There’s a Lot to Enjoy Early on a Beautiful Morning

Monday August 9, 2014
Red cloud Campground
Fort Robinson State Park
Nebraska

 

 

 

 

I was up with the sunrise this morning and walked over to the Crazy Horse site to see the stone in the daylight and pay my last respects. It was a beautiful quiet morning.  I was the only person around and the stillness as the sun came over the buttes was very moving.  The flowers put by someone else were a little less bright hours after picking but the grasses and sage looked lovely I thought. 

If you have not read my last post about the Fort’s part in the Cheyenne Outbreak and Custer’s Death, you can find it here.  I must admit that I was very surprised at the lack of response to that post.  It was probably the hardest I’ve ever done and one of the most personal.  I knew almost nothing, before coming here, about this important part of our Nation’s past and what I learned was very powerful at least for me.

 

 

 

 

 

As I walked back Winnona looked perfect in front of the buttes and the pink sky.  I took this picture zoomed up from a distance as I came toward her.  From the patio, the view of the buttes shows more clearly how far they are from her.

 

 

 

David was up and we took Ruby out on the road to see if we could find any of the wildlife and semi-wildlife out doing some cool of the morning grazing.

We were in luck with both.  The park has a small herd of Long Horn cattle as part of its history as a USDA research site.   They looked great in the tall grass.  There were horses grazing near them as well as pronghorn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove on along the park road following the route of the Cheyenne who escaped from the fort on January 9, 1879. Two historical markers along the way tell the story.  The first is an excellent summary of the Outbreak

 

 

The second is about the fighting in the buttes and tells us they climbed the buttes to the south of the fort and fled through this area pursued by cavalrymen. Soldiers and Cheyennes fought sharp engagements west of here on January 11 and 13.  I think about how cold it must have been, how much snow there might have been.  The pursuit continued to near the Wyoming border until the Cheyenne turned northeast.  On January 22 the survivors reached Antelope Creek.  In a final charge by the soldiers, the last thirty-two Cheyenne were killed or captured.

 

 

 

On a cheerier note, further down the road we come across this picturesque windmill.  We have seen many of these located in Nebraska as we have driven through.  We aren’t sure if they are abandoned or still in use perhaps to fill stock tanks or ponds.

 

 

 

 

On another bright note, we also found a tribute to the Boy Scouts who replanted 350,000 trees to reforest the pine ridge areas of Fort Robinson State Park after a devastating lightning fire on July 8 of 1989 burned 48,000 acres.   You would never know now that there had been a fire.  The pines those boys planted are big trees and we read that many of the “boys” have returned over the 25 years to see the glory of their efforts.

Notice how tall the vegetation is and rich with grasses, trees and wildflowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning is definitely the time for wildlife.  As we return to the fort, off to our left we see a herd of pronghorn and a herd of bison graving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short way further down the road a bit further in the distance we see more bison and what we initially think are more pronghorn although they don’t look quite right.  Closer inspection proves this to be a pack of burros busily grazing away.   How we love burros!  Fred and Ginger’s family.  What a wonderful morning surprise!!

 

 

They look like buddies the bison and the burros.

 

 

We head back to the 1909 Barracks for some breakfast chow.  There are lots of interesting pictures and other artifacts hanging on the wall including this bison made of buffalo head nickels.  Even the border around the dining room walls is interesting.

It’s a mighty hardy breakfast they provide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before returning to Winnona to pack up and leave Fort Robinson we stop by the Nebraska History Museum and Landmark bookstore.  It’s one of the best bookstores I’ve been in and I was so busy looking at all the books and trying to cut down the number I wanted to buy that I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the store. 

The building is the original Post Headquarters.  It has the two teepees  on the parade grounds side as well as the monuments to Lt Robinson and Crazy Horse.  The street side is the entrance to the bookstore and museum.

 

 

 

In the museum we find wonderful artifacts of the Native Americans and the history of the fort in artifacts and pictures.  The bead work is beautiful.  There are photographs of the Red Cloud Agency.  It puts a face on the place we visited last night.   There is also a photograph of the 9th Cavalry of Buffalo Soldiers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum is on two floors of the post building and is very complete.  This is such a small sampling of what you can see.  I have not included any of the information or artifacts about the fort over the years.  For those interested in military history this is an excellent place to visit.

 

One of the most powerful things about the museum was at the very beginning and I did not take a picture of the semi dark hallway lined with pictures at the end of which in the bright light was the Native headdress seen above.  I am very sorry for that.  The curator of the museum deserves an accolade for this placement.

One of the most difficult problems about doing a post on a place I have left is that I sometimes find a picture I did not take that I wish I had.  If I were still there I would absolutely go back for this picture.

If you have been following along on our summer escapades you may remember that in one post on the Native American Pow Wow at Red Cliff in Wisconsin I did a number of close ups of the dancers and other tribal members.  Many comments said they really enjoyed those pictures so I’ll close this post with the faces seen in this hallway on my way into the museum.  In most of these photographs the person’s name is on the bottom of the picture.  These are the faces of the people to whom the events at Fort Robinson happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check in time at the Red Tail campground was 4:00 and check out is 2:00 so we have been able to spend the entire morning here because our drive for today is only another 80 miles south to Scott’s Bluff National Monument.