Around these gumbo buttes and across these ridges and valleys, an old road wended its way between Fort Abraham Lincoln on the Missouri River in Dakota Territory and Fort Keogh on the Yellowstone River in Montana. Although the Indians blazed the trail generations ago, it was not until railroad surveyors utilized it shortly after the Civil War that it saw heavy use by non- Indians. Government mail stages, heavily-loaded freight wagons destined for forts Keogh and Custer, covered wagons, buffalo hunters, soldiers, and people searching for homes, wealth, or adventure plodded along this meandering trail after the end of the Great Sioux War in 1877. In 1887, one freight train of 95 wagons, each drawn by 4 to 6 horses or mules, and each loaded with supplies of all kinds made up the largest known train to make the trip. All were constantly watched and harassed by the Indians, whose lands and way of life were, by trick and treaty, being forever forced from them. With the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and also the fences by the homesteaders, the trail was abandoned. A few grassy ruts may be seen on the ridge to the southwest.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.