Scotts Bluff & Fort Laramie

We began our day in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, which is the name of both a town and a national monument (which means it had a Junior Ranger program! And stamps for the National Parks Passport!!) We drove, rather than hiked to the top, as it was 98 degrees and it’s a steep way up, but we still took the hikes at the top. It was really beautiful from the top, and it seemed so high up in the middle of all that prairie. We could see Chimney Rock 40 miles away and if it were not so hot (very hazy air), we could have seen the Rocky Mountains more than a hundred miles away to the west. We tried, we squinted, but no such luck on this hot day.

Scotts Bluff was an important landmark for the pioneers as it signaled the end of their terribly boring trek across the prairie. Before they got here, they used lots of things to pass the time with the same view around them every day (remember, they only went fifteen miles a day, and this is 600 miles on), like music, dancing, and games. Most diaries complained of the boredom. When they got here, there was spring water, firewood, and sheltered places to camp. And maybe even more important, natural beauty.

We then passed into Wyoming and arrived at a place that we were excited to see, as Phoebe had studied and read about it: Fort Laramie!



This is also a national landmark, so there was another junior ranger badge to earn!



For those who don’t know, the Junior Ranger programs, offered at most national park administered locations, are a great way to learn more about a place and earn a ranger badge, and sometimes a certificate or a patch as well (if you haven’t ever done it, you can also do some of them online, and they send you badges--I put a link in the links section). The Junior Ranger booklet that had to be completed at Fort Laramie was one of the best we’ve seen…very inventive and fun. One of the things that Phoebe had to do was to find three people somewhere at the fort (which is quite large) who were in period costume and ask them three questions: 1) Who are you? 2) What was your job at the fort? and 3) Why were you important to the fort?, and then have them initial her form. Here is one of them, who gave a long job title that we can’t remember, but basically identified himself as the officer in charge of music for the cavalry. His job was to play a bugle or a fife to tell the soldiers what to do and how fast to do it.



Fort Laramie was much bigger than we had anticipated, though many of the buildings are in ruins. The ones that have been restored or preserved are set up as they were used, which is very interesting.


If you’re interested, I’ve put a link to the Fort Laramie site, since there is much more detail (most of it very interesting, including the relationships with the Arapahoe) than I can share here.

As we left Fort Laramie to head west, we looked back at the Welcome to Fort Laramie sign on the highway. Looks just like anywhere else, but maybe a little more honest, huh?