Serene Wandering

On the first day of re-retirement, our plan was to travel 300 miles to Devils Tower in northeast Wyoming. It would be a long driving day but we hoped to get there mid-afternoon and still be able to see the tower and visitor center.

Well, it didn’t quite go as we had planned…

We fought our GPS repeatedly as it wanted to send us on shorter routes through the Crow and Cheyenne Reservations. Having lived on the “rez” for a month, we believed the longer I-90 route would be more likely to have diesel fuel and better roads.

We made it to Wyoming and, as we approached the town of Buffalo, the warning alarm sounded on our Tire Pressure Monitoring System.

The TPMS measures and continuously updates the temperature and air pressure on all eight truck and trailer tires. We had an issue  with the driver’s side back trailer tire. The tire pressure usually measures 80 – 95 psi. The alarm sounded when the pressure reduced to 75 psi.  In the few minutes it took to get off the freeway and find a place to stop, the pressure was down to 21 psi on that tire. It was flat!

Randy decided he needed to change to the spare tire. Fortunately our auto-leveling jacks make that job easier than it would have been with a typical jack.

While he was changing the tire, I searched for a tire store that had room for all 65 feet of us. Thank you Big Horn Tire for having room and making time for us right away.

We are now the proud owners of two new Maxxis tires. Our Goodyear tires on the back were only 16 months old (and four of those were sitting still) yet the steel bands were separating.  We had multiple leaks in one tire and bulging in the other. There is still a second set of Goodyears on the trailer that are about 9 months old. We’ll see…..You can’t mess with tires in this lifestyle.

Even though having a tire problem isn’t a good thing, we were blessed in how it happened. We are thankful that we had the monitoring system to alert us before we had a damaging, dangerous incident. We were also happy that we had opted to go on I-90 and that the tire held until we were approaching Buffalo.

After a few more arguments with the GPS, we made it to Devils Tower KOA.  This is one of the nicest KOAs we have ever stayed in with a wonderful view of the tower.  Deer and turkeys roam the grounds.

Another perk is the nightly showings of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) which was set at Devils Tower. We were bummed they had discontinued the showings for the season but really happy when they gave us a DVD to watch inside our nice warm trailer instead!

When we woke, having spent the night in Wyoming, we added a sticker to our map!   It is looking a little better.  (Next week – Colorado.)

It stormed this morning but we were able to go to Devils Tower, walk the 1.3 mile paved trail, and go to the visitor’s center. Here are some Devils Tower Tidbits:

Devils Tower was the very first US National Monument, designated in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. It was the very first use of The Antiquities Act, authorized that same year.

The apostrophe in what should be Devil’s Tower was inadvertently left out due to a clerical error and never corrected. Thus, Devils Tower is the correct spelling.

Twenty tribes view this igneous rock as a sacred site and oppose the name Devils Tower.  As most tribal names reference a bear, there has been some effort to rename the monument Bear Lodge but it has not gained traction.

The formation of the tower looks like claw marks from a distance. Actually they are symmetrical columns, some of the longest (up to 600 feet) and widest (up to 20 feet) in the world. They are 4, 5, 6 and 7 sided.   Six sided columns are thought to be the strongest in nature.

Columns are gradually made vulnerable by water and ice, lichen and roots. Although there is a boulder field around the tower, there has not been a column collapse since monitoring began in 1906.

The top of the tower is rounded, grassy and about the size of a football field. In 1941, George Hopkins parachuted onto the top. He had to wait six days before mountain climbers were able to help him down.  He failed to have an exit strategy!

In 1893 William Rogers and Willard Ripley were the first to climb the tower. They constructed a 350 ft. wooden ladder and hammered stakes into a crack to aid their ascent. Two years later, Linnie Rogers followed her husband’s climbing achievement with her own. As many as 200 people eventually used the ladder, parts of which are still visible.

Climbers now ascend Devils Tower with the support of the National Park Service. Climbing is suspended during June in consideration of the sacred nature of the site to many native peoples.

Given its sacred past, Devils Tower was chosen as an International Peace Project Site by Japanese Artist Junkyu Moto in 2008. (The other two sites are Vatican City, Rome and Bodh Gaya, India, where the Buddha reached enlightenment.) His sculpture here is called the Circle of Sacred Smoke.

Even though we had a devil of a time getting here, we are glad we came to Devils Tower.  It was a joy to be on the move again, exploring new places and learning new things. Randy said several times today that he loves feeling retired again!

We are here at our last days in Montana and Chief Plenty Coups State Park. We have learned so much during our month here:  about the Chief, about the Crow, about Indian War battles and about ourselves – including Elko!

Today we spent the morning at the final stop on the to-do list – the Western Heritage Center in Billings.   We saw beautiful Indian (Shoshone, Cheyenne and Crow) beadwork and different ways they used animal skins for clothing, accessories and home needs.

We also saw this Crow Elk Tooth Dress. Only an elk’s two upper incisors are used in these dresses and the number of teeth shows  how many elk a hunter has killed and processed.  A wife would wear this dress with pride as it was  symbolic of her  warrior husband’s status. We have seen women wear these dresses during the two pow-wows held at our park.

A few weeks ago we went to the Little Big Horn Battlefield and learned about General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry’s battle with the Sioux and Cheyenne. Yesterday we went on a field trip to a related battlefield for an end of the season  jaunt with our co-worker friends.

We went to Rosebud Battlefield State Park with Americorp volunteer – Casey, Park Manager – Chris, (Randy), Maintenance lead – Tyler, and maintenance worker – Judy (pictured later).    Randy and I hadn’t known about the  The Battle of the Rosebud prior to our visit to Little Big Horn.   We learned there that General Crook and General Custer were leading different parts of the same effort,  trying to trap Indians and return them to reservations by force.

General Crook and about 1000 soldiers and 276 Crow and Shoshone scouts, camped on Rosebud creek. They had expected to find the Cheyenne and Lakota (Sioux) camps. The Lakota were led by Oglala warrior Crazy Horse.

Although the soldiers did not find the Indians, an estimated 1200 Indians found them.  A bitter battle ensued for much of the day on June 17, 1876

Indians call this battlefield  “Where the Girl Saved Her Brother.”  A Cheyenne warrior’s horse was shot out from under him and he, vulnerable on foot, was rescued  by his sister.   She galloped to her brother’s place on the battlefield,  he jumped on the back of her horse, and they both escaped.

Estimates have death tolls at 9-16 men within Crook’s contingent and 26 Indians.  It was said that huge amounts of bullets were used that day so the death toll seems, mercifully, light. Oddly enough, it is believed that the battle ended when the Indians got hungry and left the battlefield.   They were done for the day but over the next week the Indians moved north to the Little Bighorn area, ballooning  the number that would face General Custer.

General Crook took his troops back to Fort Sheridan, Wyoming to restock and regroup.  As a result,  they were not available to reinforce General Custer at Little Big Horn eight days later.

We TOTALLY lucked out in that while we were having our “field trip”,  there were (approved) archeologists  surveying the battlefield at the same time!   A fire went through this area a couple years ago and it revealed much about the 10 mile battlefield.  That has re-energized archeological focus.

The afternoon we were there, a mere 139 years later,  the archeologists, found 5 bullets from the battle using metal detectors.  . The archeologists were able to identify the bullets and what types of gun they would have been shot from. They were happy to talk to us and show us what they had found.  Unfortunately I had nothing to write with, and my brain just doesn’t comprehend gun and bullet information, so my retelling is very basic.

This first bullet could have been fired by anyone, cavalry, scouts or Indians. The rifles using these bullets were surplus from the Civil War and everyone had them.

This second bullet is known to have been fired by a Cavalry soldier, given the rifle that used it. The archeologist told us that, after 6-8 firings, the rifles of the day would be so dirty with powder that their accuracy was greatly reduced. Perhaps that explains the seemingly low numbers of casualties in this battle.  As an aside, battlefield archeologists and forencics have been able to trace the same gun to three different battles based on bullet striations.

As we were leaving the battlefield, with Judy in the lead, we passed next to a sandstone rock formation with pictures and names carved upon it, many old and some, unfortunately, more current.

With directions as to where to look, we were able to find the name G.CROOK and the date 1876 carved in the rock. The carving in the picture is quite faint but it is distinguishable in direct viewing. Only the R and the 8 have worn to the point that you have to assume them.

We even learned something about Elko at the Rosebud Battlefield State Park.  Tyler, pictured above with the archeologists (on the left) watched Elko run his nose along the barbed wire fence (presumably to determine if their was a barb) before he crouched and crawled under the fence.   Obviously he didn’t learn that in our backyard in Boise!  We have always suspected he had been a ranch dog in his former life (because he showed us years ago that he can herd cows) and that seems further confirmation.   He is such a smart boy!

We have learned so much in this place – and we love that!

Additionally, Randy has also been able to share some learning.   Casey, the current Americorp volunteer, lives in a trailer supplied here at the park.  Although the water heater appeared to work well, the water in the sink and shower never got above lukewarm.  This has been a problem for years….  Recognizing that Randy would be the expert on all things RV, Casey asked him about it and he figured out the problem in moments.   His work task tomorrow – our final day, will be to write a brief manual for the operation and winterizing of this trailer.

Today, after one more trip into Billings for groceries, we are wrapping things up.   As I write our last Montana blog, Randy is cleaning our truck in preparation for departing.  Clean is good as we will be spending more time in the truck going forward than we have in the last few months.

These last months have taught us things about ourselves and about what we want going forward with our volunteer “career.” We have enjoyed each of the three places we have volunteered this summer and have valued each in different ways and for different reasons. Even so, volunteering for four of five months, over three different states, is more than we will do again.  We also now know that we want our future volunteer service to be less structured  – not specifically  tasked with scheduled hours.   That is  good to know because my dream volunteer job had been to be a lighthouse docent on the Oregon coast.   I don’t think so anymore.

We have absolutely no regrets about how we’ve spent this season. We are blessed to have the opportunity to live and learn – even about ourselves.

We are getting ready to move again and my people are ready. We have been volunteering for four of the last five months and even though they liked it, they are ready to be on their own schedule again.

As for me, Elko, big black dog – I like this place. In fact, of all the 66 places we’ve been since we left my house and backyard – this is the place I like best. I don’t care about the Chief, but I like the park and all the grass. I get to chase my ball and it takes a long time to walk around all the grass.  I hardly ever have to be on a leash. There are only a few of us that live in the park so once the gates are closed (It use to be 8:00 pm, but now it is 5:00) it is all ours.

I’m the only dog living in the park. There are two dogs next door that bark sometimes but I don’t pay any attention to them. My dad says they must speak Crow.  We are surrounded by the reservation, so we see dogs coming through the park sometimes, but I’m the only one that should be here.

One night my mom took me out before bed and there was something scary out there. I growled and my hair stood up – and then my mom made me go inside. I don’t know for sure if it was a mountain lion, or a bear, or a coyote (or ?) because I’ve never seen any of those things up close, but it could have been any of them and I was spooked. I was still spooked the next night too!

There are always interesting smells when we go out in the mornings. I know there have been other animals in my big yard!  Sometimes I even go out by myself here and that is different since Mom always goes out with me everywhere else.

Sometimes my mom and I get up early when it is still dark and we like to watch the sunrise over the Chief’s House and the tipi. One day mom got some great pictures! These are for real because mom doesn’t know how to photo-shop.  We made dad get up to see that sunrise because it was pretty special.

5:38 am

5:44 am

5:45 am

5:47 am

I know why the Crow people always had their tipi openings facing east – so they could see the great sunrises too.

My people have worked a lot here. Mom is always in the visitor center museum so she leaves our trailer at 10:00,  comes home for lunch and then goes back. Mom gets home about 5:00. I never get to go to work with her.

My dad works about the same hours but he does better things. He drives the tractor and the lawn mowers and plays with this huge sprinkler called the Big Squirt.

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Sometimes I get to go to work with him if he is doing something in the shop or picking up trash.

I have to spend time in the trailer here while they are at work and that isn’t so fun.  The great part is that since we live so far away, they never leave me after work to go anywhere. Even on days off, everything is so far away, that I almost always get to go!

We are surrounded by the Crow Indian Reservation and in a town called Pryor. Our park is the nicest place in the whole town. A lot of people from town come here to have a picnic, or fish in the creek, or play on the playground. Everyday people bring jugs and get water from one of the faucets because they don’t have water at their houses.   Pryor is a small town that has houses, schools, a Crow Baptist church, a community center and a post office. It has a gas station but it doesn’t sell the kind my dad needs in his truck. There isn’t even a grocery store so we always have to go in to Billings on our days off to get food.

Pryor is the name of the town, the creek, the mountains and the valley. They were all named after Sgt. Pryor. He was part of the Corps of Discovery with Lewis and Clark. When Lewis and Clark split up and went different ways by boat, Sgt. Pryor was in charge of the horses. He and his men were suppose to take the horses to the Mandan Villages.  Only two days later the Crow Indians took all the horses from Sgt. Pryor.  The Crow Indians didn’t even meet Lewis, Clark or Sgt. Pryor. They just took their horses.  It was a way to count coup in the Crow way of life.

Sgt. Pryor and his men had to build some boats made of buffalo skins to travel. They caught up with William Clark 400 miles downstream.

When we leave we aren’t going to go by boat, or go 400 miles.  When we leave this cool place that I like a lot,  we are going to a place called Devils Tower in Wyoming.  We are going to wander around Wyoming for a week and then go to Fort Collins, Colorado for a Boise State football game.  I’m pretty sure I am going to have to stay in the trailer while they go to the football game….    Elko

We had friends come to visit! We love it when that happens. Mark and Teri left Farragut and routed through Billings to see us. Thank you Mark and Teri!
They drove out to see us and our park.

Randy and Mark played disc golf both days and were too busy having fun to take any pictures. They replayed the two courses Randy had already played – one being Diamond X – a national destination course. With Mark’s pointers and encouragement, Randy is having fun and becoming quite interested in disc golf. I am really bad at throwing frisbees, but I might try.

Teri and I went on a tour of the Moss Mansion in Billings. It was built in 1903 at a cost of $100,000 – back when houses cost about $3000. It was quite lovely but one thing that puzzled me was that there were four or five washrooms adjacent to bedrooms, but only two had toilets. If you are going all out (and they did) why only two toilets? They also had a telephone in the Moss Mansion 2 years before phones were available in New York City.  Definitely worth the stop and tour if you like this kind of thing – and I do.

Of course, going out to eat was on the agenda. We went to the Burger Dive which won the National Red Robin Burger Bash in 2014 for their Black Sabbath Burger.

Mark, Randy and I all had the winning burger and we approved. Red Robin served this burger on their special menu for a time – maybe still does.

Mark and Teri are staying at the Billings KOA – the very first KOA campground established in 1962. We wouldn’t have known that if we hadn’t gone to see them.

We said our goodbyes this afternoon. Tomorrow they take off on their journey and we go back to work for one final stretch.  We will be taking off on our journey soon.

We have spent the last month in a park that was the homesite of Chief Plenty Coups, the last principal chief of the Apsaalooke or Crow Tribe. The opportunity to learn about Chief Plenty Coups was a large part of why we were interested in volunteering at this remote Montana park on the Crow Reservation.

Given how loved and revered Chief Plenty Coups was and is to the Crow people, I feel inadequate to condense his life into a brief story, but with humility, I will try.

Alaxchiiaahush, later named Plenty Coups, was believed to have been born in 1848. As a young boy he went on a vision quest into the sacred mountains, going for days without food, water, clothing or shelter. Although not all boys receive a vision on their quest, he did.

Plenty Coups saw a forest of trees destroyed by a fierce storm. A lone tree left standing was the lodge of the chickadee. Although small and insignificant, the chickadee learned from the mistakes of others. In his vision he also saw that all buffalo were gone from the plains and were replaced by other animals, some spotted, resting in small bands, and which bellowed differently from buffalo.  He also saw a lodge of babies but was told not to go inside. His vision also showed him an old and feeble man sitting alone by a house.

Upon returning to camp, the wise men of the tribe interpreted his vision. The dream was a warning. It meant that white men would take over the country and the tribes who fought the white man would be beaten. By listening and learning, as the Chickadee does, the Crow would be as the one lodge remaining, pitched in safety and cooperation with the white man. In this way they would keep their country. The buffalo would be gone and the white man’s spotted-buffalo would cover the plains.   Plenty Coups would live to be old and be known for his deeds. He would learn to live in a different way and would be chief, yet he would have no children.

Did his vision come to pass?

As a young man, Plenty Coups enjoyed the nomadic life of the tribe, hunting and learning to be a warrior. Their lands encompassed plains, high mountains, and rivers great and small. It provided a wealth of food including their primary sustenance for many needs, the buffalo. Their lands often needed defending against surrounding tribes, principally the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoes.

Important in tribal life was being brave and strong and proving oneself. To be able to marry (before age 25) one must “count coup.” There were four major coups, or war honors to be achieved: 1) Be the first to touch or strike the enemy. 2) Take a weapon away from the enemy. 3) Take a horse, or horses from an enemy camp. 4) Lead a successful war party.

To be considered as a potential chief, one must be able to count all four coups. Chief Plenty Coups became a chief when he was near 25 years old and continued to count coup many times over for years. Thus, his name – Plenty Coups.

The Crow never fought against the white man, instead choosing to fight with him against their traditional enemies. Plenty Coup and other Crow scouts and warriors fought with General Crooke at Rosebud Battlefield and still others with General Custer at Little Big Horn. Despite these specific losses by the white man’s army, the vision of defeat of the Indians across the plains was coming to pass.

The plains buffalo herd, estimated to be 30-60 million strong, once had taken men days to ride from one end to the other. It was thought to be 20 miles in width and 60 miles in length.  With western expansion, the buffalo herd was diminished and the plains Indians struggled to maintain their way of life. Recognizing the importance of the buffalo, General William Tecumseh Sherman and others, approved the slaughter of buffalo as a way of conquering the tribes.

By the mid 1880s, and after near extinction, it was through the work of just a few, notably MaryAnn and Charles Goodnight and former hunter Buffalo Jones, that remnant herds remained.

The vision of the disappearance of the buffalo and the appearance of white men’s cows also come to pass.

The US government’s policy toward Indian peoples was to isolate them on reservations and force them to adopt white ways. Specifically, children were often required to attend white-run schools and adults were forced to adopt an agricultural sedentary lifestyle. To that end, in 1885 the government built a house for Chief Plenty Coups. If the chief was seen to occupy a Euro-American house, it was thought that others on the reservation would be more likely to adopt this way of life.

The Chief still chose to live in a traditional lodge, next to his house, in the summer months.

With Chief Plenty Coups guidance, the Crow were able to negotiate the white man’s world with some success. Instead of being totally displaced, their initial reservation (33 million acres, reduced to just over 4 million acres in 1851) remained at the heart of their previous nomadic lands.

Chief Plenty Coups, and other tribal elders, made several trips to Washington DC from 1880 – 1921 to negotiate the reduction in reservation size (down to 3 million ares in 1891) and to resist the intent to open it to non-Indian settlers.

In 1921, Chief Plenty Coups, widely known for promoting goodwill between Indians and whites, represented all Indian Nations at the burial of the Unknown Soldier. He placed his headdress and two coups sticks to honor the fallen warrior. These are still on display at Arlington National Cemetery.

Replicas on display here at the museum.

On one of his many trips east , Chief Plenty Coups visited Mount Vernon, the home of the First White Chief, George Washington, and noticed that “no man spoke harshly of his life or deeds.” Plenty Coups determined to dedicate his own version of Mount Vernon in Montana which would be a monument to the Crow People and to its cooperative use by Indians and white men. He and his wife bequeathed their home and lands in 1928. His vision is realized in Chief Plenty Coups State Park.

In the park there is a Visitor center and museum, a Lifeway walk, a sacred spring and Chief Plenty Coups house. He lived in the house until he died in 1932 at age 84. When his wife Kills Together died, he followed custom and married her sister, Strikes the Iron. As in his vision, he was the  old and feeble man at the house.

He is buried on the grounds with his two wives and one adopted daughter. As in his vision, Chief Plenty Coups had no natural children. The Crow people were his children.

Day #1

We had been told by local people  that the Beartooth Pass All American Road may close for the winter at any time so that was our destination for our first day off in Week 3.   At the beginning of our journey we drove the 15 mile gravel road (that we avoided last week) and found it was tolerable. The reservation half was rough but the Montana section was fine.

We went south towards Red Lodge, Montana.  Red Lodge is a tourist town that had been recommended numerous times and was on our route to Beartooth Byway.  Once we got there we decided to keep going as the weather was turning questionable.

Along the way we came to the Smith Mine Disaster site, listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Seventy four miners died at the Smith Coal Mine due to an explosion and methane gas poisoning in 1943. The exact cause is unknown but back then miners were allowed to smoke in the mine. Just thinking….. Only 3 people survived in what remains Montana’s worst mining disaster.

The Beartooth Scenic Byway extends 55 miles from Red Lodge, Montana over Beartooth Pass, into Wyoming and back into Montana at Cooke City near the north east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Charles Kuralt once called it the most beautiful highway in America.

We did not see it at its best as it was overcast and rainy, but it was still impressive!

There were some nice scenic viewpoint stops along the way.

The route across the Beartooth mountains was first accomplished by white men in 1881 by Civil War General Philip Sheridan and 124 men returning from Yellowstone. The road still utilizes much of that original route. It is an exciting series of switchbacks that climb to an elevation of 10,947 feet.

When we got to the top we couldn’t see anything! We were in the clouds.

Our GPS had a slightly different elevation – 10,974.

As we came down the other side we could see again and journeyed on to Cooke City, Montana for lunch. Cooke City claims status as the “Coolest Small Town in America.”

We decided to take a different route on our return  so no Red Lodge visit on this trip. The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway goes back into Wyoming towards Cody.

This area has many historic stops referencing Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce’ attempts to escape the revitalized Seventh Calvary in 1877.

“As a band of the Nez Perce had outfought and outmaneuvered the US Calvary in the fall of 1877, the newspapers picked up the drama…..The majority of public sentiment was blatantly against the army in this David and Goliath war…… The Seventh Calvary was all but wiped out a year earlier at the Battle of Little Bighorn and was anxious for redemption…..The campaign became a personal crusade for the military officers.”   Quotes are from roadside placards.

The views were spectacular along the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway!

We have had issues with our GPS several times here in the wilds of Montana and the return trip back to the park was no exception. We were directed into the little town of Belfry and instructed to go 11 miles down a road that was clearly marked “dead end.”  We decided not to follow that direction and as we were turning around and rolling our eyes (again), we noticed the sign for the Belfry Elementary School – Home of the Bats! Thank you for the chuckle GPS.

Day #2

Changing directions, we traveled north-east to Pompey’s Pillar, a National Historic Monument 25 miles east of Billings. We found one of the best visitor centers we have ever been to and we were even allowed to let Elko walk on the grounds!

Randy, the engineer, trying to figure out how corners of log cabins are put together.

In 1801, most Americans lived within 50 miles of the east coast. Two years later the Louisiana Purchase doubled our country’s lands and Thomas Jefferson was interested in exploring west. He sent Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery out in 1804.

The Corps of Discovery was on the homeward side of their two year journey when  Lewis and Clark  split up in early July 1806 near present day Missoula. They were to explore different regions and join again near present day Williston, North Dakota.

William Clark and his group stopped at this location on July 25, 1806.

Seeing this sandstone rock, Clark named it “Pompy’s Tower” after Sacagawea’s son Jean Baptiste. Clark had given the boy the nickname “Pomp” meaning Little Chief in Shoshoni. It was later renamed Pompey’s Pillar.

Sacagawea and “Pomp”

Noting Indian petroglyphs in the rock, William Clark wrote his name and date in the rock. It is the ONLY physical evidence of their journey along the entire route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Of course there is much evidence of their journey in journals, oral histories, and maps. Additionally,  Lewis and Clark sent 178 plant samples and 122 animal specimens back to Thomas Jefferson.   It was interesting to learn that there were only two species that survived the journey back east – the magpie and prairie dog!  Why is that not a surprise?

William Clark and his group journeyed along the “Rochejhone” River in dug out canoes lashed together.

“Roche jaune” literally translates from French as “rock yellow”  or Yellowstone.  Elko didn’t swim (our lab doesn’t swim) in the Yellowstone River but he did get a drink.

Montana Days off – Week Four – Friends are coming!

You didn’t miss the blog post “Montana Days Off – Week 1” – It didn’t exist!  We worked our last 5 days at Farragut, had two long driving days to get here and then worked the first 6 days here. Whew! We thought we were retired….. It was really nice to have some days off!

Day Off #1 –
First stop – Pictograph Cave State Park. The cave is in an area along the Yellowstone River where many peoples have traveled over time.

The cave was excavated in 1937 and over 30,000 artifacts were found, some over 9000 years old.

Pictographs are visible within the cave. (Pictographs are painted on stone surfaces as opposed to petroglyphs which are carved.) A unique feature of this cave is that the number of pictographs visible vary based on the moisture in the cave. The pictographs visible on the day we were there were red – painted with the mineral hematite – either with a finger or a stick. A paint applicator found at the site radio carbon dated back to 1480 – 1650.

This rifles pictograph was done within the last two hundred years and is just a few feet away from some done 1000 years before..

Black, charcoal pictographs, which were not visible, date back to approximately 250 BC. Many of the pictographs have been lost over time to environmental issues and shifting/cracking of the cave walls. Better get here quick if you want to see them!

We stopped so Randy could play a quick 9 holes on a city park disc golf course. Elko and I stayed in the truck since the signs said dogs were not allowed. Then I watched person after person walk their dogs on the course in the park. When a policeman came by, I asked about it. He said if the dogs are leashed and not causing problems, they don’t enforce it. Interesting….

A stop at Albertsons and Costco was necessary to restock our food supply! After that we headed the 35 miles (50 minutes) back to Chief Plenty Coups State Park.

First we saw wild turkeys!

Then we say a mama bear and cub. We wondered at first if these were grizzly because of their coloring but comparing humps and other things, we believe they were (brown) black bears. We don’t see bears in the wild very often so we were very pleased! We watched them for about 5 -10 minutes.

Day Off #2 –
Randy set off to play the Diamond X Disc Golf Course at Phipps Park in Billings – Everything is back in Billings :).

According to his disc golf buddy, Mark, this is a destination course and people come from all over the country to play. Described as 1/3 climbing, 1/3 hiking and 1/3 disc golf, it sounded intimidating, but a “must do” if you are in the neighborhood.

Elko and I opted to stay home and clean the trailer which needed it after 13 straight days of working. Once we saw his pictures, I knew that had been a good choice.

As a beginner on a very difficult course, Randy was satisfied with his round. He found two discs and didn’t lose any of his so he was +24 in shots and +2 in discs.

Once Randy got home, he had to put his handyman hat on. Our toilet pedal had broken a few days earlier and he had bungy-corded it together. Thanks to Amazon Prime, we had a new toilet within a few days.   It did take one more trip into Billings to get an adaptor part.

Day Off #3-
We headed out one direction and found 17 miles of dirt/gravel road ahead of us so turned around and drove west to east through the Crow Indian Reservation to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

National Parks and National Monuments are not “paw” friendly at all and if we had planned to go there when we left home, we might have left Elko behind. As it turned out, our visit was interesting but incomplete. (Elko is worth it!) It will stay on our to-do list for a more extensive visit at another time.

The Battle of Little Bighorn took place on June 25, 1876. The battlefield was on the Crow Indian Reservation (about 200 fought with Custer) but the 7th Calvary’s battle was against vastly greater numbers of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. The 7th Calvary lost 210 men. There were some civilian casualties as well.

Soldiers who fell were buried in shallow graves on June 28, 1876 and marked with white crosses. In 1877 officer remains and those of two civilians were transferred to eastern cemeteries. Custer’s remains were reinterred at West Point.
In 1881, remains of soldiers were collected and placed in a mass grave at Last Stand Hill around the base of the Memorial shaft bearing the names of soldiers, scouts and civilians.

In 1890, 249 white gravestone markers were placed all around the extensive battlefield to show where the 7th calvary soldiers fell.

There are about 45 on Last Stand Hill. George Armstrong Custer’s marker is the dark one.

Indian casualties were removed from the battle field by their tribes so it is is unknown exactly how many died. Estimates are 60 – 100.

In 1999 the Park Service began placing red granite markers at known Cheyenne and Lakota warrior casualty sites.

There is even a memorial to the many horses that died in the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Also on the grounds is the Custer National Cemetery. The original cemetery was for those who had been buried at  western outposts, since abandoned. The dead were moved to this site. Over time veterans and spouses from World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam were buried at this National Cemetery. There are 5000 sites, only about 50 (which are reserved) are left to be occupied.

Tomorrow it is back to work beginning with a 9:00 a.m. staff meeting…. Volunteering has taken an interesting turn…

Small Old White Man is the Crow name for our new friend, Howard. We have had the good fortune to be parked next to him for most of the last week at our new “home”.

For the month of September, we are at Chief Plenty Coups State Park, on the Crow Indian Reservation, near Pryor, Montana.

Howard is an Elder and Historian for the Crow Tribe.  He has written 4 books and testified before Congress many times.   With the help of Ted Kennedy, he once got legislation approved despite protests of the Montana senator.  He told us some very interesting stories!

Howard was very kind to spend time with us, teach us about Crow culture and answer our many questions. Here is a sampling of some of the many things we learned.

Howard has been adopted several times in his life. Adoption in this culture does not remove one from their natural family, but is a way to strengthen ties between families or individuals.

Howard’s  father was a white man and his mother was Crow. A person’s ethnicity/tribe/clan is determined by the mother’s bloodline. Howard was given the name “Small Old White Man” by one of his adoptive fathers at the age of five or six.

We asked Howard how he would describe his ethnicity. His first choice was “Crow.”  In the broader sense, he prefers the term “American Indian.” When asked if he thought younger generations would also prefer American Indian over Native American, he said he thought they would.  So much for our attempts to be politically sensitive!

Oral histories and story telling are very important in the Crow culture. I asked Howard about exaggeration in re-telling which would seem to be a problem if a culture is trying to maintain accurate oral histories. He said that it is very important that stories and histories are told accurately and exaggeration and change are not allowed.   Those that do so are spoken to and reprimanded.

We also noticed very young (10-11 years old) children driving! Howard told us that driver’s licenses are not required on the reservation and, of course, these young drivers don’t have insurance. The term “uninsured and under-insured motorists” will be in the back of our minds during our travels on the Crow reservation.

And why are we, and Howard, parked at Chief Plenty Coups State Park? On Saturday the park hosted the annual Day of Honor celebrating Chief Plenty Coups and the history of the Crow People. I will tell you more about Chief Plenty Coups in a later post but here are some pictures from the celebration.

Chief Plenty Coups’ house – a National Historic Site

Howard, Crow elder and Historian, telling visitors about Chief Plenty Coups

Color guard featuring the US Flag, Montana Flag, Crow Tribal Flag and Chief Plenty Coups Flag (authorized by the US government)

Crow dancers!

When I complimented Howard on his necklace, he insisted I wear it for the celebration.

Are these great moccasins, or what?  They  must have millions of beads!   I’ve always loved shoes!

The culminating event of the Day of Honor was the buffalo feast.  (Crow use the word buffalo – not bison.)  Park personnel and Crow representatives  killed two of the tribe’s buffalo the week before the event. We had imagined a buffalo roasting on a spit but it was not to be.

In the two previous years they had prepared way too much food so this year they cut back.  They slow cooked 21 buffalo roasts (80 lbs.) in the pit overnight and also had baked beans, corn, watermelon, fry bread and berry pudding.   It looked yummy!   For those of us who were serving, we watched the last of the food go by before we had a chance to eat.  Unfortunately, no buffalo feast for us…..

But, we continue to be blessed by being able to learn about people and places that would otherwise remain foreign to us.  Howard, the Crow, and Chief Plenty Coups are just the latest examples.

Our responsibilities for the day were complete in time to watch Boise State play (and win!) against the University of Washington and former coach, Chris Petersen.  Go Broncos!

We really enjoyed our last few days in Farragut. We spent time with new friends, Mark and Teri, the interpretive hosts at the park. They had been there all along but we didn’t really connect until the last 10 days.

So….we had lots of getting to know each other to do in a brief period. We ate out a couple times and visited. Randy and Mark played several rounds of disc golf with Randy learning lots from the more experienced Mark. They also flew RC airplanes one day. We left with good intentions to keep in touch and meet up again.

We also had an end of the season potluck. It was fun to have a chance to say goodbye to the friends we’d made in the park. The sense of “community” we had been missing as we traveled was found at Farragut.   I was kind of sad to leave – but most everyone else was leaving shortly as well. I can understand why people come back year after year.

But as August was over, and the new host couple came in for our campground, it was time to move on down the highway.

The first stop was at the Les Schwab Tire Center in Hayden. While airing up our tires, Randy found a leak in one valve stem and he had to put on the spare trailer tire to go into town.  We were in and out in 20 minutes, valve stem replaced, spare put away, all at no charge. Thank you Les Schwab.

We traveled across the Idaho panhandle, into Montana and crossed the Continental Divide.

We passed a myriad of places where we would have liked to stop and explore but we had a long way to go – 347 miles to be exact. I think that was the most we have gone in one day since we began this adventure.

Our overnight stay was to be at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park in Montana. The campsite was complimentary from the state of Montana (since we were en-route to volunteer at a Montana park) so we couldn’t complain when we drove in and discovered we had no hook-ups.   One night of “dry camping” was perfectly fine and we enjoyed the wide open spaces of Big Sky country.  Our Montana is in Montana!

We got set up just in time to make it to the last tour of the caverns at 4:30. Only when we got there, we discovered they had left at 4:15 so we, and 4 others, had to hustle up hill for 3/4 of a mile. I was really wondering if it was going to be worth it.

I am glad to say that it was! We have seen quite a few caves and caverns over the years and this one had many of the same beautiful cave formations ( stalactites, stalagmites, columns and helicites) we have seen before.

What made this cave unique was the interesting route through the caverns. We crunched and stooped many times and even had to sit down and slide from one room to another. There was also a travertine step.

The caverns were named for Lewis and Clark who traveled along the nearby Jefferson River in 1805. The cavern was discovered in 1892 by two ranchers. The caverns became federal property in 1908, the fifteenth National Monument. The lands were given to the state of Montana in 1935 and became Montana’s First State Park. The CCC and the state improved the trail and blasted tunnels to join caverns.  Lewis and Clark Caverns is the highest revenue producing park in the system, helping to subsidize other parks in Montana.

When we woke up the next morning, we were able to put the Montana sticker on our map!  Our criteria is spending the night in a state.

Another day movin’ on down the highway followed, going another 220 miles to our destination, Chief Plenty Coups State Park.

We have a nice campsite and lots of peace and quiet! This is a historical day use park so we will have lots of solitude in the evenings.

Elko enjoyed our walk around the park this evening. Tomorrow we meet with the park manager for orientation and find out about our volunteer jobs for the next month.

Randy has hitch itch. He is itchin’ to hitch up and get moving again! We haven’t stayed two consecutive months anywhere (since we left Boise over a year ago) before doing so at Farragut State Park.  We arrived on July 1st and have just a few days left before moving to Montana on August 31st.

We really like Farragut State Park and hope to come back and volunteer again someday. There are so many walking/biking trails to wander and we enjoy the naval history aspect.  We’ve had plenty of excitement with family and friends visiting, two fires, and most recently a broken water main which took out our restroom and shower complex for a few days.

Twelve porta-potties for our guests.

We’ve had a great campsite that was private enough that Elko was rarely on his chain, something he appreciated greatly!

And we’ve had wonderful partners!

Bob and Aloha are from Fresno and have been camp hosts here for five years. Many afternoons and evenings have been spent chatting at their site or ours. Someday when Boise State plays Fresno State, we are going to end up on Bob and Aloha’s doorstep!

We’ve enjoyed Sunday morning breakfasts at a local cafe before coming back to clean sites. Sundays are typically the largest turnover day. This past Sunday we cleaned 50 of the 68 sites! It doesn’t really seem like that much work when you do it with good friends.

Recently, on our days off, we have explored a couple local museums. Near Sagle, Idaho, actually out in the middle of nowhere, we visited the highly recommended Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center.   It was well worth the hour drive.

The Museum has information and exhibits about aviation, war, inventors and inventions.

We learned about the WASPS,  the Women Airforce Service Pilots, consisting of 1102 female civilian pilots who flew missions (bomber, cargo, drone, training and transport) of over 60,000,000 miles during World War II under the command of the US Air Force.  Did you know?  We didn’t!

Forrest Bird was the son of a World War I fighter pilot whose contemporaries were the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. He grew up in that world and began flying at age 14.   Forrest Bird was a pilot during World War II.  The allies knew that German pilots could fly at higher altitudes so had to have a type of respirator system. We were told that he examined a downed German plane to learn about their respirators.

A family friend and Forrest Bird’s first wife both suffered from emphysema and he  developed a rudimentary respirator which helped each of them. Respirator development continued and became his life’s work.

The Bird Mark 7 (the 7th prototype) became the first mass produced respirator in the world, is commonplace in hospitals, and is still in production (with improvements) over 50 years later.

Developed in 1969, the Baby Bird respirator decreased the death rate in premature infants with respiratory distress from 70% to less than 10% within two years.  It also eliminated blindness as a result of too much oxygen.

Further development of respirator systems and aircraft modifications allowed for the birth of Intensive Air Transport beginning in the VietNam era. Forrest Bird is credited with saving countless lives through his varied respirators and medical transport work.

We also visited the Museum of North Idaho and enjoyed a Living History Walk with Robert Singletary representing General William Carlin, Commander of Fort Sherman.

As Randy and I were the only ones on the walk that morning, our one hour tour became a two hour walk and conversation which we enjoyed very much. Mr. Singletary has taught at various universities and been chairman of the museum board.

After all I’ve heard about General Sherman, I was surprised he was such a nice looking man!

General William Tecumseh Sherman conducted an inspection of military needs in the west in 1877. He selected a site on the lake for a fort which would provide a military presence given the Indian Wars.  The fort, built a year later was  named Camp Coeur d’Alene. General Sherman returned to inspect the fort in 1883. When he retired,  the camp was renamed Fort Sherman. The adjoining community then adopted the name of Coeur d’Alene.

A 3/4 replica of the Fort Sherman entrance with the Powder House behind.

Three buildings remain from the original fort and sit within the North Idaho College grounds.  The Powder House has been remodeled into a small museum.

The chapel is available for events and meetings and the Officer’s Quarters have been remodeled into faculty offices.

The native peoples in the area, the Coeur d’Alene tribe, called themselves  the Schitsu’umsh, meaning “Those who were found here”. Like many native peoples, they originally roamed a large land encompassing 5 million acres. Unlike many native peoples, their reservation lands are within their original lands.

At some point, the federal government decided that each adult should receive a deed to 160 acres. When lands were distributed by deed, the remaining parcels within the reservation were sold to others and the reservation lands were reduced as a result.

Currently, with proceeds from their casino, the Coeur d’Alene tribe is buying back those parcels within their original reservation as they become available.

We will learn more about native peoples, The Crow, at our next volunteer gig in Montana. We will be helping at Chief Plenty Coups State Park (south of Billings) for the month of September. Randy will be helping with maintenance and I will be working in the visitor center. The adventure continues!