About Chimney Rock National Historic Site
Chimney Rock is a spire of Brule clay, volcanic ash and Arikaree sandstone that rises more than 300 feet above the North Platte River valley in Morrill County, western Nebraska, its peak 4,228 feet above sea level. For the emigrants of the 1840s and 1850s who walked the Oregon, California and Mormon trails up the Platte, it was the most-noted landmark of the whole journey, the first sign that the plains were giving way to the mountains. It is routinely described as the landmark most often mentioned in emigrant diaries, and in 2006 the State of Nebraska put it on its state quarter, with a covered wagon rolling past.
The rock was designated a National Historic Site on August 9, 1956, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Unlike most national historic sites it is not run by the National Park Service directly: it is an NPS affiliated area owned and managed by History Nebraska, the state historical society, which operates the Ethel and Christopher J. Abbott Visitor Center at the base of the formation. The visitor center holds museum exhibits on the overland migrations, a film about the pioneers who passed this way, and a gift shop.
The site is 20 miles southeast of Scotts Bluff National Monument along Nebraska Highway 92, which makes the two an easy pairing on a drive through the North Platte valley.
Collections and Research Services
Chimney Rock itself has no archive; its exhibits draw on the trail diaries, sketches and photographs held by History Nebraska in Lincoln, the state historical society, whose library and archives collections are the place to look for Nebraska trail and settlement records. If an ancestor crossed Nebraska on the trails, start with the published diary indexes and the emigrant-register sources described in our guide to free family history research, then search History Nebraska's collections for a surname. For families who settled in Morrill or Scotts Bluff counties, our article on finding where someone is buried explains how to locate Panhandle cemetery records.
Planning Your Visit
The visitor center is at 9822 County Road 75, south of Highway 92 between Bayard and Bridgeport, with the rock in view for miles before you arrive. History Nebraska sets the hours and the small museum admission fee, and both have changed in recent years, so check history.nebraska.gov for the current schedule before driving out; the grounds and the view are the draw even when the building is closed. The managing organization's own entry in this directory is the Nebraska State Historical Society (History Nebraska), and at the other end of the state Homestead National Historical Park near Beatrice tells the story of the settlers who stopped rather than passed through.
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