Prior to exploration and settlement by European immigrants, the Native Americans of the area—mainly the Lakota Sioux—would refer to this formation by a term which meant "elk penis". The first non-natives to see the pillar were probably the Astorians of Robert Stuart in their eastward journey from the Pacific Ocean in 1813. Chimney Rock was recorded in many journals after the Stuart expedition.
The name "Chimney Rock" probably originated from early fur traders. The first recorded mention of "Chimney Rock" was in 1827 by Joshua Pilcher. Pilcher had journeyed up the Platte River valley to the Salt Lake rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain fur trappers. The formation went through a variety of names before becoming Chimney Rock such as Chimley Rock and Chimney Tower, as well as euphemisms based on the original Native American name, such as Elk's Peak and Elk Brick.
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| Chimney Rock, c. 1897 |
This map shows the overlapping routes known as the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails. Each trail had many starting points, possible destinations, and alternate routes along the way. Approximately 500,000 people traversed the trails between 1840 and 1860. 4-6 months was the average travel time by oxen to Oregon or California. It took 10 days to move the mail from Missouri to California by Pony Express.
The Oregon Trail was used by settlers traveling from the Missouri River to Oregon. Branches of the trail began in several places along the river, from Independence, Missouri up to Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The Mormon Trail was used by members of the Church of Latter Day Saints who settled near Utah's Great Salt Lake. It followed the same route as the Oregon-California Trails until Wyoming's Fort Bridger.
The California Trail was used by gold miners and settlers. It followed the same route as the Oregon Trail before splitting off in present-day Idaho. From there the California Trail headed southwest before branching off toward various locations in northern California.
The Pony Express Trail was the route used to transport mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to California in 1860 and 1861. It followed a similar route to other trails until Salt Lake, where it dipped south. There was a relay station about every 10 miles, including one near Chimney Rock.
While there were numerous old settlements in the West; there were almost no cities along the trails except at either end. Towns on the eastern edge of the trails were known as jumping-off points. Here travelers purchased wagons, teams and supplies before departing west.
The army built forts along the trails to protect emigrants from presumed conflict with Indians. They also served as supply depots, way stations, and places to send mail. Over time, stage stations and road ranches also popped up along the trails. The trails crossed the homelands of many Native Indians.
Natural features such as the Platte River, Devil's Gate, and Independence Rock were often noted by travelers, but none so much as Chimney Rock. Mountain passes such as South Pass were essential when traveling with wagons. These passes were naturally lower and easier to navigate.
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| Rock Creek Station, Little Blue River Valley, Nebraska, c. 1860s |
Built in 1857, Rock Creek was a road ranch as well as a stagecoach and Pony Express station, one of many established along the trails in the 1850s and 1860s. It is better known than most because of an 1861 shooting by James "Wild Bill" Hickok, one of the legendary gunfighters of the Old West.
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| Fort Kearny, c. 1848 |
Fort Kearny was built were trails from the east met in central Nebraska. During the gold rush of 1849 the fort was still an unfinished collection of sod buildings.
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| Fort Laramie |
In eastern Wyoming, Fort Laramie was a trading post for several years before the army bought it in 1849. Here emigrants could repair wagons, exchange or buy cattle, and replenish provisions before entering the mountains.
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| Ash Hollow, c. 1854 |
From the beginning, Ash Hollow was a popular place to camp and rest for a few days. Seventy miles before Chimney Rock, emigrants descended a steep hill into a valley with ample wood, grass, and fresh spring water.
More than 9 out of 10 emigrants survived the trails. Historians have estimated the frequency of deaths and accidents based on hundreds of surviving trail diaries and letters. These written accounts represent only a small sample of the half million emigrants, but they provide a basis for rough estimates. More than 20,000 graves line the trails. There are at least 20 known emigrants buried in the Chimney Rock area. But most graves were unmarked. People tried to bury their loved ones well enough to protect their bodies from wild animals.
Dysentary ~~ First: cleanse the stomach by an emetic or puke of ipecacuanha [ipecac]; then give a purge of calomel -- Next, if the disease does not abate, you must repeat the purging daily with castor oil. ~~ John C. Gunn, "Gunn's Domestic Medicine, or Poor Man's Friend" 1839
Rattlesnake Bite ~~ Take of the herbs plantain and horehound. In summer, roots and branches together, a sufficient quantity: bruise in a mortar, and squeeze out the juice. If the patient is swelled, you must force it down his throat. ~~ William Buchan, M.D. "Domestic Medicine" 1848
Other than disease, accidents were the biggest risk of death or injury. Emigrants wrote of being crushed by wagon wheels; shot by accident; trampled, kicked, or gouged by draft animals. Other dangers included drowning, starving, freezing, or armed conflict with Native Americans.
This iconic picture is thought to be a Mormon pioneer family. Few photos exist of emigrants on the trails, but this one shows something of the weariness of trail life.
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| Emigrant's Dress |
An emigrant's clothing needed to provide protection from the harsh environment. Guidebooks recommended that women not wear extremely long skirts, as they were dangerous around wagons and impractical for walking. This dress is a reproduction.
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| Gold Miners at El Dorado, California, c. 1848-1853 |
Seth Kinman was a famous hunter, early California settler, and entertainer who capitalized on his mountain man image. Fur trappers were known for their wild and unkempt appearance.
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| Lakota Dress |
This Lakota dress is made of buckskin with glass bead decoration. Central Plains people used animal hides to make clothing, bags and parfleches. Their food and entire way of life was threatened by emigrant travelers, who decimated or scared game away.
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| Lakota moccasins |
These Lakota moccasins have a hard sole, which provided additional protection from the rough terrain and thorns found on the central plains. Everyday moccasins during the early 1800s were usually undecorated.
Young Lakota women wearing decorated buckskin or antelope skin dresses, circa 1876. Their beads and belt buckles were purchased from traders.
Food stuffs loaded onto wagons that the pioneers used for food on the trails:
Hardtack: cracker made from flour and water and could be kept for years. It was rolled thin and baked for a long time in a slow oven.
Sugar: Emigrants packed some provisions like sugar in oilcloth or India rubber to keep them dry.
Green coffee beans: Travelers often carried green coffee beans, which they roasted in a skillet before grinding.
Pickles and pickled foods: These were desirable as they added salt and spice to bland foods like crackers and bread.
Meats and produce: salting, pickling, and drying were primary methods of preserving meats and produce.
Bacon: Bacon was packed in boxes and surrounded with bran to keep the fat from melting away.
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| Spinning Wheel |
Emigrants discarded many non-essential items along the trails. Although a spinning wheel might be useful once an emigrant family was settled, bulky items like this would have likely been discarded before crossing the Rockies.
Handcarts were cheaper than draft animals and full wagons. About 3,000 Mormons (roughly 10% of all Mormon emigrants) pulled handcarts to Utah from 1856 to 1860. They were more vulnerable to weather, and some handcart groups suffered many deaths after encountering heavy snow.
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| Wagon model |
The average emigrant wagon consisted of a straight wooden bed, hooped bows, and a textile covering. Most recommended carrying a load between 1,600 and 2,500 pounds. Families often grew very fond of their oxen and they were given names like Rouser, Old Baily, Brindle, Bright, Old Smut, and Snarley.
Parker and Huyett's New Illustrated Miner's Hand Book ~~ This 1859 guidebook for Pike's Peak miners provided packing lists, route information, and advertisements for suppliers and jumping-off points. Miners' testimonials touted the wealth of the gold fields.
Emigrants and Native Americans traded with each other. Emigrants especially wanted horses, and also traded for moccasins, buffalo robes, dressed skins, lariats, robes and wild game. Native Americans bought failing oxen and other stock animals, excess and worn out clothing, guns, ammunition, and alcohol. Other trade items included blankets, buttons, beads, needles and thread, and mirrors.
Native Americans saw opportunities to trade for things they needed, but Native leaders also believed the government should pay them for damages. Sometimes local tribes requested payment from passing wagon trains.
Before emigrants went they heard wild stories about the bloodthirsty Indians they would meet on the trails. Prejudice ran deep. Newspapers printed rumors and all tales. Fearful emigrants came heavily armed and ready to assume the worst about Native American behavior.
On the trails violence was rare -- misunderstandings were not. For example, emigrants often misinterpreted requests for bridge tolls or tribute as begging, even though they willingly paid larger sums to mountain men and traders farther west on the trails.
By 1916, a car might average 110 to 170 miles per day on the Lincoln Highway. Bad roads and balky motors made early auto travel slow and unreliable. Take the train if you want to get there faster. Take the car if you want an adventure. It took decades for automobiles to overtake trains as the preferred way to travel.
In 1913, boosters marked a coast-to-coast route of unpaved local roads and called it the Lincoln Highway (today's U.S. Route 30). Soon green-and-white stripes on telephone poles marked the North Platte Valley Highway (Hwy. 92) past Chimney Rock.
The Union Pacific Railroad was built west across Nebraska in 1865-67, bypassing the North Platte valley. The first transcontinental railroad helped bind the West Coast and eastern states together as one nation.
By the 1850s, a stagecoach traveled about 110 miles per day. Stagecoaches traveled ten times farther per day than a wagon train. Changing horses throughout the day allowed for much greater speed. Starting in the 1850s, stagecoaches offered faster travel to those who could afford it. Passengers were crowded on bench seats inside the swaying carriage. The coach changed horses at regular stations along the way.
The Transcontinental Railroad revolutionized travel and made the journey faster. Workers are shown preparing the way across Wyoming in 1868.
In some places it was impossible for trains to go over mountains. So workers dug tunnels through them as shown here in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah, 1868.
Many men were needed to construct the Transcontinental Railroad. This crew posed in front of the paymaster's car in 1869.
Railroads kept building until tracks reached all parts of the West. This scene near Ogden, Utah, in 1896.
Steam locomotives had to stop frequently to take on water and coal. These stops often grew into towns.
Trains also moved crops and livestock. Farmers are shown unloading wagonloads of sugar beets onto a train near Morrill, Nebraska, 1920s.
With bad roads and primitive cars, early auto tourism was an adventure, but it was becoming more common by 1929.
Roads slowly got better, from dirt to gravel to concrete. This crew is improving the Oregon Trail Highway (Hwy 26) in 1935.
Humans entered North America perhaps 15-20,000 years ago. The earliest people we know of in western Nebraska arrived in this valley at least 13,000 years ago. These Ice Age people were nomadic, made stone spearpoints, and hunted large animals such as mammoths and an ancient species of bison.
Middle Archaic people lived in this region about 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. They lived atop the buttes lining this valley, watching for game and enemies. Signal Butte and Barn Butte are well known to archeologists, rich in artifacts and animal bones, and with numerous fireplaces, storage pits, and refuse dumps buried within them.
Ancestors of the Apache lived in the sub-Arctic before migrating into this region around the 1500s. The Plains Apache hunted bison but lived a more settled life than many previous cultures. They grew corn, built homes of wood and earth, and made ceramic pots. They moved to the Southern Plains and Southwest in the early 1700s partly due to Pawnee competition.
About 5 million years ago, this valley started to erode faster than it was built up. So why didn't Chimney Rock erode away? It might be the hard cap of sandstone protecting the spire. Erosion isn't the only thing that affects Chimney Rock's shape. Pieces have also been broken off by lightening strikes. And at least since the 1860s rumors have circulated that soldiers used the rock for cannon target practice -- but that seems to be just a story.
Ancient volcanoes in Western Colorado erupted over millions of years, mixing ash with the clay. Most of Chimney Rock is made of brule clay. About 38 million years ago, streams and wind started carrying silt and sand from the Rocky Mountains to the Nebraska Panhandle. They built up into the layers of clay you see in Chimney Rock today.
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| Chimney Rock fragment with carvings |
Travelers often carved their names, initials, or places of origin into Chimney Rock. But as you can see from this fragment, the inscriptions eroded away making the names and dates mostly illegible.
That's the end of the exhibits inside the museum. Next we drove to the parking lot where there is a path toward Chimney Rock. They don't let you get too close and do not allow walking anywhere near it like at Scotts Bluff. These are the pictures I was able to take.
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