Peaceful barn scene on Little Piney Creek, about a mile from Fort Phil Kearny Historical Site in Wyoming. The Fetterman ‘Massacre’ battlefield and the bloody Bozeman Trail are also about two miles east of this photo.
On Little Piney Creek in July, 1866, about a mile east of this photo, isolated and poorly supported soldiers arrived and began building the fort, which was intended to protect settlers traveling to gold fields in Montana along the newly created Bozeman Trail.
The new fort and trail were in the middle of the last, best hunting grounds of the Plains Indians and were clear violations of a treaty barely 15 years old. The great Oglala leader Red Cloud vowed to destroy the new fort, commencing ‘Red Cloud’s War’, the only war that Native Americans ever won against the U.S. government.
Wood for the huge, 17-acre fort, the largest wooden fort ever built in the western United States, was gathered about four miles west of this photo. Almost daily, warriors skirmished with soldiers as workers harvested trees and returned to the fort on a trail about a mile behind this photo.
In December, Red Cloud and his coalition of tribes developed a plan to strike a decisive blow against the invaders. During a seemingly routine attack on the lumber team, Crazy Horse lured pursuing infantry and cavalry, led by Captain Fetterman, over a ridge about two miles east of this photo, where at least 800 warriors waiting in ambush annihilated all 81 soldiers. It was the largest defeat of the U.S. Army in Indian wars until The Little Big Horn ten years later.
After the Fetterman Fight, the U.S. government negotiated a new treaty with Red Cloud, recognizing that the area belonged exclusively to the Indians. The Indians burnt the abandoned fort to the ground. The tribes largely had a reprieve from incursions into the area until gold was discovered in The Black Hills about ten years later.
I had planned on taking more photos in the area, but the weather was terrible, so I’ll have to come back sometime. The trip to the fort historical site, though, was the highlight of my two-week trip.
Tags: on1pics jchoate barn cloudy overcast creek stream Little Piney Creek Wyoming rural farm ranch fence Fetterman Fight Fetterman Massacre Bozeman Trail historic Indian Wars Red Cloud Crazy Horse Fort Phil Kearny red barn Red Cloud's War
Abandoned house, car and water tower in Quinn, South Dakota, population 63 at the edge of The Badlands.
Car identified as a 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air by Rick Gulden.
Tags: jchoate on1pics small town watertower abandoned abandoned house Quinn, South Dakota abandoned car decay once was home
Abandoned school house and flock of blackbirds on a very foggy morning near Onida South Dakota in Sully County.
Tags: jchoate on1pics abandoned school school house rural decay fog rainy bad weather gloomy overcast weathered wood Onida Sully County South Dakota minimalism monochrome Black and White flock birds d850
Red metal wall of an abandoned auction house in Edgemont, South Dakota, population 725.
Stopped in town for lunch and had delicious BBQ at The New Hat Creek Grill. Edgemont is full of great small town decay scenes. Would like to shoot here again.
Tags: jchoate abandoned wall metal metal wall small town window decay rural decay small town decay Edgemont, SD RX100 South Dakota red on1pics
Old Church and Casino sign on the Crow Agency just outside of Little Big Horn National Monument.
Not sure this church is still used. It doesn't have a name on Google Maps.
Tags: jchoate church decay casino crow agency montana on1pics Indian Reservation