Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation executive director Leslie Fattig told the Lincoln Journal Star that the $400,000 purchase of 360 acres (146 hectares) will protect the site from development. The parcel lies between the state-owned spire and the Abbott Visitor Center. The purchase could let visitors get closer to the landscape formation.
Chimney Rock received prominent mentions in diaries of pioneers migrating west on the Oregon, Mormon and California trails in the mid-1800s. It sits a few miles south-southwest of Bayard in Morrill County.