Monument Inn & Suites

There is the Farm and Ranch...

by kim83_50158

There is the Farm and Ranch Museum, which covers the farming and ranching history of the area around the turn of the century and also the Migration(Oregon Trail).
farmandranchmuseum.com
It is on the intersection of highways 92 and 71.

Barrier on the Plains

by Toughluck

For more sites along the Overland Trails, see:
Kansas City, Missouri
Kearney, Nebraska;
Chimney Rock, Bayard, Nebraska;
Gering, Nebraska;
Fort Laramie, Wyoming;
Guernsey, Wyoming (Trail Ruts and Register Cliff State Historic Sites).

The River or the hills

by Toughluck

The route of the great trails across the plains, passes along the North Platte. The route was carefully determined to provide the grass for the animals, water for people and animals, and the easiest terrain for the wagons. Often, there was a choice of 1 or 2 of these, but not all three. That created multiple routes over time.

You can see the blue streak from lower right to upper left of the North Platte River. South of that is a brown mass that reflects the valley bluff and near the yellow blotch that are the towns of Gering and Scotts Bluff. You can see the brown lines of the valley bluffs come right up to towards the river. This created a long shoot for the pioneers.

They could follow the shoot or they could go south around the bluffs before they became steep. Of course that would be 5-7 days away from steady water and grass.

Here you can see Scotts Bluff in more detail, blocking the progress north and west. To the south (lower edge) is a dotted line of the earlier trail, which did skirt the bluff from further east towards Chimney Rock. That route allows the pioneers pass the bluff, but took them away from water and grass.

South of Gering (yellow blotch), a bowl of valley extends westward into the bluff, but still leave high ridges to be over come.

North is open land on the north side of the Platte. That appears to be the best route. And is was used by the Mormon Pioneers, who traveled on the north side to avoid conflicts with the non-mormons on the south side. But for a wagon to cross the river was a major undertaking. Any time the wagon and ox team (or horse team) would all be in the river at the same time, spelled trouble. If the ox were in the water and had problems, unhitch the wagon and get the ox out, find a new route. If the ox made it across, but the wagon had trouble, the ox on the far shore had good footing and could pull the wagon out.

If everything was in the water, any trouble, spelled probable disaster. Therefore, they avoided crossing wide, sandy river, whenever possible. This left finding a route through the bowl and over the bluff. Mitchell Pass was it. Today, it looks like an impossibility with ox and wagon, but it was done. Years of use wore paths and smoothed out the trail. The years of rain since the trail stopped being used, have remade the terrain rough again.