Scotts Bluff National Monument in Gering, Nebraska, United States (© Hawk Buckman/Getty Images)

Long before GPS, natural landmarks like Scotts Bluff rose high above the prairie, signalling to travellers that they were on the right path heading west. Before Gering became a town in 1887—and decades before Nebraska achieved statehood in 1867—these sandstone and siltstone formations were already serving a purpose. They had long guided thousands along the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Scotts Bluff National Monument is named after Hiram Scott, a fur trader with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company who died under mysterious circumstances nearby in the 1820s.