MAY 22, 2004. We started the day out of Ogallala, Nebraska, visiting the Oregon Trail site called California Hill, where you could still see some of the trail ruts made by the wagons 150 years ago. Then we went to Lodgepole, Nebraska so I could get a photo of Union Pacific's Challenger steam locomotive on its way to Texas, via Arkansas (these photos are located at http://www.trainweather.com/3985lodgepole.html). After viewing the steam train, we drove to Big Springs, Nebraska where we saw the site of the first Union Pacific train robbery, committed by Sam Bass  on September 18, 1877. Ending the day, we went through stormy and windy weather to view the famous Chimney Rock site, talked about by Oregon Trail riders and seen in a lot of old western movies. Contact me.




While modern farming equipment uses part of these areas, you can still see the ruts or indentures in the ground on California Hill, used by the Oregon Trail riders in the mid 1800s. This site is located northwest of Ogallala, Nebraska off US Highway 30.
   "At California Hill, visitors can walk where the wagons rolled and see the emigrant caravan' impact on the land - traces that haven't vanished more than 150 years later...Unlike a lot of faint remnants along the Oregon Trail, there is no mistaking these ruts. The swale up the hill, started by wagon wheels, has been helped alongby 150 years of erosion. Along this stretch, wood for fires was scarce. Tires popped off wagon wheels that had first expanded with the Platte's water, then shrunk in the dry air.
   By the time the emigrants reached California Hill, theyi were about thirty-five days and 450 miles from Independence, Missouri. More than three quarters of their journey remained." (From Traveling the Oregon Trail, Second Edition, by Julie Fanselow)












The Oregon Trail ran through those near-hills. There were lots of tumbling weeds, of song fame.
 

Historical Marker explaining the first Union Pacific train robbery of September 18, 1877 in Big Springs, Nebraska. The tracks are still very active through this town.


Wood statue of Sam Bass, the train robber, plus a wooden train done entirely by a chain saw.


A train passes behind this park on May 22, 2004 in Big Springs, Nebraska. UP's Challenger steam train came through here just minutes before, on its way to Texas via Arkansas.


Chimney Rock, taken from a gift shop. "Of all the natural landmarks along the Oregon Trail, Chimney Rock is probably the most famous, mentioned in more emigrant diaries than any other. Rising almost 500 feet above the North Platte River, Chimney Rock can be seen from 30 miles away. The emigrants watched it, entranced, for two to three days as their wagons rolled even closer. Landmarks such as these eased travelers' minds, for they could tell they were making progress. They could see for themselves that what they'd heard from friends and neighbors was true. The West was a strange and wondrous land, and - although much hard travel lay ahead - the best was yet to come."
   "Thousands of pioneers climbed up the cone to carve their names, although these have long since worn away. There is no record, however, of anyone ever scaling the soft Brule clay spire...There were also tales that some emigrants fired guns at the spire, claiming as souvenirs any chips thay managed to knock off. Another story holds that later in the nineteenth century, the U.S. military used Chimney Rock for target practice. More recently, lightning bolts zapped off pieces of the rock in 1972 and 1993."  (From Traveling the Oregon Trail, Second Edition, by Julie Fanselow)


There was a Tornado Watch out during this time in Western Nebraska and indeed there were tornadoes, but all occurred well east of this location. They say that this famous western scene may not survive too many more years due to erosion of the sphere. Every Oregon Trail rider and settler saw this  rock.

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