Hardin, Montana

Arrived in Hardin Sunday afternoon and were fortunate to get a great campsite with TWO trees! We didn't have any trees in WY, so this is a real treat to have shade. We found that the town has 3445 inhabitants, is between the Crow and Cherokee reservations, and we counted SIX casinos in town, and two on the edge of town. WOW! Guess gambling is the local past time! The farms in the area grow barley, oats, wheat and sugar beets. The harvesting crews arrived last night and are staying at the KOA.

Monday we went to the Little Big Horn National Monument and were very impressed with the interpretive opportunities. Besides the usual interpretive film there was a museum which held a good number of Custer artifacts. Mrs. Custer gave the government his buckskin frontier clothing, one of his uniforms, and his cadet uniform from West Point. The museum also held other articles such as guns, boots, saddle, and his campaign desk and a diary from the Civil War era. There were numerous Indian artifacts as well. We took the 1-hour van tour sponsored by the Little Big Horn College with a Crow Indian guide. She gave us the battle from the Indian viewpoint. Very enlightening! When we returned to the Visitor's Center we sat in on a ranger talk and he pointed out that the government had cut back on soldiers, weapons were outdated, and communication among the 3 armies was lacking. Quite a different viewpoint than the idea that Custer was inept at the battle.

Tuesday we toured the Big Horn County Museum outside Custer. We especially enjoyed the 1911 farm house and the cabins from the Custer Motel. We also liked Camp 4 of the Campbell Farming Corporation which was the brainchild of Thomas D. Campbell of Grand Forks, ND. He founded the largest privately owned wheat farm, which employed 100 men and cultivated 10,000 acres. He was known as the King of Wheat Growers because of the mechanized farming technique he developed to raise wheat in Montana's semi-arid climate. We were able to tour the cookhouse and shower/lavatory buildings and saw many of the early wooden grain wagons and old combines.

Today we drove the 47 miles to the Yellowtail Dam and the Bighorn Lake and canyon. The 71 mile lake was formed from the Yellowtail Dam and extends from Ft. Smith, Montana to Lovell, Wyoming. We only visited the Dam and the North end of the Bighorn lake near Ft. Smith. It was overcast, so pictures taken are a bit dark. As we were leaving the marina area, there were two deer grazing close to the road. They didn't run off, so Jack snapped several pictures of them.

Tomorrow we'll stay in camp and on Friday we move the 55 miles to Billings, Montana where we plan to extend our stay to 7 days. Hopefully the wi-fi will be more robust in Billings. We have found it difficult to log in from here.