Scott’s Bluff

An Odd Shot
That Turned Out
Almost Perfect

First the Technical Stuff
Nikon D200, f/16, 1/1000 sec, 56mm focal length, ISO 640

It was mid-morning with some residual moisture in the air from an early morning fog. This photo (jpeg) does not do justice to the beauty of this quiet morning on the Plains. There was a high thin cloud layer making the lighting very diffuse. This only seem to enhance the soft palette of colors. I can still hear the birds in the cedars, grasses, and scrub. I can still smell the dry parched grasses touched by the hint of moisture. If you love history, can you still hear the creak and groan of the wagon trains? Do you think the Bluffs miss the company of the settlers at night as they made their campfires, cooked their meals, and reminisced about the adventures of the day? If you have never been to this part of the US, drop everything and go now.

A Hint to Make Your Nature Photography More Enjoyable….
Try to remember what it smelled like and what you could hear.
Update: Also, was the sweat dripping from your nose, and how did you feel.
Make notes if necessary to accompany a potential great photograph.

The Amazing Part

The only Post Processing done was to adjust the Levels. For those that don’t use Photoshop, this is a very minor adjustment to set the white point in the photo to white (in this case the small white chalk deposits in the cliffs), being careful not to lose detail in the lightest areas. Then set the black point to black (in this case the darkest shadows under the Cedars). The net result of this is to increase the range of shades of gray or in this case colors to a broader spectrum that the eye would expect to see. This may not be visible on a monitor, but is really important when printed to a good calibrated Printer. No other adjustments were made. Amazing. Sometimes the Camera just gets it right.

Saddle Rock
Scott’s Bluff National Monument

(Click on the photo for a full view)

Scotts Bluff National Monument in western Nebraska includes an important 19th century landmark on the Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail. The National Monument contains multiple bluffs (steep hills) located on the south side of the North Platte River, but it is named after one prominent bluff called Scotts Bluff which rises over 830 feet (330 m) above the plains at its highest point. The monument is composed of five rock formations named Crown Rock, Dome Rock, Eagle Rock, Saddle Rock, and Sentinel Rock.

Scotts Bluff County and the city of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were named after the landmark.

The collection of bluffs was first charted by non-native people in 1812 by the Astorian Expedition of fur traders traveling along the river. The expedition party noted the bluffs as the first large rock formations along the river where the Great Plains started giving way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Their findings were not widely communicated, however, because of the War of 1812. In 1823 the route to the Rocky Mountains was rediscovered, and the bluffs became a regular landmark for fur traders in the region. The most prominent bluff was named after a fur trader named Hiram Scott who died near the bluff in 1828.

Fur traders, missionaries, and military expeditions began regular trips past Scotts Bluff during the 1830s. Beginning in 1841, multitudes of settlers passed by Scotts Bluff on their way west on the Emigrant Trail to Oregon, and later California and Utah. Wagon trains used the bluff as a major landmark for navigation. The trail itself passed through Mitchell Pass, a gap in the bluffs flanked by two large cliffs. Although the route through Mitchell Pass was tortuous and hazardous, many emigrants preferred this route to following the North Platte river bottom on the north side of the bluff. Passage through Mitchell Pass became a significant milestone for many wagon trains on their way westward. In one of its first engineering deployments, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a smoother road through Mitchell Pass in the early 1850s. Use of the Emigrant Trail tapered off in 1869 when the trail was made obsolete by the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

The town of Gering, Nebraska, was founded near the base of the bluff in 1887, and the city of Scottsbluff was founded across the North Platte River from the bluff in 1900. Separated only by the river, the two cities have since grown together and now form the 8th-largest urban area in Nebraska.

I hope you have enjoyed this odd shot of a moment in history.
Leave a comment if you enjoyed it (and why), or if you have been there.

These odd posts all started over at Katney's.

Troy and Martha,
Texas Travelers
in Nebraska