Chalk Mine

The white rock is not true chalk. Geologists call it calcareous diatomite, laid down from the remains of microscopic diatoms in a lake that stood here 6 to 10 million years ago, in the late Miocene, and the honeycomb patterns in its walls are rodent burrows about 5 million years old. Hand mining left more than 6,000 feet of tunnels. After years of debris and graffiti, local residents formed the Happy Jack Chalk Mine Association, bought the site from the village of Scotia in 1996 and reopened it with lights and stairs for summer tours.

What the plaque says

Chalk Mine The fertile North Loup Valley provided food and construction materials for the early settlers of this region. When they came here in 1872 they were greeted by Jack Swearengen, a trapper, guide, and government scout. He lived near here in a dugout in the white chalk bluffs that rise above the valley. The highest hill became known as "Happy Jack's Peak" and served as a lookout-point to guard against surprise Indian attacks. The hills took on added importance in 1877 when Ed Wright began to mine the chalk. With stone cut from the bluffs, Wright completed construction of a general store in 1887. This building still stands in Scotia, two miles north of here. Other pioneer residents soon began using chalk in the foundations of their buildings. The mine stood idle for a number of years. It was reopened in the 1930's by a paint company of Omaha. The chalk was used in a variety of ways, not only in paint and whitewash, but also in cement, polishes and chicken feed. These formations of calcarious rock, which can be seen throughout the North Loup Valley, were permanently preserved here in 1967 when the mine area was purchased by the Nebraska State Game and Parks Commission for use as a wayside park. Scotia Community Club Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park — 25 mi
  A small infantry post of 1874 in the North Loup valley, built of local lime concrete on the raiding road between Lakota and Pawnee country, and kept nearly whole by eighty years of farming.

More markers nearby

• The Blizzard of 1888 — 15 mi
• Jenner's Park — 17 mi
• The Loup City Riot, 1934 — 18 mi
• Evelyn Sharp — 18 mi