Bridgeport Girl Scouts ended their activities this summer with a day trip to Scottsbluff.
Their first stop was Gering at the Scotts Bluff National Monument for a look through the museum, an educational activity, and hiking.While lightning in the area prevented hiking at the overlook, the girls did get to drive up Monument pass and look out over the valley. They also hiked along the old Oregon Trail to the covered wagons. For several, it was their first trip to the monument.
Following the induction ceremony as newly minted Junior Rangers, the girls, along with a couple of brothers and their chaperones, went to Sam and Louies on Broadway for pizza, before making their way to the Rebecca Winters Memorial to learn about her plight on the prairie.Winters, the daughter of a drummer boy in Washington’s army, was a pioneer who died on her journey to the Great Salt Lake in Utah and was buried with her name engraved on a wheel rim, an unusual gesture at the time.When the Burlington Railroad found the crude marker years later, they changed the right-of-way to save her grave and in 1902, her descendants put up a monument in her honor. Scouts were able to view the monument and read about her travels west to that point.
