First noticed by explorer Robert Stuart in 1812, Court House Rock quickly became one of the guiding landmarks for fur traders and emigrants traveling to the California, Oregon, and Utah Territories. A massive monolith of Brule Clay and Gering Sandstone, it was likened to a courthouse or a castle, while the smaller feature just to the east was called Jail Rock. From this location, Courthouse Rock resembles a familiar building with a dome or cupola in a town square, and many thought it looked like the famous old courthouse in St. Louis. Although these landmarks stand south of the North Platte River, Mormons traveling this way could see them, and many recorded their fascination with land formations from Ash Hollow to Scott’s Bluffs. Their journals spoke of “awesome space and empty openness” and of rock formations that seemed to rise out of nowhere; some called Courthouse Rock castle-like, while for others it suggested a temple. William Clayton wrote on May 24, 1847, of a very large rock on the south side of the river resembling a ruined four-story castle, with a smaller rock to the east like a fragment of a thick wall. On August 21, 1853, Henry Pugh, clerk of the Joseph Young Company, recorded a meeting led by President Joseph W. Young before the company traveled 5 miles and camped opposite Court House Rock. On August 12, 1850, William Henry Branch, Sr., of the Wilford Woodruff Company, called Temple Rock a curious work of nature, describing its broad base, steep rise, and dome- or steeple-like top. The diaries and journals of explorers, emigrants, and pioneers on their 4-5 month trek across the prairies and mountains preserve insight into these experiences.