page_title: Wildcat Hills
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wildcat Hills / History
caption_attribution_description: Mitchell Pass in Scotts Bluff National Monument near Gering, Nebraska (view looking eastward) (taken Oct. 4, 2004)
context_page_description: The Wildcat Hills are an escarpment between the North Platte River and Pumpkin Creek in the western Panhandle, in the state of Nebraska in the Great Plains region of the United States. Located in Banner, Morrill, and Scotts Bluff counties, the high tableland between the streams has been eroded by wind and water into a region of forested buttes, ridges and canyons that rise 150 to 300 m above the surrounding landscape.
  Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, and Courthouse and Jail Rocks are outcrops along the northern and western edges of the Wildcat Hills.
context_section_description: The Emigrant Trail passed through the northern Wildcat Hills at Robidoux Pass and after 1851, at Mitchell Pass; the rock formations were frequently mentioned in emigrant journals and letters. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission acquired land for the Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area 41°42′08″N 103°40′02″W in stages between 1929 and 1980; the Wildcat Hills Nature Center, featuring a half-mile boardwalk trail, opened in 1995. Today, the Wildcat Hills are a popular hiking and wildlife viewing destination.
caption: Mitchell Pass looking east
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