Sea to Shining Sea
FALL 2021
“There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Calvary.” George Armstrong Custer
9/26/2021 After a full day yesterday with the Badlands, Wall Drugs and Devil’s Tower, today was just going to be a travel day from Buffalo, Wyoming to Harlowton, Montana. But as usual we find ways to make the simple a little more complicated. We discovered that the Little Bighorn Battleground National Monument was right off the highway, so we stopped to check it out. I’m not a big fan of visiting battlegrounds because of all the lives lost at them. It was very interesting though. It used to be the Custer Battleground and was all from his viewpoint. Now the name has been changed and both sides are represented. There are now markers for cavalry men and natives alike. We heard a great talk by a native ranger. The bottom line is that after the natives won the battle it fired up everyone in Washington to put the natives on reservations. A year after the battle the US military took control of the Black Hills and today the monument sits within the Crow reservation.
When we got to Harlowton (population 1,170) we spoke to the owner of the motel and he suggested a dirt road outside of town for possible animal sightings. So off we went.
The first critter we spotted was a Sharp-tailed Grouse. It was pretty neat since it was a bird we’ve never seen before. They aren’t all that common.
All during our drive today we saw antelopes off in the distance, grazing on the prarie grass. We spotted some off the dirt road that were a little closer.
With this unfortunate target-like fur pattern I’m guessing Antelope get shot in the ass a lot.
Tomorrow we’ll probably go back out on the dirt road in the morning before heading off to Browning, Montana on the outskirts of Glacier National Park.