cemeteries

 

Sunday, FUN day.

Lucille’s for breakfast – any excuse for beignets.  Fun story here is the group pic.  While positioning ourselves for a selfie, another patron came forward & asked if he could help.  Sure, why not?

Top 10 photo fail.  Where’s Dawn?  LOL>

Filled my friend’s last Colorado hours with a drive up Lookout Mountain in Golden.  Buffalo Bill Museum.  Never previously been – another rainy-day activity in a state with little rain 🙂

the Museum?  Chalked full of Wild West Show memorabilia.  LOVE history, LOVE museums, LOVE LOVED their collection of Western American art (an unexpected theme this weekend).

Beautiful overlook, beautiful sunshiny day.  distant Foothills all snow-covered.  ‘Tis the season

Lotta controversy over Bill’s gravesite in Golden.  Towns in South Dakota & Wyoming both laid claim to the body.  In the end, it was Bill’s wish to be buried near his Sister’s home where he spent his final days.

2 ½ days of food & Colorado sunshine.  Thanks friend, best ‘rainy-day’ weekend ever.

 

 

 

IS BUFFALO BILL CODY REALLY BURIED ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN?

by KELLEN on October 4, 2016

 

 

On January 10, 1917, while visiting his sister in Denver, famous scout, Buffalo hunter, showman and ultimate Son of the West, Buffalo Bill Cody died from kidney failure. Because he passed away in the middle of the winter the road to Lookout Mountain, the spot where he wanted to be buried, was impassable. So Olinger’s Mortuary, where he was initially interred, kept his remains in cold storage for six months – embalming it six times – until the road up to the Lookout Mountain was made passable.

 

Much of the controversy that followed the death of Buffalo Bill and his burial revolves around Colorado’s neighbor to the north, Wyoming. The Cowboy State wanted Bill to be buried there just as much as Colorado wanted him to stay in a mountain state. In the first draft of Cody’s will, written before he died, he had stated he wanted to be buried outside the town he founded, Cody, Wyoming, somewhere on Cedar Mountain. But in an updated will, Buffalo Bill had specified that he wanted to be buried atop Lookout Mountain with one of the most spectacular views in all of the west.

 

 

Buffalo Bill’s Casket

There is a conspiracy theory that exists even to this day that says Buffalo Bill is actually buried in the Cowboy State, and not in Colorful Colorado. Legend has it that a number of folks from Wyoming snuck into the funeral home and replaced Bill’s body with a local vagrant, a look-alike impostor, then took the real Cody back to the town he founded.

 

However, there exists quite a lot of evidence debunking this outrageous tale. During the June funeral in 1917, many of Cody’s family members as well as thousands of mourners attended the event, and numerous photographs were taken of the family filing past the open casket. If the Bill in the casket was an imposter, it’s more than likely one of his relatives would have noticed and said something.

 

Most of the burial controversy comes from Cody’s niece, Mary Jester Allen, who, after the death of Bill’s wife Louisa Cody, claimed that Denver officials had conspired to have Buffalo Bill buried on Lookout Mountain. The rumors so inflamed both sides that Cody’s foster son, Johnny Baker, reburied the Codys under tons of concrete as security against theft.

 

 

Buffalo Bill’s Grave

Further inflaming the controversy, in 1948, the Colorado National Guard stationed troops around the grave site after American Legion post members in Cody offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could steal Cody’s body. In 2006, Wyoming legislators jokingly debated waging a “clandestine” effort to retrieve Buffalo Bill. Many historians and a good number of people from Wyoming believe Bill is buried in Colorado, but that doesn’t stop from the tall tales and controversy from raging on today.

 

Late arrival in Buffalo, cabin rental 20 minutes west of Dayton.  Buffalo NY, Dayton Ohio?  Heck no.  I’m talking Wyoming.  In town for Saturday’s ultra, Bighorn.  One mile shake-out run along State Hwy 14, road trippin’ after breakfast.

Montana.  2 hours north on I-90.

Forty Mile Colony.  Lodge Grass.  Crow Agency.  Today’s destination: Little Bighorn Battlefield on the Crow Reservation.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn (commonly referred to as Custer’s Last Stand) was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which occurred June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.

 

The fight was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, who were led by several major war leaders including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall and had been inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake). The U.S. 7th Cavalry, including the Custer Battalion, a force of 700 men led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, suffered a major defeat. Five of the 7th Cavalry’s twelve companies were annihilated; Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. The total U.S. casualty count included 268 dead and 55 severely wounded (six died later from their injuries), including four Crow Indian scouts and two Pawnee Indian scouts.

Purchased a guided tour at the Visitors Center, operated by Apsaalooke Tours (affiliated with the Crow Nation Office of Tourism).  Bus tour was led by an enthusiastic Apsaalooke [Crow].  Details of the battle & war strategy were painstakingly reviewed.  Additionally our guide shared his language, teaching [us] multiple native words: hello, goodbye, bird, coyote, mustang, mountain.

While I struggled with his accent & the story, the landscape around me was breathtaking.  LOVED being here.  Life is about seizing opportunity.  I could have laid low the day before Bighorn…but a short 2 hours away, engaged/partook/learned ‘bout Custer’s Last Stand, a significant piece of U.S. history – a story retold by descendants of the native people who won that battle.

Inspired, I needed to know – so, how did it all end?

After Custer’s defeat, Sitting Bull, along with his people, fled north to Canada.  In 1881, he returned to the United States to surrender.  Sitting Bull was killed by Indian police on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota on December 15, 1890.

Sad end to the Lakota spiritual leader – resisted westward expansion, in an effort to preserve the Lakota way of life.

 

 

Little Bighorn Battlefield

 

 

 

Who doesn’t yearn to visit a lawless Wild West town?  Welcome to Deadwood, South Dakota!

Seemed fitting I slept in a casino, ate dinner ‘bove an old saloon.  Breakfast’d next morning at Sheriff Bullock’s former hardware store.  Bullock rode with Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders & later attended his 1904 presidential inauguration.

It is said that “The inaugural celebration was the largest and most diverse of any in memory—cowboys, Indians (including the Apache Chief Geronimo), coal miners, soldiers, and students were some of the groups represented.”  This was to illustrate how diverse a man that Teddy Roosevelt really was.

SUPER Saturday.  Having already visited Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Memorial & Mount Rushmore, didn’t arrive in Deadwood ‘til late afternoon.  Hotel check-in, clothes swap, got in my daily run.   Started at Days of ’76 Museum – ‘cross Main Street from Cadillac Jack’s (my casino bedroom, pre-Mother’s Day).   Followed Crescent Drive, down Dunlop & McKinley to Railroad Ave.  Hugged Wildwood Creek two miles ‘til it emptied into Deadwood’s historic downtown.  Nice trek.

Dinner reservations at Deadwood Social Club, like stepping back in time.  Housed above Saloon No. 10 – site where Wild Bill Hickok was assassinated by Jack McCall while playing a game of poker August 2nd 1876.  A+ atmosphere, limited non-cow menu.

Early to bed, early to rise.  Read the history of Deadwood’s first Sheriff Seth Bullock, while I stuffing down a morning omelet.  Quick downtown sightsee, then UP UP UP to Mount Moriah Cemetery.  Buried high above town, walked the long hill UP to Wild Bill & Calamity Jane’s gravesite.  Odd how many graveyards I find myself – it’s the history I love.

Badlands still on the list (& 2 Black Hills marathons 🙂 ).  I’ll be back, South Dakota.  I’ll be back.

 

 

pre-Mother’s day run