Our last days in Wyoming continued ...

We stay 3 nights in Sheridan, Wyoming. We have booked a rental car to drive into Montana to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument on the Crow (Apsaalooke) Indian Reservation.

Home to one of the best-known Native American battlefields, this is where General George Custer made his famous 'last stand.'
In June 1876 Custer led his troop of 210 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry in an attack on a large Indian encampment along the Little Bighorn River. They were quickly overwhelmed by more than 2000 combined Sioux and Cheyenne Indian warriors. On 25 and 26 June more than 260 soldiers and attached personnel of the US Army were defeated and died.

A sandstone marker stands above the soldiers' mass grave.

The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument memorialises one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestral way of life.

The vast number of visitors to the Monument illustrates the continued fascination with the Battle of the Little Bighorn - symbolic of the clash of 2 vastly different cultures - and the campaign designed to force the capitulation of the nonreservation Lakota and Cheyenne Indians.




We spend several hours exploring the Battlefield and Museum exhibits. We join a walking tour led by a young man who tells us he is Crow Indian. He is very interesting and appears proud of his heritage









Back in Sheridan we visit Kings Saddles and Ropes museum; we could have stayed a lot longer but unfortunately arrived late in the afternoon and were bundled out as they closed their doors!

A few drinks at the Mint Bar and dinner at Frackleton's. A great meal and an enjoyable and interesting day.

On our road to South Dakota we travel through Buffalo and visit the Occidental Hotel. First established in a tent in 1879 (3 years after the Battle of Little Bighorn), the first actual building was constructed of logs.
The brick building we visit was built between 1901 and 1910. Many famous - and infamous - names were guests including Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill Cody, Teddy Roosevelt, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and more. An early guest was Owen Wister,  author of The Virginian, a famous Western novel.


In 2009 the National Geographic Traveler Magazine put the Occidental Hotel on its 2009 'Stay List' - an exclusive list of the most enjoyable places to stay in the country.
We ask if we can look around; it seems that, apart from guests rooms, we can explore the hotel!

The rooms are beautifully decorated with many antiques in evidence. The Grand Lobby is amazing with its copper-embossed ceiling.

We have breakfast at the Busy Bee Cafe. A mistake in hindsight! Even an historical building does not guarantee a good eating place.

Vore Buffalo Jump

Trevor  calls into Mountain Meadow Wool, a small family-owned business that partners with Wyoming's ranchers to turn their sheep's wool into high-quality yarn; the first mill in the US to create a system to trace each product's origin back to the farm where it was grown. Small-scale handling but good to see!


About 30 miles west of the South Dakota state line we visit the Vore Buffalo Jump. Evidence at the site shows that a number of tribes used the buffalo jump. About 300 buffalo would fall into the hole each time. The Indians would then kill those that didn't die in the fall. The display at the site shows that every  part of the buffalo was used; nothing was wasted at all.
The site - a natural sink-hole - was discovered when excavations for the I-90 highway unearthed bones - lots of them! The interstate was re-routed.

The Black Hills

And then we are in South Dakota! We started our travels here a year ago. We will stay at Sheridan Lake (where we stayed last year), for a few weeks. Todd is coming over to visit. He will spend about a week in the Black Hills with us.







An image we haven't seen for a long time!!