Next, I drove back into Wyoming.
The "Massacre Hill" Monument (Fetterman Battlefield)
is east of Story, and north of Kearny, Wyoming.

The entry from my book for December 21, 1866: "Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Yellow Eagle, High Back Bone, and their followers had been harassing Colonel Henry Carrington’s Second Cavalry and Twenty-Seventh Infantry troops from Fort Phil Kearny in northern Wyoming. They staged several raids and ambushes along the road from the fort to the nearby woods. Captain William J. Fetterman had once said, "A company of regulars could whip a thousand, and a regiment could whip the whole array of hostile tribes." A convoy of wagons carrying wood left the fort. It was attacked by a decoy group of Indians. Following up on his claim that he "could ride through the Sioux Nation" with just eighty men, Fetterman pursued the decoying Indians away from the fort. The Indians’ trap was sprung. Fetterman’s entire force of three officers, forty-seven infantry, twenty-seven cavalry, and two civilians were killed in the fighting. The soldiers called this the 'Fetterman Massacre.' The Indians called it the 'Battle of the Hundred Killed."

Click here to see an excellent website about this battle

This a detailed look at the original marker at the "Fetterman Massacre" park.
It is now called the Fetterman Battlefield. The new interpretive signs now also offer an excellent look at the battle from the Indians' point of view. The last line on the original monument says, "There Were No Survivors." The new signs says that, of course, most of the Indians survived.

Looking north from the monument.

Someone placed metal outlines on the slopes southwest of the battlefield. It gave you an interesting perspective on what things might have looked like.

Another metal cut out.

One of the many, very informative, interpretive signs throughout the battlefield.

All of the signs here, at the Wagon Box Fight, and the Crazy Woman Creek fight were all done by the well-informed people at Fort Phil Kearny.

The picture on the left is Captain Fetterman. You saw his grave at the Little Bighorn Cemetery on the previous page.

You will note there is no face on Crazy Horse's picture. While there are four different pictures which claim to be of Crazy Horse, there is no general consensus among historians that any actual picture of him truly exists.

Click here to see a website that shows one of these pictures that some say is Crazy Horse.

The Bozeman Trail
(which was built despite a treaty prohibiting it) runs through the middle of the battlefield.

They do not show very well in this picture, the ruts run immediately to the left of the small sign.

One of the many signs which describe the battle from the Indians' point of view.

The area described in the sign above...

A relief map on display at Fort Phil Kearny. It shows the topography and the sites of the Wagon Box and Fetterman fights, as well as the fort.

Looking south-southwest from Fort Phil Kearny...

Looking west from the same place...

One of the many Pronghorn Antelopes I saw in the area.

...and away they go...