Junction of Bighorn and Yellowstone Rivers - Custer, Montana
Posted by: 
flyingmoose
N 46° 03.797 W 107° 42.537
13T E 290481 N 5104646
Historical Marker located at a rest stop.
Waymark Code: WM132AK
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 08/31/2020
Views: 3
Not much here other than a rest stop, however this sign tells you about some historic events that happened in the general region.
JUNCTION OF BIGHORN AND YELLOWSTONE RIVERS
The mouth of the Bighorn River as it enters the Yellowstone, 13 miles east of here, is one of the most significant areas in Montana history.
The Crow Indians knew the Yellowstone as Elk River. French explorers called it La Roche Jaune. French trader Francois Larocque named it the Great Horn River, while the Crow called it Lisaxpuatahcheeaashisee, the Large Bighorn Sheep River.
Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, on his return trip from their journey to the Pacific Ocean, camped on the east bank of the Bighorn River on July 26, 1806.
The following year, in November 1807, an expedition led by Manuel Lisa, a St. Louis fur trader, arrived at the mouth of the Bighorn River. He built a fur trading post which he named Fort Remon in honor of his two-year-old son. This was the first building erected in what is now the State of Montana. From here Lisa sent John Colter to make contact with the Indians to induce them to come to his post and trade their furs for goods. On this journey Colter experienced the wonders of present-day Yellowstone National Park.
In 1876 during the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian campaign of that year, General Terry and Colonel Gibbon marched up the Bighorn River to the site of Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. They arrived two days after the battle. The steamer Far West, plied the waters of both rivers and brough the wounded from the battle back to Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory.