Little Bighorn Battlefield

Every time I visit an historical site and see with my own eyes where history was made and listen while details of the event are explained my viewpoint takes on a whole new perspective. I guess that is the way it should be...books can only do so much in revealing details that involved real people doing real, and often times dangerous, things. Such was the case this morning when we visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Since I was a child I have heard the story of Custer's Last Stand....not that I really understood what actually happened, but like so many others I formed an opinion. Today that opinion took real shape as we relived the events of June 25th and 26th, 1876. As it turns out the battle that took the lives of Lt. Col. George Custer and all of his men was just a part of a much larger skirmish that could have resulted in the loss of many more lives had it not been for...just like in the movies...the arrival of the Cavalry. The pictures included here show the memorial on Last Stand Hill where Custer actually fought his last battle. The bodies of many of those killed are buried under the memorial which probably marks the spot where Custer himself was killed. The other pictures include a part of the memorial to the Indians who died defending their way of life and the last picture is taken from the location of the last fallback position of the remaining forces just before help arrived. The trees in the distance was the location of the Indian villages that were attacked...and where the army badly underestimated the number of warriors encamped along the Little Bighorn River. The rest...as the say...is history. Try and visit someday and I know you will be as impressed as we were. Tomorrow, we are off to Mt. Rushmore.