Day 88 Montana Little Big Horn
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
95
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Hardin,
Montana,
United States
Saturday, August 2, 2008
We changed our plans after consulting the information we had gathered and found that from Buffalo city we had a choice of the highway 90 up back into Montana and find the infamous sight of the battle of Little Big horn, or head East to Mount Rushmore and South Dakota.
We chose to head the 90 to take us to educate ourselves about the myth or fact, from this battle between two cultures.
The road was a freeway and travel was straight forward, we took a diversion off to Fort Phil Kearney, one of the Calvary forts set up to protect the settlers along the Bozeman trail through to Montana. The fort was one of the few actual Stockade forts built by the soldiers, but we all understood via the movies that this was the standard design.
The Boys Checking the outside for enemies
We have mentioned before the brief history of this fort and it was only occupied for 2 years, then burnt to the ground, when it was abandoned by the soldiers.With the assistance of Archaeologists the sight has been preserved and the location of the Stockade and the buildings within the 10 acre site have been marked out.
The stockade walls have been re-established in each corner and a short section along the entrance where the information centre is located.
To absorb the history about this fort and the raids and success the Indians had in harassing the timber gatherers creating the biggest defeat up to that time (we mentioned this before) by the US army. Certainly an interesting site to visit and absorb the history. (gee there is a lot of reading to do at these places. J )
Head on the 90 and back into Montana from Wyoming, this takes us to firstly a museum outlining the battle of Little Big Horn, with a wonderful collection of authentic and valued items from the actual Indians as well as the Settlers and Fort Personal. We watched a video clip about the battle that described the myth from the actual event and also what the archaeological searches turned up that were done in 1984/85 and again in 1995. With the combination of the finds from these searches and the written reports coupled with the eye witness reports from the indians, have uncovered the most accurate description of the event
The Actual Palisade from the inside,
. We left this museum to travel to the actual site of the battle, being a hill side overlooking the Little Big Horn river.
Again we were fortunate to sit on a ranger's description of the battle and linked it with the information we had picked up at the museum about an hour before. Certainly a clash of cultures and as the Ranger stated "American fighting American" each fighting to preserve their life style or culture. It is easy to become a judge in this day with hindsight but who can judge the valiant fighters from both sides?
We walked up to the memorial where the bodies of the slain Solders where buried in a mass grave, having been found 3 days after the event and the Indians had left the area, The body of Custer where he fell along with those around him, was recognised and shipped back to West Point, in honour of his achievements. Also within 50metres of this site is a memorial to the Indians that gave up their lives for what they believed in, certainly a tribute to the brave warriors on both sides of the battle.
Ok time to move on, we had chosen this path because we knew the rout 212 would take us back down through a corner of Wyoming and into South Dakota, which was our original plan.
The Cairn built over the Fallen soldiers
We decided to drive until we hit an RV park that we could settle in for the night, Oh Dear! We couldn't find one! We kept up the interchange of driving until we eventually reached the city of Spearfish in South Dakota. Along the way we were fortunate enough to observe Antelope grazing along side the road in paddocks amongst the cattle as well as in herds of their own. A great sight to see, but no real time to stop for photos simply because we were unsure how far we were to travel.
We found a KOA in Spearfish, again someone is smiling upon us, firstly, there were no sites, only site 37, but it appeared we wouldn't fit in site 37, until another supervisor arrived and said "yes they will fit" GREAT! It was getting late and we required a place to sleep and eat. We wondered about the number of motor bikes on the road but also in the park, we have found ourselves in the close proximity of the 68th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which is apparently one of the largest motorcycle gatherings in the world. Sturgis is only a little way down the track and this rally begins tomorrow and runs for 6 days. How is our luck, we might be struggling to be simply RV tourists in this area, but hey it is part of our journey, we will sit back and see what eventuates.
We mention here that after our late dinner the storm clouds came over and we were pelted with rather large hails tones, yet another experience! A hasty roll up of the awning to ensure we didn't have some holes in places we felt were not required.
