Friday, July 31, 2009

Tuesday 26 August 2008: Glendive, MT to Bozeman, MT via rental car (517 miles)

Today we drove our rental car from Glendive (population 4,806) in eastern Montana to Bozeman (population 32,414) in southwestern Montana.
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En route we visited Pompey's Pillar National Monument and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

On a sandstone tower near the Yellowstone River east of present-day Billings, MT William Clark carved his name on 25 July 1806. This signature is the only remaining physical evidence of Lewis and Clark’s passing visible on their actual route.
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For more information on Pompey's Pillar National Monument, visit www.pompeyspillar.org/about.htm, www.nps.gov/nr/travel/lewisandclark/pom.htm, and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeys_Pillar_National_Monument.
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At the Little Bighorn in 1876 Lt. Col. George Custer and 262 other soldiers and U. S. Army personnel died at the hands of several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. Facing the battlefield while seated on a bench outside the interpretive center, Barbara and I were captivated as we listened to a park ranger give a very moving 50-minute talk on the battle. The ranger noted that this national monument memorializes one of the last armed efforts of the Indians of the northern plains to preserve their way of life. The Indians wanted to take graze their horses on summer grasses outside their reservation. On the other hand, Custer's assignment was to return the Indians to the reservation. The U. S. Army was defeated at Little Bighorn due to poor intelligence. Although the Indians won this battle, ultimately, of course they lost the war. Within a few years they were confined to their reservations.
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For more information on Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, visit www.nps.gov/libi, www.nps.gov/libi/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm (for 2 webcams), and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Bighorn_Battlefield_National_Monument.

We stayed in a suite at a Days Inn in Bozeman and had a terrific dinner nearby at Famous Dave's, a national chain with which we were not familiar. We also went shopping at Ross and at Staples.
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The total mileage driven today by Barbara was 517 miles.
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I will post pics from today soon.

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