Sioux Lookout

The plaque stands behind a carved stone figure that first stood on the hill itself. Erected by the people of Lincoln County to commemorate the Old Oregon Trail, the statue its tablet calls Sioux Lookout was dedicated on the summit on May 30, 1931. Decades of vandalism at that secluded spot took their toll, and on June 15, 2000, the county commissioners had it moved into town. In 2022 North Platte sculptor Mary Tanner spent more than three months repairing it by hand, re-carving broken feather tips in Bedford limestone from McDaid School.

What the plaque says

Sioux Lookout Sioux Lookout, the highest point in Lincoln County, was a prominent landmark on the overland trails. From its lofty summit the development of the West unfolded before the eyes of the Sioux and other Indians. Trappers and traders came by here in 1813, the first wagon train in 1830, and the first missionary in 1834. In 1836 Narcissa Whitman and Elizabeth Spalding became the first white women to travel the trail. During the Indian War of 1864-1865, its prominence gave a clear view of troop and Indian movements below. Gold seekers enroute to California, homesteaders seeking free land in the West and a religious people seeking a haven in Utah -- all are part of the history of this valley. Here echoed the hooves of the Pony Express. From 1840 to 1866 some 2,500,000 people traveled the valley, engraving into the sod a wide, deep trail. Indians called the route "The Great Medicine Road of the Whites." In 1869 the transcontinental railroad was com- pleted, ending much of the trail travel. Yet even today, the valley with its ribbons of concrete remains the Great Platte River Road to the West. Rural Youth of This Area Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park — 2.4 mi
  Scout's Rest, the North Platte ranch house and barn of William F. Cody, in the town where his Old Glory Blowout of July 4, 1882 became the first act of the Wild West.
• Golden Spike Tower and Bailey Yard — 3.5 mi
  A tower with seventh- and eighth-floor decks over Union Pacific's Bailey Yard in North Platte, the world's largest railroad classification yard, in a town the railroad laid out and fed troops from.

More markers nearby

• Fort McPherson — 2.2 mi
• Scout's Rest — 2.6 mi
• Fort McPherson — 12 mi
• Fort McPherson and North Platte — 17 mi