Last night I went over to the Cultural Heritage Center here in Pierre to the History & Heritage Book Club's discussion of THE LANCE AND THE SHIELD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SITTING BULL. Earl Bullhead was the guest speaker. One of his ancestors. Lt. Henry Bullhead, was killed during the arrest of Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890.

Not much else to report. Unbelievable weather here for November.

If you are a veteran... thank you.

Great new Custer book - Crossing the Plains with Custer.

I'm torn. Did the Vikings deserve the win over the Ravens? Of course I am glad the Vikings won but the Ravens played a hell of a game. What a comeback.

This weekend was the Festival of Books in Deadwood. A few authors were giving presentations that I wanted to see. I was ready to go. I woke up yesterday feeling awful. I decided not to go. I called and canceled my hotel in Deadwood. Shit.

Then about noon I started feeling better. I couldn't make it to Deadwood in time for the main events I wanted to see. It was the first Saturday of the month so the Archives were open. I went over there instead. I dug up some WPA Graves Registration information on Hammon, Lattman, and Mahoney. I'll get that posted up on the website soon.

I also found a great article in the June 25, 1967 issue of the Rapid City Journal about the 91st anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. I recently read EVIDENCE AND THE CUSTER ENIGMA by Jerome Greene and saw a mention of the Journal article in one of the footnotes. It details the narrative of Lt. Edgerly who was with Company D at the battle. He was with Benteen's column and later in the hilltop fight. Good stuff. The day turned out to be ok.

Take care.

I just added the photo of Abram Brant's memorial marker at the Fort Meade Post Cemetery to the website. This is a memorial marker only. It does not mark the actual grave of Brant which is unknown.

Next weekend (October 2 -4, 2009) is the South Dakota Festival of Books in Deadwood. For a list of presenters, click here. James Donovan, author of the Custer book TERRIBLE GLORY, will be there. I haven't decided whether or not if I am going out to Deadwood for the festival. I have read Jim's book and it is great. Highly recommended. I've also had the pleasure of meeting him on a couple of different occasions. The last time was this past summer during Montana Mayhem II. He shared a few beers with us at the Montana Brewing Company in downtown Billings. I'm just not sure if I feel like driving out to Deadwood after the fiasco of a couple of weeks ago.

Who am I kidding? I'll be there.

Well I just returned from the Black Hills and the Custer site tour. Unfortunately, it rained on the entire drive out there and through most of the tour. As we were heading back into Rapid City, the sun decided to come out. The hikes to the String of Pearls and Turkey Rock sites were canceled. I did however get some great information so the next time I'm out there I can easily find the sites.

The biggest pain in the ass was that I blew out a tire. Luckily this happened just as I pulled into Rapid City. I thought I was going to miss the tour but I got the tire changed in record time, changed clothes in a gas station bathroom, and made the tour with about 3 minutes to spare. When we came back from the tour I stopped up at Sears and had a couple of new rear tires put on.

I spent the night in Rapid City and got up this morning and drove over to Fort Meade Post Cemetery in Sturgis to get a photo of the Abram Brant marker. I will get the new photo added to the website soon.

Below is a photo of Bear Butte from the road going up to the cemetery. The butte is covered in clouds and fog. It was another dreary day in the Black Hills this morning. On the way home, once I was about 10 miles outside of Rapid City, the sun came out.

Go figure. Take care.

Question: How does a history nerd start his three day Labor Day weekend?

Answer: By going to the South Dakota State Archives.

Yes, I went over and dug around in the Archives yesterday morning. Pathetic, but true. I am still hunting for newspaper reports relating to the murder of Elijah Strode in 1881. The story fascinates me. While looking through microfilm copies of the Black Hills Daily Pioneer, I came across this little tidbit of information:

BLACK HILLS DAILY PIONEER
Thursday morning, March 17, 1881

Young-Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses and one hundred bucks, squaws, et id genus omne, flocked into Fort Meade on Saturday, and made an application for an escort of troops to accompany them upon a grand hunt into the Powder river country. They probably were accommodated.

Back to the Strode murder. I found newspaper reports that gave the same information that I had gotten from the BLACK HILLS DAILY TIMES earlier. I was hoping that maybe the DAILY PIONEER had some different information not contained in the TIMES. I have more searching to do; I don't know what I'll turn up.

Elijah Strode's grave at Fort Meade Post Cemetery, Sturgis, SD