Bighorn
Travel
Montana
A view from 1939:
BIG HORN, (2,712 alt., 50 pop.), is on ground occupied
almost continuously by white men since Lt. William Clark camped
here on July 26, 1806. Manuel Lisa built a trading post here
in 1807. In 1822 Col. W. H. Ashley built another post, Fort
Van Buren, two miles below the mouth of the Big Horn River.
Many who followed the old trails or wore new ones to the "Shining
Mountains," stopped to rest
at this settlement, which remained small but contributed much
to the comfort of travelers and adventurers who came by waterway
and trail.
General Gibbon with 450 men crossed the Yellowstone at this
point in June 1876, as he hurried south to aid General Custer
in a battle that had already been lost.
Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written
by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Montana; September, 1939. |