Day 11 - Little Bighorn Battlefield

After three great days with Terri and Rick, we headed north. We wanted to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield then continue to Red Lodge, Montana.

The north plains are rolling grass-lands.  Trees??? What trees???  This area has very few.  It's wide open prairie country that supports grazing animals like cattle and pronghorns. 

The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument was a nice stop on our agenda.  We spent a couple hours at the visitor center and touring the grounds. Unless you are totally familiar with the Battle of the Little Bighorn, I would suggest starting your visit by watching the video in the visitor center.  It gives a great overview of the battle which is much more than "Custer's last stand" that we associate with and always hear about.

This is the only national monument where we saw this cell phone self-guided tour.  Dial the number and select the stop.  Give it a try right now.  It's a great service that would be a nice addition at other monuments.

This is the hill where General Custer made his final stand.  Markers show where each soldier fell.  General Custer is in the center.  His marker has a black face.

There were 268 soldiers killed during the battle.  A little over 100 were near Custer - the others were scattered over a fairly large area.  This picture shows an area almost a half mile away from the area in the pictue above where General Custer fell.

There is a fairly new memorial for the native Americans or Indians whichever your preference.  The panels on the inside provide information for each of the tribes who participated in the battle.

Did you know there is a national cemetery at the Little Bighorn?  The Custer National Cemetery is the final resting place for many of our nation's veterans and their families.  The cemetery is closed for internments except for direct relatives of those already buried there.

Our visit lasted longer than we planned but the history was compelling.  If you are in the area, I recommend stopping.