Mormon Grove

Mormon Grove historical marker, US-73 and Osage Rd., Atchison Co. KS

The Mormon migration to Utah from 1846-1868 was impacted by cholera to the same level as Oregon-California Trail emigration.  Owing to their religious beliefs, gregarious living habits, wealth and political power, violence was often incited against the Mormons and they were unwelcome in most communities throughout the Midwest.  The governor of Missouri had issued an "extinction order" against them in 1838 and founder Joseph Smith (and his brother Hyrum) had been killed by a mob while in the Carthage, Illinois jail on 27 June 1844.  The death of prophet and successor left a power vacuum and generated a schism within the church.  Eventually most LDS adherents chose to follow Brigham Young.  Recognizing that rising anti-Mormon sentiment made it impossible to stay in their headquarters at Nauvoo, Illinois, Young led his followers to the Salt Lake Valley in what was then Mexico.   The Mormon migration to Salt Lake began in three waves during 1846.  The group stayed near present day Omaha, Nebraska for the winter and the area became known as Winter Quarters.  Some later migrations would begin at this point and basically follow the Platte River to the Oregon-California Trail, where the Mormons would travel on the north bank, and non-Mormon emigrants on the south.  

Approximate location of Mormon Grove inferred from 1855 map

The church continued to flourish under Young's leadership, and converts were coming from all points to settle with the rest of the Saints in Utah. An influx of Mormon converts from Europe created the need for other points of departure. Milo Andrus, President of the St. Louis Stake, was charged with finding a new staging area for wagon trains on the Missouri River. He settled on this site in early 1855, and it appeared to be ideal. First, it was not in Missouri (and especially Jackson County) which was strongly anti-Mormon. Second, a receptive community ust building itself welcomed the abundant labor and trade that came in the person of the Mormons. This town was started by and named for David Rice Atchison, who had represented the legal interests of Joseph Smith and his followers in Missouri before they were forced to Illinois. Third, it was close to the established Ft. Leavenworth Military Road, which would join the Pony Express Trail near Kennekuk, KS and joined the main fork of the Oregon-California Trail at Marysville, KS. Last, but not least, there was abundant drinking water from Deer Creek, lots of land for farming, lots of land for raising and grazing livestock, and plenty of timber for fires.

Milo Andrus - 1880s

While the historical marker trumpets this as "the city that disappeared", it never was really a city/town/village or even community.  It was a way station or campground, at best.  In spring of 1855, workers used ditches and sod (although Milo Andrus reported building a wooden fence) to enclose a quarter section (160 acres) and planted 20 acres (reports up to 60 acres are out there) with crops for food and animal feed.  Just a couple of "permanent" structures were ever built, most of the emigrants staying in tents or wagons at the site.  There was a great deal of order in the occupation of the site, descriptions indicate that there were streets and alleyways set up in the area occupied by migrants.   A survey done in 1855 lays out the boundaries of the "Mormon Farm", but emigrants likely camped through a large part of sections 4 and 5 here.  Few settlers were actually here, since Kansas Territory had only been opened for white settlement in 1854.  It was noted by an Atchison newspaper on 01 May 1855 that there was little or no sickness among the Mormon Grove emigrants.

Approximate route of the Mormon Grove Trail through Kansas 1855-1856

At that point, most of the emigrants were yet to arrive, and the long steamer rides would prove tricky.  During 1855, emigrants were being directed to come through New York, Philadelphia or Boston to avoid cholera in New Orleans.  They were to take a train to Pittsburgh, PA and then steamer down the Ohio to the Mississippi, up to St. Louis, then up the Missouri to Atchison.  This meant a lot of time cramped up in not so sanitary conditions, and cholera was breaking out on the steamers.  Many people began arriving at Mormon Grove with some kind of diarrhea.

"The general health of the camps was good, although several deaths have occurred in the Danish camp and among the passengers of the ship "Juventa," who had almost entirely escaped until they reached Atchison. Among the lamented dead of this company, we have to mention Elder Simpson long and favorably known among the British Saints, and Elder Bell, late President of the Malta Mission, and his wife." - Erastus Snow on 16 June


"After we Landit [landed] and got our wagon put together we moved 9 miles out to Mormon Grove and arengd our tents. the colery [cholera] Came in the Camp and 22 Dide [died] in a few days. Brother [George Bell] and Sister [Elizabeth] Bell ware taken. I tended to them. he was first taken wile I was Rubing his hands and legs. She fainted and fel into my arms. and Dide in a few days. I was taken the next day and in 2 ouers [hours] & was Spechle [speechless] and I had giving up hope of Ever giting well for they ware dieing on all Sid[e]s." - George Mayer

Bad times at Murphy Lake

The river moves - the roads, not so much

In 1855, 2041 people in 337 wagons left from this campground/village for the Great Salt Lake valley. They left in eight companies between 07 June and 03 August.  Once they departed Mormon Grove, things went bad soon for at least one group of emigrants.  Mrs. P.W. (Williams) Cox related the following story of a tragedy that occurred at an oxbow lake called Murphy Lake:

"We saw many Mormons passing us on their way to the promised land'... They drained what we called Murphy Lake, in the month of August 1855. They were so hungry they drained the lake, caught and ate the fish. Forty in the party died. They were buried near the lake. Many of them had cholera. When they left the encampment they left behind them beds, wearing apparel and clothing of all kinds scattered around. I saw clothing that was torn off the dead, three or four months after the Mormons left."  

It's difficult to say exactly how much of this story is fact and how much is legend since she was recounting the events more that 60 years later, but "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend".  Only one wagon train would have passed this way in August 1855, and only nine members were lost from it the entire journey.  One wagon company lost nearly 30 emigrants to cholera, but that was in June 1855.  While Mrs. Cox thought she saw clothing torn off the dead (which is possible if burials were not dug deep enough), it is more likely that everything that had belonged to those that died had been abandoned.  Sentiment was one of the first casualties of the westward migration.  Energy just could not be spared to haul materials, including bedding and clothing of those who no longer had use of them.  It is also possible that some families realized that they had overloaded their wagons, and had dumped some of their belongings onto the prairie.

This seems most likely to be the company that started under Seth Blair on 15 June.  His company of Texans had arrived at Mormon Grove before he had finished provisioning and shipping goods ahead to Salt Lake City from St. Louis.  Since there was cholera in camp at Mormon Grove, they moved out hastily, but the damage was done.  Two days out, cholera struck the camp.  Within a span of 24 hours they lost 12-13 people from cholera and in the end lost 29 to the disease before the epidemic abated 5 days later.  They lost 33% of their number, and Blair, having already suffered from a "sevear attack of palpitation of the Heart and debility" sent back for help.  His company was taken over by Edward Stevenson.  Measles, another common disease of the trail, would attack the company before they finally made it to Salt Lake City.

Seth Blair in his own write

Seth M. Blair

"Sunday June 23rd 10 AM[.] Today I taake pen in hand to record mellancholy facts as well as other more pleasing ones. I arrived At Aitchison [Atchison] on the 21st (11th?) and found my little company awaiting me & was truly glad to again behold my face. We Speed[i]ly prepared for the plains & was organized by Bro E. Snow of the Twel[v]e-appostles my Self being appointed Capt. of & presiding Elder of the Company being the 3rd fifty organized this Season—for particulars of organization See report of Company 1[.] We left on the 15 & haveing travelled Some 20 mi[les] the Cholera made its appearance in Our Camp on the night of Monday the 17th & in the first 24 hours we lost 12 or 13 & up to this time I presume we have lost not less than 20 & at least the 5th of our whole Strength. The Camp presenting for the last 4 days a Cholera hospital! Such a Scene as neither pen can portray or tongue describe father & mother taken—& both buried in one grave or Side by Side leaving crying children Scattered over the Camp while the Shrieking crys [cries] & hollow groans of men & women wear [were] heard on Every Side with the Cry for help from the grave—diggers Whose toil was incessant Seemi[ng]ly night & day while the Stout heart & hale man or woman was seen to reel under their ardious [arduous] duty until a guard can hardly be had or a watch kept through the night of men who may be called well[.] True oh God dreadfull Seems our fate or providence & all I can add is I feel that Thee dotheth all things well"

Edward Stevenson

"Their is not a family but what has to mourn the loss of Some One & in deed the very hands that administer to you are Cramped. in hand[,] leg—Stomach or are vomiting or purgeing [purging] more or less truly. oh—truly horrid in deed is our Situation but it has been 100 pr ct worse for I feel we are improveing Some Each hour[.] many are today renewing their Covenants through baptism with God & Some for the first time are making them[.] a Man & wife who lives near hear [here] being a mongst the no. [number] a Br. Miller[.] this Encapmet [Encampment] is on the Big Nimehaw [Nemaha]. on the 18th we met Bro[ther] W[illia]m Miller Haight[,] Jno [John] L Smith[,] Jno [John] Kay & Several other Elder from the Valleys. who did us all the good they could[.] blessed us & passed on—to give a more particular Idea of the sorrowfull State of things those who dug the graves & buried the dead went from Camp to waggon Seeking who was dead & thus persons—died & was buried a day before others knew that they wear Even Sick. The reports of the Camp officers braught to me by day & night could for (our numbers) only have been Eaquated [Equated] when Bleucher fell on Napoleon at Watterloo. for a moment See every 5th one dead & the other 3 fifths wounded[.] no I would prefer to risk my command on a Battlefield that Even I have read of allmost on the Earth—in the midst of This I Sent for Elder Ewd [Edward] Stevenson to President Milo Andrus & Ballentyne [Ballantyne] & for 6 good men to help us on. which I exspect in 24 hours—as the Elders with [....] are worn down & to their constency & faithfullness I could not add a laurell[.] they are indelibley Enstamped on the hearts of Ev[e]ry man & woman in this Camp & their names I wish perpetuated to my latest posterity. Viz Jm Barlow[,] Sylvester McEarl[,] Oscar Tyler[,] John Mayor[,] Geo C. Riser & others all so faithfull as well as faithfull Sisters—"

Where is Murphy Lake?

Location of Murphy Lake in Nemaha County inferred  from 1905
plat map - again part of the river

The survivors left to recuperate were likely picked up by following trains.  Those that survived past the last train's arrival, likely went back to Atchison, and may have made up some of the company of emigrants that left in 1856.  The location of Murphy Lake is said to be "lost" in some publications.  It is not lost, because its position is noted on old maps.  It is present on a 1905 plat map of Nemaha County.  

By comparing the location of a geographic feature on an old map to the layout of a new map, it is possible to find the location of features and communities that are no longer extant.  The plat book very explicitly lays out property lines and roads.  Trying to find something by proximity to a braided river channel like the South Branch of the Nemaha is not usually instructive, because the river cuts a new channel and moves every few decades.  However, the section lines are possible to easily see in a new map, because the roads in rural Kansas line up on section and half-section lines.  Most of the squares that you can see in the map above are 1 mile by 1 mile and delineated by section roads.  In places where the river channel bent when the road was laid, the road likely still bends, even if the river doesn't.  On the 1905 map, Murphy Lake is noted at the intersection of the half section lines on the border of sections 25 and 26 of Nemaha Township.  The lake was an oxbox lake, and true to the nature of rivers, is part of the river bed again.

Native stone marker for cholera victim at
Wolf River Cemetery on St. Joe Road

Apparently, a sizeable cemetery was set up to accommodate the 30+ bodies from cholera deaths.  However, this cemetery is definitely lost.  Anything that was a cemetery has probably been deeply buried or unburied and transported by the Nemaha River.  The Kansas Historical Society notes that the grave markers were used to build a barn, which probably isn't as cruel as it sounds, since the markers were likely native stone and would just look like rocks to someone unfamiliar with the story.

After 1855

Things have changed little at Mormon Grove since 1856
Looking northwest from marker

A small party (97) left from Mormon Grove in 1856, likely stragglers from the migration of the previous year (or possibly survivors of Murphy Lake).  The site was abandoned in favor of Iowa City and Kanesville (now Council Bluffs), Iowa and Florence (Winter Quarters), Nebraska.  All of these sites were now reachable by railroad, which decreased the temporal length of the journey as well as exposure of the emigrants to cholera.   By 1857, the cholera epidemic had subsided along the trail.  In all, about 35,000 emigrants died, out of the nearly 350,000 total.  The Mormon-Oregon-California Trail had the distinction in the minds of many of these pioneers of being the longest cemetery in the world.

Looking northeast from marker

A group of 30 LDS members stayed in Atchison to establish a meeting congregation there.  Soon non-LDS settlers had taken over the Mormon Grove property.  Some wooden grave markers remained at what became the Armstrong farm until the mid-1900s, but they have been lost to time and the elements.  Mr. Floyd Armstrong donated the land upon which the historical marker is situated and served as a voice to persuade KDOT to modify its building plans to avoid extending US-73 over the old cemetery.  Investigations turned up evidence of a cemetery with 50-70 burials, which agrees with emigrant and early settlers' accounts of the cemetery.  A 100 yd deviation from a straight line can be see in the road line near Osage Road.  The highway now passes just north of the old cemetery.

Probable camping area south of US-73

While Atchison lost the labor and the money of the westbound LDS emigrants, they were not left entirely high and dry.  Atchison remained an important transport hub, servicing Fort Leavenworth, then points west as a main port for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (now Burlington Northern-Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad).  For several years after Mormon Grove ceased operation, the majority of freight delivered out of Atchison was bound for Utah.

How did the Mormon Grove emigrants fare, really?

While the first three trains were hit fairly hard with losses due to disease and accident, most of these wagon trains did pretty well.  I count 74 deaths total on the road out of 2000+ travelers in 1855.  That is better than the 5-10% expected death rate.

1855

1. John Hindley Company - 206 started 07 June; 199 arrived 03 September
2. Jacob Secrist/Noah Guyman Company (+Danes) - 368 started 13 June; 346 arrived 07 September
3. Seth Blair/Edward Stevenson Company - 89 started 15 June; 58 arrived 10 September
4. Richard Ballantyne Company - 402 started 01 July; 392 arrived 25 September
5. Moses Thurston Company - 152 started 03 July; 148 arrived 19 September
6. Charles Harper Company - 305 started 25 July; 301 arrived 28 October
7. Isaac Allred Freight Company - 81 started 28 July; 0 arrived 02 November
8. Milo Andrus Train - 461 started 04 August, 452 arrived 24 October

1856

1. Abraham Smoot Company - 97 started 10 August; 96 arrived 09 November

Disclaimer

Joseph Smith III - RLDS Prophet/President
06 June 1860 - 10 December 1914

I am not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but the part of the country that I live in was very important to the early history of that Church.  I approach these writings from the point of history, western expansion, and geography.  The LDS experience speaks to modern society about the fruits of political and religious intolerance and the power of mob mentality. It is also a story of faith, hope, loyalty, betrayal, redemption, unity and schism.  I have tried as best I can to represent these events and people truthfully.  If you have corrections, please use the comment box below (references would be nice, too). 

 When I attended Park College (1982-1986), it was affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is now the Community of Christ.  This Church was composed of followers who believed that the Church had been in a state of disorganization since the death of Joseph Smith and a reorganized Church should be headed by a lineal descendant of Smith.  This group followed  his son, Joseph III from Nauvoo, to Plano (IL), to Lamoni (IA), then back to Independence, Missouri, where they occupy most of the property around the original temple lot.  Another group of Latter Day Saints, the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) or "Hedrickites" own the two acre site intended to be the LDS temple that will be the heart of a New Jerusalem / Zion in which Christ will reveal himself during the "second coming".  Again, a story for another day.

Further Reading

On the Outskirts of Atchison

Convergence at Mormon Grove

Highway to Zion

Mormon Disaster at Murphy Lake

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel

XP: Hollenberg Pony Express Station

Ben approaching the station from the south

I'd bet that just about every American has heard of the Pony Express.  Most know that it was a system of carrying mail between St. Joseph, MO and Sacramento, CA utilizing a network of stations to switch out horses every 10-15 miles and riders every 75-100 miles along the way.  This allowed mail to be delivered to California from Missouri (and vice-versa) in 10 days, much faster than the trip by steamer around the tip of South America.  Few realize how little time the venture existed, lasting from 03 April 1860 to October 1861, just a little more than a year before being outdone by the telegraph.

Very few of the 163 Pony Express stations remain evident much beyond a historic marker at the site.  Only one Pony Express station remains in its original configuration and on its original site: Hollenberg Pony Express Station near Hanover, KS.  It is fairly simple to get to from St. Joseph, since US-36 roughly travels the Pony Express route to Marysville, KS (120ish miles).  Hollenberg Station is only a few miles northwest of Marysville.  We have been there several times over the years and it is worth the stopover if you are traveling towards Colorado from St. Joseph.

Cottonwood Ranch

North side view of Hollenberg Station

As with most of the Pony Express stations, Hollenberg Station was not built with the Pony Express in mind.  The trail used by the Pony Express was used by a variety of travelers.  It had been used as part of the Oregon-California trail since the 1840s, it was used as a stagecoach route by several businesses and was part of the military road to Fort Kearney.   Hoping to cash in by selling supplies these travelers, Gerat H. Hollenberg built this stopover on Cottonwood Creek in 1857.  A trail campground was to the south of the building, a blacksmith's shop was set up to the southeast  repair wagons that had broken, and there was a barn that could house 100 horses.  The original ranch house had six-rooms and served as the family's quarters, a tavern, hotel, general store and unofficial post office when it opened.

The station is mentioned briefly as "Cottonwood" in Mark Twain's book Roughing It loosely based on his summer 1861 trip with brother Orion to Carson City, NV.

"The Sphynx was a Sphynx no more! The fountains of her great deep were broken up, and she rained the nine parts of speech forty days and forty nights, metaphorically speaking, and buried us under a desolating deluge of trivial gossip that left not a crag or pinnacle of rejoinder projecting above the tossing waste of dislocated grammar and decomposed pronunciation!

How we suffered, suffered, suffered! She went on, hour after hour, till I was sorry I ever opened the mosquito question and gave her a start. She never did stop again until she got to her journey's end toward daylight; and then she stirred us up as she was leaving the stage (for we were nodding, by that time), and said:

'Now you git out at Cottonwood, you fellers, and lay over a couple o' days, and I'll be along some time to-night, and if I can do ye any good by edgin' in a word now and then, I'm right thar. Folks'll tell you't I've always ben kind o' offish and partic'lar for a gal that's raised in the woods, and I am, with the rag-tag and bob-tail, and a gal has to be, if she wants to be anything, but when people comes along which is my equals, I reckon I'm a pretty sociable heifer after all.'

We resolved not to 'lay by at Cottonwood.'" - Mark Twain in Roughing It

Gerat Henry Hollenberg

Traffic on the trail slowed greatly with the beginning of the Civil War and the demise of the Pony Express.  Changing fortunes meant changing plans, and Gerat Hollenberg turned his attention to farming, raising cattle and grain.  Emigrant traffic stopped almost altogether as railroads were built and connected people to the Big City and the West Coast in relative comfort.  Hollenberg made a great deal of money in real estate, and founded the town of Hanover, KS.  He provided monetary donations to build churches and government buildings in Hanover and spent three terms in the Kansas legislature before his death in 1874.

The station became a farm house and was used as such until the property was purchased by the Kansas legislature in 1941.  The station building has remained unchanged, allowing for replacement of worn out materials and has never moved from its original foundation.  Hollenberg Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1961 and has been operated as a museum by the Kansas State Historical Society  since 1963.

Getting There

Back of the station from the southwest

US-36 is the nearest major thoroughfare to the site.  Turn north onto K-198 for 4 miles, then east (right) on K-243.  The visitor center is open April-August on Wednesday-Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM.  They are closed September-March and on state holidays.  A small admission fee is charged for the museum and to tour the inside of the building ($3 for adults, $1 for students, children under 5 years free).

Waypoint:  Latitude: 39.900945 N, Longitude: 96.843780 W

Street Address: 2889 23rd Rd, Hanover, KS 66945

View of the station from the visitor's center

Further Reading

National Register of Historic Places Application

Kansaspedia Hollenberg Station entry

Hollenberg Station Official Site

Finding the Way: Chimney Rock

When heading on a journey to a new place, I always try to find someone that has been there before, either a friend or an article and find out how to find the way.  Landmarks are outstanding ways to navigate.  They help you see where to go and how far you have gone.  Plus they tend to be impressive structures, giving a body something at which to look.

A great deal of finding your way on the Oregon-California Trail was fairly simple: follow the wagon trails.  Basically, from St. Joseph, MO you struck out due west until you hit the Little Blue River in Kansas Territory just northwest of Marshall's Crossing (Palmetto City/Marysville, KS).  From Kansas City (Independence or Westport), you basically stayed south of the Kansas River, then worked your way over to the Little Blue River.  From there you basically hung an up north to the Platte River and followed it west to Fort Laramie.

Along the Platte River, the prairie spreads out in front of you like a sea of grass.  The boundaries of the river valley are bluffs to the north and south.  In places, portions of the bluffs have been eroded free and are left as freestanding geological features.  These isolated rock formations can be seen for miles.  Many emigrants on the Oregon-California Trail indicate that they could see Chimney Rock from 30 miles (about 3 days travel) away.  I can vouch for a distance of at least 20 miles personally.  The 325 foot formation rises 480 feet above the level of the Platte River banks, with a spire of about 120 feet.  This feature was so striking that almost every emigrant diary from this trip mentions passing it.

 "About 10 A.M. the Chimney Rock was discovered, some forty miles distant. I saw it. It looked like a small spire, standing out in bold relief against the sky. Two days more we reached this celebrated rock, and arrived to it about noon. Its height was variously estimated by our guessing company, from two to eight hundred feet. I suppose it to be three hundred feet high. It is round, gently sloping up, and coming to a point at the base of the chimney, 250 feet; then the chimney commences rising in an oblong square, of 10 by 20 feet, 100 feet more. " - Charles Stanton 28 June 1846

Landmark for the ages

This was part of the territory occupied by the Lakota (Sioux) Indians.  It is clear that, lacking chimneys, they were not the source of the current name.  Being grounded in nature, they saw instead a potent symbol of life, Hehaka, the elk.  More specifically, an elk's penis.  Some early names were sanitized for European tastes to Elk Tower, Elk Brick or Elk Peak.

Robert Stuart, a partner of  John Jacob Astor in the American Fur Company, traveled through this region, describing what would become the Oregon Trail from the Columbia River, through the South Pass through the Rocky Mountains to the Platte River and the Missouri River in 1813.  The name "Chimney Rock" seems to have been used first by Joshua Pilcher in 1827.  Pilcher was a trapper who became the owner of the Missouri Fur Company after Manuel Lisa died and followed William Clark as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Rock of Ages

The sediments that make up Chimney Rock date from about 28 million years old on the bottom to about 20 million years at the top.  They are clays and sandstones deposited in rivers intermixed with layers of volcanic ash.  The base is composed mostly of Brule Clay from the White River Group, which is noted for its fossil mammals extending northwards.  This material forms part of the Badlands area of South Dakota.  The formation is capped by Arikaree sandstone, which is relatively hard and resists erosion due to rain.  This sandstone cap keeps the underlying sediments from being washed away and generates pillars of sediments, such as those evidenced at Chimney Rock and Courthouse Rock and Jailhouse Rock to the southeast.

It is apparent that this feature is eroding.  The spire stands about 30 feet shorter than it did in the 1800's.  The abbreviated height is evident when viewing a photograph of Chimney Rock from 1906 during the Ezra Meeker trail commemoration.  At this time, the old-timers agreed that the spire had lost height compared to the 1840s.  In the 1990s a lightning strike resulted in about 5 feet of rock falling off of the top of the spire.  How long will it take to wash away?  None of us around will likely ever see it happen.  Chimney Rock is one of the recognizable symbols of Nebraska, appearing on the state's license plates and the commemorative quarter for Nebraska issued in 2006.  At very least, this symbol lasted longer than that pictured on New Hampshire's quarter.  The Old Man of the Mountain was a rock formation on Cannon Mountain featured in the 2000 quarter series.  It collapsed and slid down the mountain on 04 May 2003.

Getting There

You can't help but see this landmark from US-26 or NE-92 traveling east from Scottsbluff/Gehring or on US-26 west from Ogalalla.  These highways are modern approximations of branches of the Oregon-California Trail, which was really an interconnecting network of parallelish roads.  There are trails that will take you to the base of Chimney Rock.  Make sure to dress for brambles and wear insect repellent during wet years.  When Ben and I were there in Summer 2015, you could hear an eerie hum from the thrum of the mosquitoes. Don't worry about getting there too late.  Apparently, they light up Chimney Rock at night so that it is very visible.  There is a Visitor's Center on the road up to Chimney Rock (follow the signs) that costs about $2 per person.  Check ahead for hours - they change.

Waypoint: Latitude: 41.703836 N; Longitude: 103.348037 W

Further Reading:

Nebraska's Popular Chimney Rock Eroding

Chimney Rock National Historic Site - Nebraska State Historical Society