| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Calhoun Hill (Little Bighorn Battlefield) |
| | This position was held by Co. L commanded by Lt. James Calhoun. It may have been used to hold off Chief Gall and his Sioux warriors and thus protect Custer's advance. From here these soldiers could have attracted Capt. Benteen's column and the pack train which Custer was expecting to come to his assistance from the southeast. — Map (db m21643) |
| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Companies C & E (Little Bighorn Battlefield) |
| | The white markers on the knolls and in the ravines to the west and southwest show were the troopers of Co, C under Capt. Tom Custer and Co. E under Lt. Smith were found. The Indian encampment lay beyond on the flat across the river. — Map (db m21645) |
| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Companies F and I (Little Bighorn Battlefield) |
| | Companies F and I were found on the northeast slope of this ridge. Capt. Keogh was to the right with Co. I. — Map (db m21644) |
| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Custer Last Seen (Little Bighorn Battlefield) |
| | Gen. Custer and Lt. Cooke were last seen on this point by Maj. Reno's troops who were fighting in the valley. — Map (db m21638) |
| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Little Bighorn Battlefield |
| | This area was occupied by troops A, B, D, G, H, K, and M, 7th. U.S. Cavalry, and the pack train when they were besieged by the Sioux Indians June 25th and 26th 1876. — Map (db m21636) |
| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument |
| | (Bottom of Marker):
In memory of
Officers and soldiers who fell near this place
fighting with the 7th United States Cavalry
against the Sioux Indians
on the 25th and 26th of June,
A.D. 1876
(The rest of the marker includes names of the officers and soldiers who died on the battlefield. They include):
Bvt. Maj. Genl. G. A. Custer
Captains
M. W. Keogh G.W. Yates T. W. Custer
Lieutenants
W. W. Cooke A. E. Smith Donald McIntosh James Calhoun . . . — Map (db m7022) |
| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Medicine Tail Coulee Ford (Little Bighorn Battlefield) |
| | Chief Gall and his Sioux warriors forded the river here to attack Custer's troops on the high ground to the northeast. — Map (db m21642) |
| Montana (Big Horn County), Crow Agency — Weir Point Fight (Little Bighorn Battlefield) |
| | This is the farthest point reached by Capt. Weir in his attempt to assist Custer. Minutes after arriving, his company was joined by Capt. Benteen's company and others. They remained about 45 minutes until mounting warrior pressure forced them back to the Reno- Benteen battlefield. — Map (db m21640) |
| Montana (Gallatin County), Bozeman — First People in the Gallatin Valley To the Headwaters |
| | For centuries distant and diverse tribes visited the Gallatin Valley to hunt. They stampeded buffalo over cliffs during the "dog days" before the acquisition of horses and guns. They hunted animals for food, clothing and shelter. They also mined chert to make projectile points.
The Minnitaree tribe of North Dakota captured Sacagawea in this valley in 1800. She and her trapper husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition as interpreters. Sacagawea proved invaluable . . . — Map (db m29075) |
| Montana (Gallatin County), Bozeman — Fort Ellis To the Headwaters |
| | Conflicts along the Bozeman Trail between Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians and settlers escalated with the establishment of forts along the route in 1866. After Indians killed John Bozeman, in the Yellowstone Valley in 1867, the federal government established Fort Ellis in the Gallatin Valley that same year. For the next two decades, soldiers from the 13th Infantry and the 2nd Cavalry manned this post, participating in battles at the Little Bighorn in 1876 and the Big Hole in . . . — Map (db m29079) |
| Montana (Gallatin County), Bozeman — Fur Trade To the Headwaters |
| | An abundance of beaver encouraged Corps of Discovery members John Colter and John Potts to return to the headwaters. In 1808, Blackfeet Indians killed Potts in a confrontation and stripped Colter bare, giving him a chance to run for his life. In one of the most famous foot races in American history, he outran his armed pursuers and escaped to the Madison River where he hid in a beaver lodge. Ten days and 200 miles later, Colter miraculously straggled into Fort Ramon near present day Custer, . . . — Map (db m29077) |
| Montana (Gallatin County), Bozeman — Lewis and Clark To the Headwaters |
| | Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery reached the headwaters of the Missouri River and named the three tributaries in July, 1805. With great difficulty the Corps of Discovery fought rapids and troublesome mosquitoes as they pulled their boats upstream to the west.
On their return trip in 1806, Expedition members separated at Travelers Rest near Lolo, Montana. Capt. Lewis and nine men headed east to Great Falls, while Clark and the rest of the party, along with 50 horses, returned to the . . . — Map (db m29072) |
| Montana (Gallatin County), Bozeman — Pioneer Museum (Old County Jail) Gallatin County Historical Society |
| | The Pioneer Museum, located next to the Gallatin County Courthouse at 317 West Main, was the former County jail. Along with many museum exhibits showcasing the history of Gallatin County is an Historical Research Library. The photo archives, and one of the largest collections of books on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Build in 1911, the building served as the jail until a new facility was built in 1982. Many of the old jail's features have been preserved, including the gallows, isolation and . . . — Map (db m29085) |
| Montana (Gallatin County), Bozeman — Trail Through Time To the Headwaters |
| | First Peoples utilized the valley for over 11,000 years before the arrival of Lewis & Clark, and the others that would follow. Trails brought cattle and homesteaders to an agricultural paradise. The military followed, defending settlers, consuming local products and mounting expeditions into the Yellowstone. The railroad brought material goods and tied the region to the national economy.
Over 11,000 years ago The First Peoples moving into North America across an ice age land bridge came . . . — Map (db m29084) |
| Montana (Gallatin County), Bozeman — Valley of Opportunity To the Headwaters |
| | Settlers came to the Gallatin Valley on the heels of the first Montana gold strike at Grasshopper Creek near Bannack, Montana, in 1862. As Meriwether Lewis had predicted, farmers found the valley well suited for agriculture. They planted crops and raised stock to supply the rapidly growing town.
John Jacobs and John Bozeman laid out a cutoff from the Oregon Trail into western gold fields of Montana in 1863. Bozeman brought the first wagon train of miners and settlers over the Bozemen Trail. — Map (db m29078) |
| Montana (Garfield County), Mosby — Bearpaw Shale and the Inland Ocean |
| | The black shale rocks seen in this area represent the muddy sediments deposited by the last ocean to exist in Montana. The shale, known by geologists as the Bearpaw Shale contains fossils of sea-going creatures that lived and died some 70 million years ago. Twenty foot long swimming reptiles like Mososaurus and Tylosaurus fed on fishes and ammonites, relatives of squids and octopi. The remains of the gigantic coiled ammonites called Placentaceras and the straight shelled ammonites called . . . — Map (db m9697) |
| Montana (Garfield County), Mosby — Fort Musselshell |
| | Fort Musselshell was located on the Missouri River about 35 miles north of here. It was a trading post in the 60s and 70s and as such had a brief but colorful career. The only whites in that part of the state were woodchoppers for the Missouri River steamboats, wolfers, trappers and Indian trappers.
The River Crows and Gros Ventre Indians traded there. A buffalo robe brought them 3 cups of coffee, or 6 cups of sugar, or 10 cups of flour. It was a tolerably profitable business from the . . . — Map (db m9698) |
| Montana (Garfield County), Mosby — Kerchival City |
| | Competition to supply the mining camps was fierce in Montana in the 1860s. Many opportunists realized that the real money was not in mining for gold, but in “mining the miners” by providing essential goods and services. Fort Benton dominated upper Missouri trade. Steamboat landings and trading posts established downriver of the worlds innermost port sought to circumvent Fort Bentons monopoly. The mouth of the Musselshell River, about 35 miles north of here, was ideal for a . . . — Map (db m9700) |
| Montana (Powell County), Ovando — The Bob Marshall Wilderness Country |
| | North of here lies the second largest wilderness in the lower 48 states. Made up of the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Great Bear wilderness areas, its north end abuts Glacier National Park, creating a continuous corridor of unspoiled mountains and valleys that harbor grizzly bears, mountain goats, wolverines, elk, moose, deer and wolves.
Montana first protected part of this country in 1913 when the Sun River Game Preserve was created on the east side of the continental divide. Years of market . . . — Map (db m23926) |
| Montana (Stillwater County), Columbus — Bozeman Trail |
| | The Bozeman Trail was located ten miles south of here. John Bozeman pioneered the trail in this area in July 1864. After crossing the Bighorn River eight miles below the opening of the Bighorn Canyon, he led his wagon train northwest to the Yellowstone River opposite present day Billings. He then attempted to proceed up the south side of the Yellowstone, but the steep bluffs lining the bank forced him to turn south away from the river. Leaving the Yellowstone, he went up the west side of Clarks . . . — Map (db m4326) |
| Montana (Stillwater County), Park City — The Great Inland Seaway |
| | For over sixty million years during the Cretaceous Period, much of eastern Montana was underwater, covered by an vast inland sea. As the Rocky Mountains formed to the west, it created a broad, flat coastal plain that was home to many different species of dinosaurs. Indeed, the long life of the sea saw the rise and extinction of many dinosaur species until it finally receded from Montana about 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The sediments deposited underwater or along . . . — Map (db m29123) |
| Montana (Sweet Grass County), Greycliff — Captain Wm. Clark |
| | You are now following the historic trail of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. On his return from the Pacific in July 1806, Captain Clark camped for six days about forty miles downstream, near Park City. The Expedition had been looking for timber suitable for building canoes ever since striking the river near Livingston. They found a couple of large cottonwoods here that would serve. They fitted their axes with handles made from chokecherry and went to work making two canoes. When finished they . . . — Map (db m28948) |
| Montana (Sweet Grass County), Greycliff — The Crazy Mountains |
| | Called Awaxaawippiia by the Apsaalooka (Crow) Indians, the Crazy Mountains, which you can see to the northwest, are an igneous formation forged about 50 million years ago. For the Apsaalooka, they are the most sacred and revered mountains on the northern Great Plains. Awaxaawippiia was a place of refuge and protection. The Apsaalooka's enemies would not follow them into the mountains. Because of their great spiritual power, Awaxaawippiia continues to be an important vision quest site for the . . . — Map (db m28947) |
| Montana (Sweet Grass County), Greycliff — The Thomas Party |
| | In 1866 William Thomas, his son Charles, and a driver named Schultz left southern Illinois bound for the Gallatin Valley, Montana. Travelling by covered wagon they joined a prairie schooner outfit at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and started over the Bridger Trail. The train was escorted by troops detailed to build a fort (C.F. Smith) on the Big Horn River.
From the site of this fort the Thomas party pushed on alone. A few days later they were killed at this spot by hostile Indians. Emigrants found . . . — Map (db m28975) |
| Montana (Yellowstone County), Billings — Along the Zimmerman Trail |
| | Zimmerman Trail - The History by Artist John Potter.
The original Zimmerman Trail was built during the summers of 1890 and 1891 by the brothers Joseph and Frank Zimmerman, born in Fellering, (Alsace-Lorraine) Germany. Joseph immigrated to the United States in 1872; two years later, upon enlisting in the U.S. Cavalary, his duty brought him to Montana. In 1874, Frank followed his brother to Montana where he worked for the railroad until 1883. Frank briefly returned to Alsace-Lorraine, then . . . — Map (db m29086) |
| Montana (Yellowstone County), Billings — Boothill Cemetery |
| | Named Boothill because so many of its occupants went to their deaths with their boots on, this cemetery was the burying ground for Coulson, Yellowstone River town existing from 1877-1885 on the edge of what was to be Billings. Most famous buried here was H.M. (Muggins) Taylor, scout who took news of Custer massacre June 25, 1876, from the battle area to Bozeman. Taylor, later a Deputy Sheriff, was gunned down in 1882 in Coulson's laundry as he attempted to stop the laundress' drunken husband from beating her. — Map (db m28939) |
| Montana (Yellowstone County), Billings — The Place Where the White Horse Went Down |
| | In 1837-38 a smallpox epidemic spread from the American Fur Trading Company steamboat St. Peter which had docked at Fort Union. The terrible disease for which the Indians had no immunity eventually affected all Montana tribes. A story is told among the Crow of two young warriors returning from a war expedition who found their village stricken. One discovered his sweetheart among the dying, and both warriors, grieving over loss of friends and family, were despondent and frustrated because . . . — Map (db m28814) |
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