Fort Robinson, Nebraska

Well, all good things come to an end. Our Lazy Daze caravan ended on Saturday, July 1 and we headed north and east to get to this quaint state park in the northwest part of the great cornhusker state. Fort Robinson was built in 1873 as one of the frontier forts. Custer lead an expedition from Fort Robinson into the black hills of South Dakota in 1875, where gold was discovered and the rush was on. The only problem was that the black hills belonged to the Sioux, according to our 1868 treaty with them. The government looked the other way as hundreds of prospectors tried to find gold. Many of them lost their scalps as the Sioux went on the war path. This lead to the army campaigns against the Sioux in the summer of 1876 and Custer’s last stand. But I am getting ahead of myself, that is to come.

The Sioux chief Crazy Horse was killed at the fort in 1877, bayoneted by a guard while in custody.

The fort is preserved by the state and is in good condition. We toured the museum, officer’s quarters and an enlisted men’s barracks. There is a herd of buffalo on the grounds of the fort and we saw them up close on a car tour.

We are starting to experience the plains weather. The last two afternoons, clouds developed to our west. They kept getting bigger and bigger, until the entire sky was dark. While we only got wind and rain, we could hear weather alerts on the NOAA weather channel. There was hail and possibly tornadoes to the south of us.