Day 7 - Custer Battlefield

Packed up and left Cody and headed towards the "Battle of the Little Bighorn". We had to take a detour as the pass was closed on HWY 14. We went through Greybull, Worland, Buffalo, and Sheridan, WY. We went over Powder River Pass (9,668') in the Bighorn Mt. Range and the weather was great and the views were magnificant. We crossed over into Montanta and stayed at the 7th Ranch RV Park in Garryowen, MT. The couple that owned the park were educators and cashed in their retirement pensions and bought a section of land close to the battlefields. The facilities and views from out campsite were unbelievable. We got up early the next morning and headed to the battlefields on the Crow Indian Reservation.

The "Battle of the Little Bighorn" took place June 25-26, 1876. This site memorializes one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestrial and traditional way of life. Although the Plains Indians won the battle, they subsequently lost the war against the white man's efforts to end their independent, nomadic way of life. After the battle, Lakota and Cheyenne families removed their dead and placed them in sacred places. We viewed a presentation of the battle history and then drove through the entire area stopping frequently to take pictures and spend moments reflecting on the gravitiy of what happened here and why (clash of two cultures and the end of one). We left after spending a couple of hours and headed down HWY 90 to Sundance, WY and Devils Tower.

Also at this site, there is a memorial burial area for other American soldiers that have died in many other wars.

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