landmark.

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 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. In 1823 explorers rediscovered the route to the Rocky Mountains, and fur traders in the region relied on the bluffs as a landmark. European Americans named the most prominent bluff after Hiram Scott, a fur trader who died in 1828 near the bluff. The local Native Americans had called it Me-a-pa-te, "the hill that is hard to go around."

Fur traders, missionaries, and military expeditions began regular trips past Scotts Bluff during the 1830s. Beginning in 1841, multitudes of settlers passed by Scotts Bluff on their way west on the Emigrant Trail to Oregon, and later California and Utah. Wagon trains used the bluff as a major landmark for navigation. The trail passed through Mitchell Pass, a gap in the bluffs flanked by two large cliffs. Although the route through Mitchell Pass was tortuous and hazardous, many emigrants preferred this route to following the North Platte river bottom on the north side of the bluff. Passage through Mitchell Pass became a significant milestone for many wagon trains on their way westward.