The Little Big Horn, Sunday, August 1

We traveled 330 miles today, which is a pretty long stretch for us. It was a very nice highway that landed us in a campground only 8 miles from the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, Montana. The Montana license plate which boasts “big sky” is quite accurate. It is amazing how the terrain changes from state to state. This is beautiful country.

We were able to include in our afternoon, a ranger talk and a walking tour of this famous site of “Custer’s Last Stand”. Remember that from your history books? The details were foggy to me, but I soon learned much about the major battle fought on June 25, 1876, between Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, against the U.S. Army. Major General George A. Custer was victorious in the Civil War battles he engaged in with Confederate forces; however, we stood at the site where he was killed in this battle. The headstones mark the spot where each solder in this battle was killed. Custer’s headstone is black and white. His remains were later moved to the cemetery on the grounds of the West Point Naval Academy in New York. Another history lesson for us today.