Day 75 -- Chadron, Nebraska to Douglas, Wyoming -- 136 Miles

I'm amazed that we got 136 miles today, since we didn't actually start west until 1:30 or so. It's all because we were told yesterday at the Museum of the Fur Trade that if we traveled just 23 miles further west on Route 20 we would reach Fort Robinson where Chief Crazy Horse made his final stand against his blue-coated captors. That sounded too good to pass up, so naturally we made that our first stop this morning, well, actually second since we had to drop by Walmart for a few staples first.

I've never paid a whole lot of attention to the story of Crazy Horse. After all, he was directly responsible for killing everyone's favorite boy soldier, the flamboyant George Armstrong Custer. Of course now that I've read the General's new biography, I know that he was a dead man walking long before Crazy Horse got to him. Why, even before he was able to graduate from West Point the army had been eager to court martial him for conduct unbecoming an officer, dereliction of duty, or something like that.

But back to Crazy Horse. From Wiki I learned that: "Crazy Horse (actual name: 'his horse is crazy') was born around 1842, and died September 5, 1877. He was a Native American war leader of the Oglala/Lakota Sioux. He took up arms against the United States Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and the way of life of the Lakota people, including acting as a decoy in the Fetterman Massacre and leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876."

"Four months after surrendering to U.S. troops under General Crook in May 1877, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet-wielding military guard, while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in the present state of Nebraska. He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Native American tribal members and was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp."

Wiki states further that: "In August 1873, the Red Cloud Agency was moved from the North Platte River to the White River, near what is now Crawford, Nebraska, in the northwest corner of the state. The following March, the U. S. Government authorized the establishment of a military camp at the agency site. Home to some 13,000 Lakota Sioux, some of them hostile, the Agency was a source of tension on the Great Plains."

"The camp was named Camp Robinson in honor of Lt. Levi H. Robinson, who had been killed by Indians while on a wood detail in February. In May, the camp was moved 1.5 miles west of the agency to its present location; the camp was renamed Fort Robinson in January 1878. Fort Robinson played a major role in the Sioux Wars from 1876 to 1890. The Battle of Warbonnet Creek took place nearby in July 1876. Crazy Horse surrendered here with his band on May 6, 1877. On September 5 that year, he was fatally wounded while resisting imprisonment. A historic plaque marks the site of his death."

"In January 1879, Chief Morning Star (also known as Dull Knife) led the Northern Cheyenne in an outbreak from the agency. Because the Cheyenne had refused to return to Indian Territory, where they believed conditions were too adverse for them to survive, the army had been holding them without adequate food, water or heat during the severe winter to try to force them into submission. Soldiers hunted down the escapees, killing men, women, and children in the Fort Robinson massacre. The U.S. Supreme Court called the 'shocking story' 'one of the most melancholy of Indian tragedies.' The event marked the end of the Sioux and Cheyenne Wars in Nebraska."

"In 1885, the 9th Cavalry Regiment, nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers, was stationed at Fort Robinson. This was an all-black unit. During the next several years, the fort was enlarged and military training became a major activity. From 1889-1890, Second Lieutenant Charles Young served here and later was reassigned to the regiment. A black pioneer officer who had graduated from West Point, he was the highest-ranking black in the US Army throughout his career and achieved the rank of colonel. From 1887-1898, the fort served as regimental headquarters. The post gymnasium and theatre, built in 1904, provided entertainment for the soldiers."

"In 1919, at the end of World War I, Fort Robinson became the world's largest quartermaster remount depot. It was used as a breeding and training center for horses and mules for the military. In addition, stallions owned by the military were used to breed with local stock to improve it. In World War II, the fort was the site of a K-9 corps training center. Later it was used to hold a German prisoner-of-war camp."

"The army decided to abandon Fort Robinson in 1947; in the following year, it transferred the property to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), for its Beef Cattle Research Station. In the mid-1950s, efforts were made to preserve the fort as a historic site, prompted by the demolition of buildings. In 1955, the Nebraska State Historical Society began to acquire property on the fort; in 1956, they opened a museum on the site. The fort was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. The USDA closed its operation in 1971, transferring the property to the state of Nebraska."

From the fort's web site we learn that: "There are many ways to spend a day at the fort. First on the agenda should be a ride on the horse drawn tour to get acquainted with this unique park. Enjoy a refreshing Pine Ridge morning on horseback, an open-air Jeep ride among the buttes, or one of the popular nature tours aboard the Fort Robinson Express. When the day warms up, head for the indoor Pool, complete with outdoor wading pool and sun deck."

"Fort Robinson State Park visitors can choose lodging from rooms in the 1909 enlisted men's quarters or "cabins" ranging from sleep 2 to 20 in the former officers quarters that date from 1874 to 1909. All "cabins" have kitchens, baths, living rooms and bedrooms. Cabins are furnished with blankets, towels, stoves, refrigerators, silverware and cooking utensils. Lodging is available from mid-April through mid-November."

"The Lodge double or twin bedrooms; Cabins & Adobes that sleep 4 to 12 people; Brick officers Quarters that sleep 14 to 20 people; Comanche Hall handles 60 people for sleeping, cooking and dining (complete kitchen). The Buffalo Barracks Squad Room sleeps 20 with 20 cots in a large room, full kitchen, great place for youth groups & men or women's retreats. For all accommodations, linens are furnished, and some utensils, dishes and silverware are also provided, except in Lodge Rooms. You may also reserve a picnic shelter for your group or family reunion. Group and meeting facilities include Dodd Hall, Buffalo Soldier Barracks and the Mare Barn Annex. Dodd Hall and the Buffalo Soldier Barracks can seat up to 200 people and the mare Barn Annex seats up to 150 people. Don't forget asking about having the Fort Robinson Restaurant cater your next group or meeting event."

"Fort Robinson State Park's shady campground offers electrical hookup sites plus primitive sites. Conveniently located are modern restrooms, showers, water, dump station, picnic tables and shelters. Fort Robinson offers a nice campground for the horse lovers. Put your horse up for the night in one of the newly remodeled horse barns. With many miles of trails to ride through the beautiful Pine Ridge, this makes a great place to camp and enjoy the outdoors. Fort Robinson campground offers group camping with equestrian facilities. The campground is open year round with electricity. Showers and water will be shut down during the winter months."

Of course, Concetta and I didn't know any of this history when we wandered in the front gate and parked our rig under a nice big tree. We thought we might find a small mock-up of a frontier fort like we've visited so many times on this journey, but what we found was altogether different. As you read above, the fort is so spacious that they recommend wheeled transportation of some sort if you want to see it all. Naturally, we wanted to get our daily steps in so we elected to walk the grounds (we got over 6,000).

Some of our favorite parts of our visit (not counting our lunch under the big cottonwood tree where we parked), was the wheelwright's shop, the enlisted men's barracks, and the combination paleontology/geology museum. We had a nice visit with the ladies who drove the stagecoach (used for tours), and I had a nice chat with the museum bookstore clerk while I was looking for possible research material on western freight hauling.

The wheelwrights' shop, while not manned by any staff or docent, turned out to be very informative, and provided yet another clue to just how those talented men built wooden wagon wheels that were capable of standing up to such continuous abuse as they hauled freight wagons or immigrant wagons from the Missouri River to the far west. Until today, I never really realized how a blacksmith or wheelwright actually bent a wagon tire in a circle so that it could be used to bind a wooden wheel into a tight and reliable whole. The wheelwrights' shop had the actual machine that made bending the heavy steel rims possible. First time I'd ever seen one.

The next building we visited was the enlisted mens' barracks. Though the museum staff had ever so carefully erected glass panels between us and the re-created soldiers' possessions, which made photography less than thrilling, we managed to get a darn good picture of how those guys lived from day to day. In frontier times, soldiers made very little money. Privates only earned about seven dollars, a corporal would earn only ten dollars a month, and sergeants earned thirteen dollars.

We spent the most time in the paleontology/geology museum. There, a young chap named Caleb, an amateur rock collector he told us, worked hard to answer our questions and tell us where to see the best exhibits. The showpiece of the museum's collection was a large archeological dig discovery where two giant Columbian mammoths were found that had gone "head to head" in mortal combat and had managed to fall to earth while still entangled. When they couldn't untangle themselves and get up, they died right where they fell. These giants, found about 13 miles away from where we were standing, had an anomaly about them that had somehow been the cause of the two creatures being locked together, unable to extricate themselves one from the other. Each of the mammoths had only ONE tusk to fight with!

These two ice age creatures lived 10,000 years ago. In the Fort Robinson museum they had displayed parts of the two mammoths just as they were found on the dig, and parts were erected into a single standing creature. Since paleontologists wanted to leave each head exactly as it had been found, the standing mammoth had a head cast from the original skulls which had been left in situ.

Concetta and I spent a bit more time walking the grounds after we'd left the paleontology/geology museum, then retired to the RV for a nice lunch in the shade of our cottonwood tree. Before we left, I dashed about a bit more and snapped a few photos of more of the buildings. I also stopped at the historical society museum to check out their book shop. Then, as the time drifted toward 1:00 p.m., we rolled out of the Fort and onto Route 20 west for our dash to this evening's camp.

Not much to shoot on this leg, though I did stop a couple of times to shoot some interesting longhorn cattle, and an approaching train hauling eighty carloads of coal. Since I'm a pro coal guy, I was just tickled today to pass not one, but FOUR eighty-car trainloads of coal in the hundred miles we drove from Fort Robinson, Nebraska to Douglas, Wyoming. There was a sort of funny incident that occurred while I was standing beside the tracks waiting to shoot the passing diesel-electric locomotives as they labored eastward. Off in the distance I noticed a white pickup truck, obviously belonging to the railroad since it was driving beside the tracks, as it sped toward me in a giant cloud of dust. Before long, the truck lurched to a stop next to me and a twenty-something kid rolled down his window and said, "What are you doing?"

I'm not normally speechless, this time I thought it was so obvious what I was doing as I stood there holding my camera and telephoto lens, that I didn't say anything.

He didn't wait for my response, but said, "Just shooting the water tower?"

"Ah, yeah," I said. "Well, and the locomotives as they go by."

The kid nodded and smiled, probably deciding that I wasn't about to blow anything up. "Well, you really can't be here," he said, struggling to look a little more stern. "The engineer called me and reported you."

"How about if I just shoot this locomotive," I said, gesturing to the big red and yellow unit about to come abreast of us.

The kid nodded, and I swung the camera around just in time to capture my shot. Then he waved, and accelerated away in a cloud of dust.

The moral of the story is, what with current events in America being what they are, you better stand well back from the railroad tracks while you're doing your train spotting.

After that it was clear sailing to Douglas, Wyoming where we pulled into lightly peopled KOA campground, did our set-up, and walked up to the camp store to score an ice cream sandwich (well, at least I did). The camp here is pleasant, the sites are spaced nicely apart, and they have cable TV which makes Concetta happy. Now that we're at an elevation of 4,900 plus feet, the air is slightly cooler than yesterday and we haven't yet turned on the air conditioner.

Tomorrow we're headed west across Wyoming while trying to stay well north of the Interstate 80 corridor where we've traveled so many times in the past. There really isn't a road that runs directly west from Douglas, so we'll probably have to do some meandering of sorts. But it will be nice to see some country we haven't seen before.

So, when you get out there and experience America first hand, we wish you Happy Travels!