Try to imagine what it must have been like to cross an entire continent by foot. We always think of the muscles first and how weary they must have become along the way. But have you ever given thought to the brain fatigue or emotional nervousness involved? By that I mean, here we have many tens of thousands of greenhorns taking to the "wilderness" (which is not what the Plains Indians would have considered it, by the way), trying to find their way without the advantage of road maps or markers. Most of us would be leery of traveling this far by car without decent highway signs to guide us.

Natural Road Signs

But in a way, the emigrants did have some excellent markers — natural features so bizarre or large that they became part of the local lore. The first of these they would have encountered is the wonderful pair of Courthouse Rock and Jail Rock, about 561 miles along the Oregon Trail in the panhandle of Nebraska. Check out the picture below.

I'm afraid most travelers nowadays confine themselves to interstate travel and National Parks, which mostly provide packaged and "safe-like-Disneyland" entertainment for the family. But as I've tried to show in this Web site, some of the best outdoor experiences are found off the beaten path — in National Grasslands, or county and regional parks not so well known. Here's a perfect example of that. Courthouse and Jail Rocks are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and in the Nebraska Natural Areas Register, and yet not many people visit or even are aware of them compared to, say, Chimney Rock. In a way I'm glad; lack of people is one of the things that makes traveling out west so pleasurable. But since these are two of my favorite landmarks, I guess I have a duty to tell you about them.

A Pair of Geologic Freaks

These two promontories, right next to each other in an otherwise relatively flat plain, stand out from quite a distance. As such, they would have provided a calming relief to travelers, confirming that they were on the right track. A wonderful article by Earl R. Harris from Nebraska History, Volume 43, Number 1, March 1962, entitled "Courthouse and Jail Rocks: Landmarks on the Oregon Trail," cites numerous diary accounts from travelers proving the rocks were well recognized at that time. (This neat article was reprinted as a booklet. I picked it up at a visitor center somewhere, but it might be out of print now.) If you look at the picture above, or visit in person, you will have no trouble at all convincing yourself that the big guy does in fact really look like a noble building such as a courthouse; the jail is perhaps a little more of a stretch.

By the way, Courthouse and Jail Rocks were also important signposts on the Pony Express Trail. Several miles south of them, was the Mud Springs Pony Express Station. This is marked in the DeLorme Nebraska Atlas and Gazetteer as an historic site, but I haven't had a chance to explore it yet. (And, I'm not sure I would trust my heavily laden minivan to negotiate the gravel or dirt roads to get there; this really is in the middle of nowhere.)

Your visit to Courthouse and Jail Rocks is truly an "on your own" experience — the way I like to see the West. For there are no kiosks, visitor centers, ticket takers or the like; you simply drive up to the Rocks through a bit of rustic Nebraska and enjoy them. It's not clear to me who has ownership of Courthouse and Jail Rocks, but I think it's either Morrill County or the town of Bridgeport. In any event, you can get to these splendid geologic freaks by driving about 5 miles south of Bridgeport on State Road 88. The area is open year-round during daylight hours.

Lunch Break!

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention nearby Bridgeport State Recreation Area. We passed through here on our way to Courthouse and Jail Rocks, and decided to pull over for a lunch break. The menu that day included bacon wrapped steaks grilled over charcoal, hot German potato salad, green beans and fruit. While the steaks cooked, we were able to do a little birding; the birds were plentiful thanks to the stream running through the area. There was hardly a soul in sight, but I'm not positive I'd want to camp here, though, since it more or less abuts the town of Bridgeport. I'm sure this is a very nice burg, but for my liking, the best camping is when you never see another person or are even aware of the current century.

• Federal
  • National Register of Historic Places
  
  
• State
  • Bridgeport State Recreation Area
  • Nebraska State Parks
  
  
• Municipal
  • Town of Bridgeport
  
  
• Other Interesting Sites
  • Mud Springs Pony Express Station
  • WyoNeb Virtual Visitor Center write-up