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
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