Scotts Bluff sits in the western Nebraska Panhandle on the North Platte River, best known for the dramatic sandstone formation that towers 800 feet above the valley and gave both the city and the national monument their names. The bluff was one of the most recognisable landmarks on the 19th-century emigrant trails — the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails all converged here, passing through Mitchell Pass in its shadow.
Today the Scotts Bluff National Monument preserves the formation, the pass, and the visible wagon ruts left by hundreds of thousands of settlers. The monument's visitor centre holds an outstanding collection of watercolours and photographs by William Henry Jackson, who documented the frontier landscape in the 1860s. You can drive or hike to the summit for views across the Platte River valley and into Wyoming.
Scottsbluff the city is a modest Panhandle town, a practical base for the area rather than a destination in itself. The Riverside Discovery Center along the river offers a break from driving, and the downtown core around Broadway has some handsome early 20th-century commercial buildings, including the Midwest Theater from 1946.