National Parks Traveler Episode 177: Following The Oregon Trail At Scotts Bluff

By Kurt Repanshek - July 3rd, 2022

The Oregon Trail stretched roughly 2,170 miles from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It rambled across prairie, sagebrush desert and mountains. From the 1840s into the 1880s, hundreds of thousands of immigrants made the challenging journey, and not all survived. Today more than 120 historic sites, auto tour routes, and markers show us where the Oregon Trail traveled.

One of the choke points, if you will, is in western Nebraska at a place preserved today as Scotts Bluff National Monument. Here the Oregon Trail runs across Mitchell Pass, a low spot squeezed by buff-colored bluffs that tower to the north and the south. Today a state highway runs through the pass, but back in the mid-1800s, it was a narrow wagon trail that Conestoga wagons and covered wagons followed.

Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek recently visited the monument and walked part of the trail with Ranger Eric Grunwald.

Traveler footnote: This podcast was recorded while Yellowstone National Park was still closed due to flood damage. The park has reopened.

:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
1:10 Amaranth - Bill Mize - The Sounds of the Great Smoky Mountains
1:22 The Everglades Foundation
1:34 Yosemite Conservancy
1:54 Great Smoky Mountains Association
2:14 Washington’s National Park Fund
2:47 Potrero Group
3:17 Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek explores Scotts Bluff National Monument With Ranger Eric Grunwald
27:40 Wabanaki - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
28:02 Episode Closing
28:18 Interior Federal Credit Union
28:48 Grand Teton National Park Foundation
29:15 Eastern National Passport
29:57 Wild Tribute
30:22 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
30:41 Friends of Acadia
31:05 Orange Tree Productions
31:36 Splitbeard Productions
31:46 National Parks Traveler footer

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Scotts Bluff National Monument

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