September 20

September 20, 2010
We awoke this morning and decided to move on. It is hot here and everywhere, so we might as well be home. So we are sort of heading south. It will still take us at least 2 weeks.
On the road we saw herds of bison’s, deer and pronghorns as we drove over protected grasslands. There where prairie dog poking out and running in the fields.
Our first stop was The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD. We where at this site around 25 years ago. The indoor site features fossils of 58 Columbian and woolly mammoths, camels, lions, wolves and giant bears that where trapped 26,000 years ago in a sinkhole.
After lunch we decided to go to Fort Robinson in Nebraska. We have been here many times and it has brought back fond memories. This is where Crazy Horse was killed along with over 149, men, woman & child of the Cheyenne where killed. The U.S. was trying to forcibly send them to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. A band of Northern Cheyenne escaped and fled across the plains of Kansas and Nebraska, pursued by “thousands” of soldiers. When told they had to return to Indian Territory, the chief said they would rather die here in their old hunting grounds. It was one of the last battles of the Indian War.