The Oregon Trail

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We left Alliance at 9:45am and the plan for the day was to follow several of Nebraskas scenic routes including part of the Oregon Trail. The temp was 60 F first thing in the morning and would rise to a high of 84 F for the day. The skies were incredibly hazy for most of the day. According to the Weather Channel, it was caused by the fires in California and Colorado. When we first left Alliance we were still on Box Butte and so the ground was very flat but quickly changed and we were once again into the sand dunes. It was much as it had been yesterday, corn fields, coal trains, small towns etc. We stopped briefly in a little town named Oshkosh (population 699) where we found the most wonderful coffee shop. It was called Mark Forrari Specialty Coffees. They had a warehouse in the same building as the coffee shop and the wonderful smell of coffee hit me as soon as I opened the car door. We were actually looking for a restroom when we found the coffee shop so the coffee was an unexpected treat.
Our next stop was Lake McConaughy and the Kingsley dam. The construction of the Kingsley Dam was one of the largest public works projects in Nebraska during the 1930s. Construction began in 1936 and was completed five years later at a cost of more than $43.5 million. Kingsley is one of the largest earthen dams in the world. A U.S. highway runs across the top of the dam for 3.5 miles. As Lake McConaughy behind the dam filled up, it created over 100 miles of shoreline and beaches that have been compared to Hawaii. At full storage of 1,948,000 acre-feet of water, "Big Mac" is 22 miles long, four miles wide, and 142 feet deep near the dam. When full, the lake covers 35,700 acres. Bald eagles have discovered that the water coming out of the Sutherland power generating plant stays warm all winter. The eagles feast on fish when other bodies of water are frozen. One winter day, 386 bald eagles were counted in the area.
We stopped to take photos, and also went to the visitor center to watch a film about the construction of the dam.
By now is was 2:30pm and we were ready for lunch. In Ogalalla we found The Homemade Heaven Sandwich Shoppe and had one of their wonderful sandwiches on rolls that were baked on the premises. So many of these little mom and pop places are just delightful.
We had been following parts of the Oregon Trail at various times throughout the day.
"The Oregon Trail was much more than a pathway to the state of Oregon; it was the only practical corridor to the entire western United States. The Trail was the only feasible way for settlers to get across the mountains.
The journey west on the Oregon Trail was exceptionally difficult by todays standards. One in 10 died along the way; many walked the entire two-thousand miles barefoot. The common misconception is that Native Americans were the emigrants biggest problem en route, but most native tribes were quite helpful to the emigrants. The real enemies of the pioneers were cholera, poor sanitation and--surprisingly--accidental gunshots.
The first emigrants to go to Oregon in a covered wagon were Marcus and Narcissa Whitman who made the trip in 1836. But the big wave of western migration did not start until 1843, when about a thousand pioneers made the journey.
That 1843 wagon train, dubbed "the great migration" kicked off a massive move west on the Oregon Trail. Over the next 25 years more than a half million people went west on the Trail. Some went all the way to Oregon,s Willamette Valley in search of farmland--many more split off for California in search of gold. The glory years of the Oregon Trail finally ended in 1869, when the transcontinental railroad was completed.
Actual wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail still exist today in many parts of the American West; and many groups are working hard to preserve this national historic treasure." That info was found online and I thought it interesting enough to add to the blog.
By about 5:30pm we had reach Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff. The visitor center at both were closed but we stopped to take photos. At Chimney Rock a sign in front of the center warned us to stay on the path because there were rattle snakes in the area. Chimney Rock was the most noted landmark in all the pioneers diaries on the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails. Pioneers used to climb Chimney Rock to carve their names in the soft Brule Clay. A rock in the Visitor Center has an original carving from the 1850s.
"Wagon trains used Scotts bluff as a major landmark for navigation. The trail itself 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. In one of its first engineering deployments, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a smoother road through Mitchell Pass in the early 1850s. Use of the Emigrant Trail tapered off in 1869 when the trail was made obsolete by the completion of the transcontinental railroad."
The above portion about the Oregon Trail was copied from something I found on the internet. I wanted to know a little of the history and because the info center was closed I decided to look it up myself.
Our day ended in the town of Scotts Bluff. I took some photos of the bluff towards days end and we will visit the Bluff tomorrow when it is once again open to visitors.
The Days Inn, in the town of Scotts Bluff was our home for night. Since our experience with the dirty hotel in Tallahassee, we have learned to ask to see the room before checking in. There has only been one instance since then that we turned down the hotel. It was a small motel in Alliance.

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Photos

Scotts Bluff
The area between the two portions of the Bluff was part of the Oregon Trail, the passage westward