The Powder River

The Powder River. . , This is the river that exuberant parties claim is a mile wide, an inch deep, and runs up hill. The statement is exaggerated. Captain Clark, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, named it the Redstone in 1806 and afterwards found out that the Indians called it the same thing but they pronounced it “Wah-ha-sah.” Clark thought the river "disagreeably muddy," but observed "great numbers of Buffalo feeding on the plains, elk on the points, antilopes." He also "saw Some of the Bighorn animals at a distance on the hills." He camped just across the Yellowstone River from the mouth of the Powder on the night of July 30, 1806., Generals Terry and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, moving from the east to take part in a campaign against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians in the spring of 1876, camped on the Yellowstone about 25 miles west of here June 10th. From that point Terry and Custer ordered Major Marcus Reno with six troops of the 7th Cavalry to scout the Powder and Tongue valleys for signs of the Indians. During his reconnaissance, Remp and his command swung further west than ordered and picked up a fresh trail on Rosebud Creek. It was this trail that led Custer to his fatal encounter with the tribes on the Little Big Horn River a few days later.