Nebraska became a main route for Pioneers traveling to the west. The
Platte River Valley provided the best travel conditions with plentiful water and grass,
and flat easily traveled terrain.
Chimney Rock served as a landmark to pioneers traveling on the Oregon and
California trails. They could see it for days while traveling across the
plains. It is located near Bayard, Nebraska.
Pioneers looked forward to camping at Ash Hollow and often referred to it
as an oasis. Water and shade from cottonwood trees awaited them at the bottom of the
treacherous trip down Windlass Hill.
"I grew up under the cottonwoods and I love
them. They're the happiest, merriest trees in the world. When everything else
is still and doleful and pessimistic, they dance and laugh and twinkle." from The
Rim of the Prairie, by Bess Streeter Aldrich, pg.82 University of Nebraska Press,
copyright 1925.
Ruts of wagon wheels are still evident down the sides of Windlass Hill.
