Scotts Bluff National Monument - Flood Plains

Scotts Bluff National Monument by National Parks Service

The north boundary of Scotts Bluff National Monument is the centerline of the North Platte River, a non-navigable river. Approximately 102 acres of Scotts Bluff National Monument lie along the river and are considered to be part of the North Platte River floodplain by the City of Scottsbluff. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1975), only a portion of Monument land adjoining the river lies within the river's Special Flood Hazard Area, an area that has the statistical potential to be inundated by 100-year frequency floods. Before dams and reservoirs were completed upstream on the North Platte River, spring floods from melting snow in the Rocky Mountains were common.

These floods produced a river that was much wider than today's with a more thoroughly scoured floodplain possessing a lower concentration of trees and other woody vegetation than what is now present. Today the floodplain of the North Platte River within the boundaries of Scotts Bluff National Monument is forested by large eastern cottonwood trees, other woody species, and several species of exotic herbaceous vegetation.