Wyoming Battlefileds

[ttora4runner]

Being new to Wyoming presents itself with some great opportunities to venture out and explore the surrounding area. My original plan was to make my way to Devils Tower and then hit up the small portion of the Thunder Basin Grassland to explore some of that area. Unfortunately, the weather forecast showed 60-70% chance of snow and not wanting to take a chance and get stuck in a snow storm I decided to stick around town and see what I could find.

Last week I had purchase a Wyoming Road and Recreation Atlas to go along with the Wyoming Backroads I have to help plan trips for the spring and summer. I had noticed that just south of town laid a number of Battlefields which I don’t ever recall hearing about in school. So with the possibility of foul weather I decided to stick close to home and pay a visit to these sites.

The first stop on the trip was the ‘Wagon Box Monument’

The monument to this fight is in the background the post you see is the approximate location where the soldiers fortified themselves during the attack. Each one of the post had a different description on it as to what it was.

Monument Plaque

Wagon Box

View of the surrounding area.

Fort Phil Kearny was my next stop.

 

[ttora4runner]

The 2nd stop of the day was ‘Fort Phil Kearny’.

Front-side of the Fort wall

Back-side of the Fort Wall

The map below shows the west portion of the Fort and a layout of the buildings.

Looking back from the SW corner of the Fort

One of the monuments on the site.

The South ‘Gun Bastion’ on the site the other is on the North side of the site dividing the west and east sides of the Fort.

 

[ttora4runner]

Looking back to the North NE

The archeology teams that have done the work on the site

The map of the other end of the site showing the rest western portion of the site

The monument that is located in the middle of the site.

Just outside of Fort Phil Kearny lies another monument to 'John (Portugee) Phillips'

 

[Scott Brady]

Awesome trip report and interesting history of the events. There is so much to see and experience within our own borders.

 

[ttora4runner]

The last stop for the day was the Fetterman Monument off of Hwy 87 since it was on my way back to Sheridan. However, that's not the case; if you look in the Wyoming Road and Recreation Atlas it shows Hwy 87 running along-side the monument with monument being a spur road. Well, it seems some time ago that stretch of 87 was gated off and an earthen mound was put in its place so you have back track to 193. If I had to guess the closed of section is probable only a mile long (the length of the trail at the monument).

The view to the east from the monument

The view to the west of the monument

I apologize for all the bird droppings on the preceding photos; there wasn't much around to try and clean the plaques off with and somewhere along the lines I got crossed up so some of the plaques aren't in the proper order.

The last photo of the day; yes I know don't take photo's into the sun.

In all reality I really can't complain that I didn't make it do Devil's Tower as I had originally planned. Just visiting these (4) sites, learning some of the history behind these battles/sites and seeing the surrounding area made the whole trip worth it.

I apologize if some of my directions are off; I'm still getting use to the orientation of the landscape and roadways around here.

 

[ttora4runner]

One of the things that got me was that Carrington was willing to throw the women and children in with the munitions and destory them all. I have to wonder what his mind set was at that time.

 

[NMC_EXP]

One of the things that got me was that Carrington was willing to throw the women and children in with the munitions and destory them all. I have no wonder what his mind set was at that time.

I assume it was that being captured by plains Indians was considered to be a "fate worse than death". An interpretive sign for the Wagon Box Fight stated some of the men had removed shoelaces, this in order to allow them pull the trigger of their (very long) rifle to commit suicide if they were over-run.

Regards

Jim

 

[TangoBlue]

Thanks for capturing this history and sharing it with us. I'm going to have to make it out there one day.

 

[Foy]

The Range Wars

In the same vicinity are the locations of a number of fights between cattlemen and homesteaders, generally referred to as the "Range Wars". One battle in the vicinity of Buffalo, WY was the "Johnson County War". Cattlemen accustomed to grazing their herds on open range took exception to homesteaders fencing off their 40 acre tracts and friction between the parties lead to loads of lynchings and shootings.

Just over the border into the Nebraska Panhandle is Crawford, along US 20. Fort Robinson State Park is on the west side of Crawford, right along US 20. It is a very nicely restored US Army Cavalry post, complete with brick buildings, stables, parade grounds, etc. A very nice public campground is there, too. Just east of Crawford are the town of Chadron and the Nebraska Sandhills. Chadron is home to the Museum of the Fur Trade and the Sandoz High Plains Center. Each museum offers a look at life on the high plains in the 19th century and are great stops. The Sandhills are ripe for some wandering around, too, in that they represent a completely unique landform in the Lower 48 (300-400' tall sand dunes stabilized with grass and pockmarked with thousands of pothole lakes, swamps, and clear running rivers). The Sandhills are all private ranch lands, but I've been told visitors are generally welcomed. Best to pick up a DeLorme Nebraska Gazetteer before setting forth, though.

Foy