A Bluff Is Not Just A Short Mountain

We left the Victoria Falls recreation area in the morning. We were off the interstate and driving the scenic drive across Nebraska Highway 2 through the spectacular sandhills. Many people think the sandhills are the most beautiful section of Nebraska.

We hadn't driven even a quarter of a mile before John heard me yell, "Stop, stop!" He pulled to the side of the road and I pointed across the road to this cute little one-room schoolhouse. Its sign said District 2. I guess I'd never told John that I went to kindergarten in a one-room schoolhouse with my brothers, Steve and Dennie. We were in District 14. There's a sign on the schoolhouse that says it was in continuous operation from 1872-1963.

I sent the picture of the school to my brother Steve. He said that year he was first and last in his class. There were two other boys in my kindergarten, but I'm sure I was #1.

Here's a funny story. My mother told me that my dad testified (somewhere) to get these rural district one-room schoolhouses closed and all Nebraska kids sent to regular public schools. He said our test scores were worse at the end of the school year than they were the year before. It's really too bad these schools had to close, but they probably weren't providing the best education. Anyway, the years correlate because we moved back into town in 1962 or 1963. So, we'll blame it all on Dennis Burrow that this little bit of midwest Americana went away.

Back to the sandhills. The Sandhills of Nebraska are unique--you will only see them in Nebraska. There are 19,000 square lies of Sandhills that look like rolling waves of hills with some low brush, but they're really stabilized sand. Millions of years ago when the inland seas receded, winds came up and blew sand until it landed here. Later various grasses (Indiangrass, bluestem, prairie, love grass) shielded it it from further erosion and stabilized it. This whole area sits on top of a valuable underground watertable or aquifer that keeps the grass alive. All of these pieces came together to produce the Nebraska Sandhills.

The Sandhills are really only made for livestock grazing. There are many sad stories of pioneers who tried their best to farm the land and lost everything. Of course, human nature being what it is, people are  once again attempting to farm the sandhills. This time they're using the powerful 360 irrigation systems to fight Mother Nature. They're the gigantic sprinkler systems on wheels that slowly snake across the acreage. As you can imagine, there's controversy over the land use.









At the very end of Highway 2 we stopped off in Alliance for lunch. First though, we visited Alliance's most famous site. Carhenge. I'll leave it to you if it's art or not. I will say it's more impressive in person than in any photos I've seen. At lunch some locals told us that Carhenge is a complete embarrassment and we should stop in at the Knight Museum and Sandhills Center. So we did.

The Knight Museum is privately funded and has an extensive collection of railroad memorabilia, artifacts from western life on the sandhills, Native American pieces, etc. Every time we stop at one of these places we realize just how hard the trek westward was for the pioneers. The museum chronicled some of those stories. In addition to the covered wagon they also displayed one of the pushcarts many Mormon families pushed west. The selling point for the pushcart was that no livestock was needed, you had to walk anyway, and you could pick up, go, stop anytime you wanted. Sounds good until you see how heavy these dudes were. Forget it. I would have sat down and cried.

From Alliance we drove south then west and stopped in the beautiful town of Scottsbluff…also Scotts Bluff. The controversy over how to spell its name has apparently gone on for 170 years with no resolution.

View from Scotts Bluff Monument

Scottsbluff is noteworthy because it's the home of the Oregon Trail's most famous landmarks--Chimney Rock and the Scotts Bluff National Monument. Scotts Bluff Monument is named after Hiram Scott, a fur trader who died on the bluff after he was abandoned by his companions. Some friends.

So what's the difference between a bluff and a mountain? Not just height. Mountains are pushed up from the earth. Bluffs are what remains of the high plains after they're worn down from erosion. Scotts Bluff Monument is about 800 feet high. We got a ride up to the top with a national park ranger. He told us that from the summit you can see 100 miles in every direction. Simply amazing. We walked back down a path. This hike was the most beautiful part of the trip so far!

250,000 pioneers passed by this spot from 1843-1863.

Chimney Rock

We drove to Chimney Rock and looked at it, but we did not get off the sidewalk due to the rattlesnake warning signs posted everywhere.  Don't have to tell us twice. A Nebraska guide book says Chimney Rock is the most referred to landmark in pioneer diaries. When they saw Chimney Rock it meant the easy part of the journey was over and the struggle over the mountains was about to begin.



We stayed at a nice campground right at the foot of Scottsbluff Monument and watched a beautiful sunset.









 One thing we've learned on this trip is that we cannot take selflies. Pathetic.










Kathryn