Day 8: The Battle of Little Bighorn

We left the Super8 early on Day 8 and headed for the Little Bighorn battlefield. Our first stop was at the museum, which had some nice dioramas to help us picture the battle. While we were waiting for the Ranger talk to start at 10:30, we looked through the bookstore in the gift shop.

The Ranger talk was given by Park Ranger Steve Adelson, who is a former high school teacher and football coach. This quickly became evident in his description of the battle, which sounded like a motivational pep-talk given during halftime at a football game. My mom made the fatal mistake of sitting in the front row during the talk, where she was used as a prop for things that happened during the battle. After the talk, we walked around the battlefield. Our first stop was at the monument to the 7th Cavalry men that died at the battle. In front of it was the hill where Custer and many of his men died. There were gravestone markers that marked the spot where men fell (this was not a cemetery, the gravestones just marked where the men fell). There was a black grave marker that showed where Custer himself fell.From the monument, we walked across to the monument built for the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who died during the battle. From the monuments we walked over to the main cemetery for the U.S. soldiers who died during the battle. After the cemetery, we drove along the ridge of the battle out to the spot where Major Reno and Captain Benteen’s battalions were positioned during the battle. There were markers along the way to the site that described what was happening during the battle.

On our way out to the site, a weird thing happened. Horses started crossing the road and blocking cars. The weird thing wasn’t the horses themselves, it was what they were doing. As each horse came out into the road, it began bobbing its head up and down very quickly. Watch:


When we reached the Benteen/Reno site, Allison, my dad, and I did an hour-long walking tour of the site. My dad had recently finished a book on the battle, so he was as good as any guide in describing the places we were looking at and what happened there.
There were markers all over the battlefield for the U.S. soldiers, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who fell during the battle.
When we finished looking at the battlefield, we went back to the bookstore to pick up a few books and souvenirs. Then, we left the park and headed for South Dakota.

The drive took about seven hours, but we finally reached the Ellsworth Air Force Base around 9 or 10 at night, where we checked into our new lodgings. We got to see a remarkable South Dakota sunset along the way, as well as a dry lightning storm, which are always awesome.