Historical Markers, Interpretive Signs

[LewisNClark]

Accidentally found this marker several yrs ago...had to use film camera, so pretty crappy pictures. It was truly amazing to stand on these grounds. Extremely remote location.

Camp Disappointment marker:


Location: (14 miles from Canadian border, in Montana)


Past Cutbank heading to Browning Montana I see a speck in the distance. Almost dead center of the picture. I know I am on a Blackfoot reservation but decided to check out the speck. For the record, during L & C adventure all Indians they encountered feared the Blackfeet. To this day, a number of Blackfeet websites show a dislike for the L & C Expedition. BTW, David Letterman's big ranch is just south of this marker about 40 miles.



On the return journal home Lewis, chose his most important skilled soldiers. Brave, fearless, marksmen, you name it, to join him on this trip. They were Drouillard, Joseph and brother Rubin Field. As mentioned earlier, no mention of Seaman.

Their mission was to confirm there was no Northwest Passage around the northern side of the rockies, and second, to find the northern most head waters of the Missouri River...which included streams, creeks, etc that flowed into the Missouri...these were the rules France (via Napolean) gave Thomas Jefferson on the purchase of all lands in the Louisiana Purchase Territory...all land with waters running into the Mississippi, and the Marias River runs into the Missouri River, and the Missouri runs into the Mississippi. Napolean really screwed up, and Lewis' efforts at this site changed the United States territory forever.

At this site, Lewis determined that there could not be a NW Passage (thus he called this campsite Camp Disappointment. But more importantly he did document the latitude and longitude of the most northern creek that was running south into the Missouri about 150 miles away. Documenting these coordinates established the USA's northern border with Canada.

Long story short...leaving here the four men headed south back to the Missouri to regroup with Clark (at Reunion Bay in North Dakota) and the remainder of the party. Only a few miles away they camped and that's the story of where Fields and Lewis killed two Blackfoot Indian teenagers.

Standing by the Camp Disappointment marker. Today this marker is used for target practice.



Closeup of Camp Disappointment marker. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of bullet holes in the monument...by you know who.



Standing at the marker you can see Glacier National Park in the distance and to the north you are looking into Canada. If you ever go to Glacier or Browning, MT the above marker is probably 25 miles from the East entrance of Glacier Park.



Sign beside the marker:




Text of the Camp Disappointment marker:



Site where Rubin Field stabbed the Blackfoot teen to death, and Lewis took care of the other teen when he shot at Lewis. Lewis' famous comment in his journal was, "I could feel the wind of the Indian's bullet pass my ear". (The actual site is between two forks of the Medicine River.)



Knowing two of the three teens were dead, and probably several hundred Blackfeet lived 20 miles away and one teen escaped in the darkness (and was probably headed home), they decide to "haul ass" back to the Missouri River. Running at full gallop through the night and in to mid day of the next day they met back up with their boat and headed for North Dakota (place called Reunion Bay).

Some humor in the event: A few days before the above events, Lewis wrote how exhausted their horses were. Joseph Field shot a deer in the distance and his horse laid down and would not get up for him to retrieve the kill, due to the horse being so exhausted. In 1806 there were not roads here so they had been on horseback thru these up and down gullies for a week and all their horses were exhausted. As I rode thru the territory I can see why the horses were exhausted. (see above picture of the rolling hills).

[LewisNClark]

Wrong river:

North of Great Falls, they ran into the junction of the Marias and Missouri River and did not know which fork to take. They divided up, with Lewis going up the Marias (named after his girlfriend) River. and Clark and his platoon headed down the Missouri to the 5 giant water falls. Took like 10 days of scouting to finally guess which was the Missouri. They guessed right. The Marias would have taken them to Cutbank and in to Canada. when they saw the "great falls" they knew they were on the right river. The Indians had told them in NDakota that they would run into a huge water fall on the Missouri River.

Three Forks is where the Missouri basically ended into 3 big creeks. (Jefferson, Galladin, and Missouri Rivers). Basically the end of water and Lewis (Drouillard, and the Field boys) left the Expedition to persue their month long search for horses west of today's Dillon, MT/Lemhi Pass.

Originally Posted by sfarson

LC... Great stuff on the three rivers. I remember reading about the challenge of the choice. Trying to recall, didn't they divide here and either Lewis or Clark went north following one of the rivers to confirm it wasn't the right one?

Great image of the Missouri where one can jump across it. Is possible to do the same in Colorado, jumping across the Rio Grande, Arkansas, Colorado, and the North/South Plattes where they are a mere three feet across.

[sfarson]

Ahhhh thanks. And more great images bringing to visual life what I've read about.

BTW, may want to keep an eye on this thread... http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=803950

While Dr. Greg is writing an account of a trip already taken, you might note with interest his observations and/or have some input here and there as the report unfolds.

[Sod Buster]

Originally Posted by LewisNClark

You strike me as a guy borne in the wrong century. I'd bet you had rather be mounted on a horse, carrying a six-shooter, headed across a prairie.

I have a passion for where it happened.
But I really like Air Conditioning.
Modern Dentistry.
And toilet paper.

[MrBob]

Originally Posted by Sod Buster

I have a passion for where it happened.
But I really like Air Conditioning.
Modern Dentistry.
And toilet paper.

... and Motorcycles.

[JWhitmore44]

Originally Posted by Sod Buster

I have a passion for where it happened.
But I really like Air Conditioning.
Modern Dentistry.
And toilet paper.

Modern Dentistry is over rated

I've often though I was born in the wrong century. But I stop and thing about my ancestors and realize I would have just been a dirt farmer anyway. Not that that's bad, but I wouldn't have gotten to see as much country as I have by being born now. I guess great grand pappy was ranch hand on a good sized ranch in eastern Colorado.

Sorry no picture, I'll see if I can grab one tomorrow, it's been awfully hot here.

[sfarson]

Every time I ride the Big Thompson Canyon east of Estes Park, I always think about what happened there July 31st, 1976...

[SavannahCapt]

Short ride yesterday morning before "The Big Sweat."


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[IMG][/IMG]

[MrBob]

I've traveled in the Scarboro area and loved it. These are from my wanderings north of Tallahassee, near the Georgia border and south of Thomasville. This was plantation country before the unpleasantness between the north and south.

[Spirit_Rider]

[Sod Buster]

The bottom of Spirit Rider's historical marker mentions the Kidder massacre, Pawnee Killer who is mentioned on the marker along with Tall Bull and Roman Nose ruled the roost in the Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska area.


Almost 145 years ago to the day, Company M with Lt Kidder, rode from the north over the ridge seen in the far distance, they rode south down into what is known as Beaver Creek for their last stand. You cross the Beaver on I-70 just west of Goodland Ks, about twenty mile north of I-70, Beaver Creek drains northwest into the Republican River just into Nebraska.




The tree line to the right is Beaver Creek and is where Custer found the troop, and where they were buried just below the ridge, the massacre was lower towards the creek bottom, where the trees are.








Just above the Beaver where the men were first buried is another monument to M Troop, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and their Sioux guide Red Bead, I would imagine that Red Bead is still buried here. The ridge line behind was the last one M Troop would ever ride down.








July 1867 "M" Company 2nd Cavalry 2nd Lieut. - Lyman S. Kidder, Sergeant - Oscar Close, Corporal - Charles Haines, Private - Roger Curry, Private - Michael Cornell, Private - William Floyd, Private - Michael Gorman, Private - Michael Haley, Private - N.J. Humphries, Private - Michael Lawler, Private - Charles Taltin, Sioux Scout - Red Bead


Died in the Performance of their duty on or about July 2, 1867, in combat with Sioux and Cheyenne Indians On July 1, 1867,

Lt. Col. G.A. Custer left Fort Hays, Kansas with 1100 men of the Seventh Cavalry to quell an Indian uprising which had threatened white settlers for the past three years.
Custer patrolled north to Fort MacPherson on the Platte River near present day North Platte, Nebraska, then south to the forks of the Republican River where Benkleman, Nebraska is located today.
Although Custer could see smoke signals during the day and flaming arrows at night, he failed to engage the hostiles because of his large force.
At this time, General William T. Sherman commanded the forces at Fort Sedgewick near Julesburg, Colorado, ninety miles northwest of Custer’s camp on the Republican. On June 29, 1867, dispatches for Custer were entrusted to Lt. Lyman S. Kidder, who left the Fort with a ten man patrol and a Sioux Indian Guide named Red Bead.

Lt Kidder.




Lt. Kidder was 25 years of age and was temporarily posted at Fort Sedgewick. He had served in the Civil War, been discharged and re-enlisted twice. He loved the military life.
Custer, restless at the river camp, decided to move his troops and scout further south, then northwest.
Seven days later upon his arrival at Riverside Station forty miles west of Ft. Sedgewick, Custer telegraphed the Fort new orders. It was then he learned of the Kidder patrol.
Custer was concerned for the small party and immediately set out to backtrack his trail.

Fort Sedgewick is Julesburg, I posted the Historical Marker for it earlier.

Pawnee Killer, Sioux.




Custer’s advance party on the backtrail found a dead horse and the spot where the Kidder party had left the main trail at the gallop. Signs and evidence of a running battle two miles east along Beaver Creek lead to a dry ravine north of the creek. There the remains of the patrol were found.
The bodies were mutilated, partially burned and all but the scout had been scalped (Red Bead not being scalped was considered an insult). Custer ordered burial in a common grave on a hill above the ravine.

Harpers Weekly 1867.




The patrol was found on July 12, 1867. It was believed the massacre had been carried out about ten days earlier.
Authorities concluded that Lt. Kidder, on reaching Custer’s abandoned camp on the Republican, assumed Custer had moved the large force to Fort Wallace, some eighty miles south. The small patrol was overtaken on the trail south by a large war party known to have been raiding in the area around Ft. Wallace in late June, 1867.
Lt. Kidder’s father, a judge living in Dakota Territory, arrived at Ft. Wallace in February of 1868 to recover and claim his son’s body.

Lt Beecher.




Lt. Fred Beecher led the detail from Ft. Wallace to the massacre site to remove all the bodies. Despite the bitter cold and snow, and the fact that the grave had been desecrated, Judge Kidder was able to identify his son’s body by a scrap of shirt Kidder’s mother had made. Judge Kidder returned to Minnesota and buried his son in the family plot at St. Paul. The other remains were taken to Ft. Wallace and interred where they remained until the 1880’s when Ft. Wallace was abandoned. They were moved with military honors to Ft. Leavenworth Kansas, where they remain today.

Frederick Beecher was 26 years of age in 1868. He was a Civil War veteran and the nephew of the Abolitionist, Henry Ward Beecher.

In 1866 he had been assigned to duty at Ft. Hays and then to Ft. Wallace, where he built many of the buildings for protection against the constant raids of Sioux and Cheyenne.
In August of 1868, five months after his involvement with the Kidder party, Beecher was chosen second in command of the Forsyth Scouts. This company was to patrol 900 square miles besieged by hostile tribes.
The Scouts, led by Col. George Forsyth, were ambushed by 1000 warriors on the Arickaree fork of the Republican River in northeastern Colorado on September 17, 1868. Lt. Beecher lost his life on that day. On August 3, 1969, The Friends of the Library of Goodland, KS, held a dedication ceremony for the historical marker and monument.


In far western Kansas, in the middle of nowhere is alll that's left of old Fort Wallace, it was known as the Fightenest Fort in The West.

[FJR_Nate]

[JWhitmore44]

To go along with Sod Busters story, I have no idea of the history beyond what is written on the sign.



Some of Tobe's handy work

[JWhitmore44]

and on the theme of cattle drives and cowboys





it was toasty today, the kick stand was trying to sink into the blacktop.

[OneBall]

Plaque commemorating the Raid on St Nazaire



And part of the memorial that always makes me smile



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Nazaire_Raid