View From Buffalo Bill’s Grave

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Lookout Mountain over Golden, CO.

A raven takes flight from a tree on Lookout Mountain over Golden, Colorado. (Jonathan Gewirtz)

7 thoughts on “View From Buffalo Bill’s Grave”

  1. Somebody’s on a trip, or was. Try to get to Custer Battlefield if you can. The view is eerie. You can almost see the Indians coming up the hill. I think they may have screwed it up some since I visited in 1965 but the view must still be there.

  3. So where is BB buried?

    A few years ago I had to visit Deadwood SD – what an interesting place. WB (gee, these are all my initials) but Wild Bill is buried next to Calamity Jane. The “legend” is that they were lovers but I have subsequently heard that WB barely tolerated CJ – he was recently married – she was the one who propagated the “legend” saying “when I die bury me next to Wild Bill”

    Wonder what Bill thought about that ;-)

    Second the view of Michael – the Custer Battlefield was, to me, illuminating. I expected a small area where he was surrounded and it is a long ridge – a mile or more – a good 500′ above the river – and his troops were all along the ridge.

    Custer and his company were on one end and when the Indians learned his location they mainly went after him.

    I think he was a bit arrogant and in the end it cost him his life.

    Interesting aside (I read in the last few years a recent book on him and what archeologists have discovered) but his wife had an eerie premonition when he and his troops left the fort.

  4. When I was at the Custer Battlefield there were makers with names where the bodies of outposts were found. Most of them are buried in a mass grave in the center but the outpost markers gave a pretty good idea of the tactics. Unfortunately, they didn’t work. He should not have been there. I read a lot about that battle a long time ago and don’t remember as much as I used to.

  5. Within the last 5 years Michael archaeologists did an extensive dig and were able to reconstruct a lot the battle from a lot of the artifacts. There was a good article on it in American Heritage I believe.

    Before going there I believed that the entire unit was wiped out – but it was mainly Custer and his group at the end of the line along the ridge.

    The Sioux and Crow and Cheyenne had a thing about “The Yellow Hair ” ;-)

    Actually seeing the site was really an eye opener for me – it is far bigger than my imagination made.

    He made several critical errors – not the least was splitting his unit up.

    In going there I also, in a sense of adventure, drove though the Crow Indian reservation which is huge.

    I got to the site and twilight was coming which added to the aura.

    If you ever see the movie The Horse Whisperer they have a scene were they stop at the site during dusk.

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