Garryowen is the site of the 2 day battle in June 1876 between the US Army’s 7th Cavalry and the Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux warriors. Leading the battle at this location on the US Army side was Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer along with Major Reno and Captain Benteen. The Cheyenne and Lakota warriors were being led by Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and other chiefs. Over 260 soldiers met defeat and death at the hands of the warriors including Lt. Col. Custer. This battle is memorialized and was known as Custer Battlefield National Monument until 1991 when the US Congress changed the named to Little Bighorn Battlefield and ordered a memorial to the over 100 American Indians who fought and lost their lives in this battle.
There are a variety of tourist sites regarding this battle all within close proximity of one another.
Custer Battlefield Museum
The Custer Battlefield Museum offers a collection of memorabilia from Custer and Sitting Bull along with a D.F. Barry photographic collection of the western frontier and Indian wars. The museum is a fee based museum and located at the location of Sitting Bull’s Camp.
Custer Battlefield Trading Post
The Custer Battlefield Trading Post sits across the street from the entrance to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and offers a restaurant with fantastic Indian Fry Bread Tacos along with a very large trading post. It is a great place to stop by and browse their shop and have lunch.
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument offers a visitors center, film area, and multiple trails, roads, and monuments to memorialize the battle and deaths of hundreds of soldiers and warriors.
One of the unique aspects of this battlefield is that markers where placed at the actual location where soldiers were killed. You can look across the battlefield and see the white markers scattered throughout the landscape. This definitely provides a more powerful look at the events which occurred here.
Custer’s Last Stand Hill has a 7th Cavalry memorial along with the white markers denoting where Custer and his men fell.
Next to Custers Last Stand Hill is an Indian Memorial built in 2003 to honor all those tribes defending their way of life at this battle.
Further down the road by about 5 miles is a monument for the Reno-Benteen battlefield. Along the route are multiple stops and exhibits which retrace the battle.
Back at the visitors center there is the Custer National Cemetery which includes both known and unknown veterans of our nation’s wars including women and children.
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