Barn on Little Piney Creek 3287 E (Explored)

            Peaceful barn scene on Little Piney Creek, about a mile from Fort Phil Kearny Historical Site in Wyoming.  The Fetterman ‘Massacre’ battlefield and the bloody Bozeman Trail are also about two miles east of this photo.

On Little Piney Creek in July, 1866, about a mile east of this photo, isolated and poorly supported soldiers arrived and began building the fort, which was intended to protect settlers traveling to gold fields in Montana along the newly created Bozeman Trail.   

The new fort and trail were in the middle of the last, best hunting grounds of the Plains Indians and were clear violations of a treaty barely 15 years old.  The great Oglala leader Red Cloud vowed to destroy the new fort, commencing ‘Red Cloud’s War’, the only war that Native Americans ever won against the U.S. government.  

Wood for the huge, 17-acre fort, the largest wooden fort ever built in the western United States, was gathered about four miles west of this photo.   Almost daily, warriors skirmished with soldiers as workers harvested trees and returned to the fort on a trail about a mile behind this photo.  

In December, Red Cloud and his coalition of tribes developed a plan to strike a decisive blow against the invaders.   During a seemingly routine attack on the lumber team, Crazy Horse lured pursuing infantry and cavalry, led by Captain Fetterman, over a ridge about two miles east of this photo, where at least 800 warriors waiting in ambush annihilated all 81 soldiers.   It was the largest defeat of the U.S. Army in Indian wars until The Little Big Horn ten years later.

After the Fetterman Fight, the U.S. government negotiated a new treaty with Red Cloud, recognizing that the area belonged exclusively to the Indians. The Indians burnt the abandoned fort to the ground.  The tribes largely had a reprieve from incursions into the area until gold was discovered in The Black Hills about ten years later.

I had planned on taking more photos in the area, but the weather was terrible, so I’ll have to come back sometime.   The trip to the fort historical site, though, was the highlight of my two-week trip.

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Taken in: United States / Wyoming / Kearny (show map)

Taken on: May 1, 2022

Tags:

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Red Cloud's War « less

Sets appears in: • Western Plains Trip 2022 • Plains Indian Wars more » • Barns • Explored « less

Groups appears in: • Landscape • Artistic Photography more » • A Cloudy and Overcast Day • Rural America - (Opted out of 30/60) • Barns, Sheds and other Rustic Rural Buildings • Rural Photos • Barns of the World. • AFCASTELLÓ • Obres d'art • Barns! Barns! Barns! • in explore • Eclectic Land • *Wonderful Water & Landscapes* • (A) BEAUTIFUL BARN AND FARM LIFE • MakeLove☮NotWar • Ugly Places all over the World • D850 Club • ☆The Power of Now / Die Kraft der Gegenwart ☆ • Io resto a casa • WAR BATTLES ETC, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM • Rural Scenery & Landscapes with Permanent, Manmade Structures (n « less

Camera: Nikon D850, f/16.0, 0.3 sec, 50mm, ISO 64 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D850
Lens:	Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.3
Focal Length:	50mm
ISO:	64
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Unknown (0x70)
Exposure Program:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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