Tuesday 28th March – Little Bighorn Battlefield

Waking in our isolated wilderness after a great night’s sleep we tried to get on the road slightly earlier than usual… 1030am isn’t too bad I guess?!  A bright start turned into a continuous downpour as we were driving.

Here's a great painting representing the last stand to start you off...

We arrived at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument expecting it to be about an hours stop before lunch and heading to Yellowstone.  However, after a 25 minute video and the museum at the Visitor’s centre, we noticed that the skies had brightened so we could walk to look at some of the monuments.  Instead of just a singular monument to the fallen on both sides there are individual white headstones where the 210 members of the 7^th US Cavalry fell and red headstones where the Native Indian Warriors fell. 

The head-stones on Last Stand Hill including Custer's - the black marker in the centre

The US Servicemen memorial

‘Last Stand Hill’ (above) is carefully laid out as accurately as possible to the available evidence of precisely where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and approximately 42 of his troops died.  Then there are individual memorials to the US soldiers and the Indian warriors that died. 

The red headstones in memory of where the Native Indians fell while defending the cheyenne way of life

This beautiful sculpture is part of the Indian memorial

An example of a placard showing where a specific fight is known to have taken place

After that there is a 5 mile road to the Reno-Benteen battlefield where a pre-cursor to Little Bighorn took place.  Along the route placards explain the relevance of each section of the landscape right in front of you.  As the land has been preserved in almost exactly the same condition as it would have been in in 1876 it does not take much imagination to picture the two sides and the scale of the battle.  Having no knowledge of the battle before today we did not understand how the US army could fall to tribes of Native Indians who would have been less well-equipped than the professional soldiers.  Following our visit today we understand that Custer’s army were outnumbered about 10 to 1 and that he had made the fatal decision to attack the Indian village rather than wait for reinforcements because he believed that he and his troops had been spotted and he didn’t want the Indians to flee.  Maybe he truly thought that the Indians would surrender to them rather than coming at them so strongly, fighting to try and preserve their way of life.

I like this placard especially as you can see the image matches the bluffs right in front of you.

A winding section of the Little Bighorn river (and a fellow RV)

This may have been a victory for the Cheyenne people.  However, this was the last time they won a battle against the US army and in retaliation for the defeat, US forces swiftly arrived in huge numbers and the Indian population all ended up being forced to live on reservations within the next couple of years.  As we had recently stumbled upon Fort Robinson and seen the very place that Crazy Horse was murdered in 1877, only a year after this battle where he had been hailed a hero, we had seen how quickly this had happened.

It was a very interesting tour, so it was nearly 4pm by the time we were ready to leave.  A change of plan was required, no dramas.  We drove on to Billings, topping up with cheap gas at a Costco where a helpful attendant showed me that I could use a debit card as a credit card to pay on the machine - result!

From there it was just under an hour to Cooney State Park which is about an hour short of Yellowstone as we want to enjoy as much of the park as possible in daylight tomorrow.  At Marshall Cove camp ground there was one electric hook-up right next to lake for $30 and not another soul around.  So we hooked up and paid, before a quick dinner in time to catch the sunset over the lake:  

Our hook-up at Cooney State Park

I stayed out as it gradually got darker until I heard an owl somewhere overhead in the trees.  I must be able to find it! Hey presto, thanks to the bare tree branches at this time of year, there was the largest wild owl that I have ever had the pleasure of seeing - a great horned owl:

I edged closer to try and get better images.  It saw me coming and started hooting at me before Simon came outside again to try to see the owl and it fled.  An amazing encounter!

It was then movie night. Or should I say research?! Si had downloaded ‘The Goonies’ as we reach Astoria where it was filmed during the next week.  We studied the film so that we can try and locate the rocks, the beach and most importantly, the Fratelli’s hideout, when we arrive there!