S. BROWN, CO. F, 3RD I, 1859 - SIGNATURE ROCK, BOISE CITY, OK:

S. Brown, Co. F, 3rd I, 1859, Signature Rock, Boise City, Oklahoma. Photograph Peter Faris, 12 June 2006. 

Close-up of signature, S. Brown, Co. F, 3rd I, 1859, Signature Rock, Boise City, Oklahoma. Photograph Peter Faris, 12 June 2006.

Back in 2006 I visited a ranch outside of Boise City in the panhandle of western Oklahoma which has a cliff covered with old inscriptions from the Santa Fe Trail. One that interested me is “S. Brown, Co. F, 3d I, 1859,” which I take to refer to Company F of the 3^rd Infantry Regiment. 

The 3^rd Infantry Regiment was the U. S. Army’s first Regiment, founded in 1784, and is the oldest currently active regiment in the Regular Army. They fought in the Mexican War, after which they were assigned to New Mexico Territory. “From 1856 to 1860 the regiment served in New Mexico where it fought the Navajo Indian tribe.” (Wikipedia)

Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory (now Arizona). Illustration Seth Eastman, 1873.

The encyclopedic, 475 page compendium of the Navajo wars and fighting by Frank McNitt (1972) provides only a few mentions of the 3rd Infantry Division, with only one mention of Company F (in 1851), and no S. Brown listed. It mentions "Lieutenant Henry B. Schroeder's Company F, Third Infantry" as being part of the garrison of Fort Defiance. (McNitt 1972:199)

Navajo family with loom. Near Old Fort Defiance, New Mexico. Albumen print photograph, 1873, public domain.

The U.S. Army Center of Military History records the following information for the 3rd during 1858. "1858 - Janyary 1 to February 11; scout against Kiowa Indians in neighborhood of Manzana; Company F, March to September; Mormon Expedition into Utah; Companies A, E and R, May 30; engagement with Navajo Indians at Ewell's hay camp near Fort Defiance; detachments of B and G. September, October and November; campaign against Navahos; engagements; September 19 to 24, Canyon de Chelly; Company G; September 25, Laguna Negra, Company B; October 1, Bear Springs, Company B; October 10 Rancho de los Anagones, Company G; November 9 near Fort Defiance, Company F." (U.S. Army Center of Military History) Their record, however, does not mention company F in 1859, it does come up again in 1860 at Fort Defiance.

During this March to September period in 1858, a confrontation accurred which is known as the Mormon Expedition. The Mormon Expedition, also known as the Utah War "or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the U.S. government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 to July 1858. There were some casualties, most of which were non-Mormon civilians. The was had no notable military battles." (Wikipedia)

So, with the 3rd Infantry Regiment based at Fort Defiance, New Mexico, from 1856 to 1860, how did a member of the 3rd put his name on Signature Rock in Western Oklahoma in 1859. I can only assume that our S. Brown was on his way back to the States when he passed through Oklahoma, headed East on the Santa Fe Trail which passes right by that location. Was he discharged from military service, or was he sent back to deliver dispatches? I shall probably never know, but he has led me on a fascinating journey trying to trace him down.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

U. S. Army Center of Military History, Third Regiment of Military, https://history.army.mil/books/R&H/R&H-3IN.htm, accessed 12 December 2021.

McNitt, Frank, 1972, Navajo Wars: Military Campaigns, Slave Raids, and Reprisals, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque

Wikipedia, 3^rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_U.S._Infantry_Regiment_(The_Old_Guard)#1815_to_1861, accessed 13 December 2021.

Wikipedia, Utah War, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_War, accessed 12 December 2021.

HISTORY OR HOAX - THE ELEANOR DARE STONE?

Dare Stone, front side,

Brenau University.

ncpedia.org, Public domain.

This is another story about a questionable historical inscription on a piece of rock, discovered under questionable circumstances and never rigorously tested for authenticity, which some people desperately want to be authentic, and others are convinced of its status as a hoax.

"The Dare Stones are a series of inscribed messages supposedly written by English colonists, members of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island off North Carolina. The colonists were last seen in 1587, when John White, the colony's governor, returned to England for supplies. White's return was delayed until 1590, when he found that all the settlers had gone. A single-word message indicated that they had moved to another place, but poor weather meant that White had to abandon the search. No subsequent trace of the settlers was ever found.

The stones purport to give accounts of what happened to the colonists. They are mainly supposed to have been written by Eleanor White Dare, who was the daughter of John White and the mother of Virginia Dare, the first child of English descent to be born in North America." (Wikipedia)

Dare Stone, back side,

Brenau University.

ncpedia.org, Public domain.

The first stone was supposedly found by one L. E. Hammond, a California tourist, in 1937. He took it to Emory University, Atlanta, where he gave it to History Professor Haywood Jefferson Pearce to examine. Pearce did not declare the stone to be authentic, but did argue that the content was not incompatible with known historical facts, and that the spelling content was not "conformed to expectations of"  Elizabethan usage. (Wikipedia)

One side of the first stone said:

"Ananias Dare &

Virginia Went Hence

Unto Heaven 1591

Anye Englishman Shew

John White Govr Via"

(Wikipedia)

And the second side had a much longer inscription about the deaths of the colony:

"On the other side it explained that all but seven of the colonists had been killed by savages, and it was signed 'EWD'." (Wikipedia) The second side also mentioned a burial of the victims on a hill marked by another inscribed stone.

Pearce was eager to find the second stone mentioned on stone #1 and put an ad in a local paper offering a reward for further stones."By 1940, forty-seven more stones allegedly had been found by a local farmer, William Eberhardt. They told a complicated tale of the fate of the Lost Colony. The stones were addressed to John White and called for revenge against the "savages" or told Eleanor's father the direction taken by the survivors." (Wikipedia)

All of the subsequently discovered stones were quickly suspected as forgeries, manufactured by Eberhardt, and in 1941 an investigative reporter from the Saturday Evening Post took up the question. It was quickly proven that these subsequent stones had been manufactured with the assistance of a hand drill not available to a lost colonist in the 1500s. Additionally, the fact that they were all discovered hundreds of miles from where the colonists would reasonably have been expected to be aroused suspicion.

"The stones were exposed as forgeries by journalist Boyden Sparkes in the Saturday Evening Post in 1941. He raised a number of questions without definitively indicating any individual as having responsibility, questions about the information given by the stones themselves, and also about the characters and background of those who purported to have found them. He also questioned the circumstances of stones having traveled so far from where they were supposedly left by Eleanor Dare to the spot where they were found. Sparkes put it to Pearce that "it must have been and exceedingly friendly naked savage who had carried a twenty-one-pound stone message across hundreds of miles of South and North Carolina." " (Wikipedia)

Sparkes noted that Emory University had washed their hands of the whole business when Hammond  had proposed charging people to see the stone, at which point Pearce took the stone himself to Brenau College (now Brenau University).  Sparkes was unable to retrace Hammond, having only a post-office box for an address, and the Pinkerton Detective Agency was also unable to locate the original discoverer. (Wikipedia)

Although I, like every American school kid, was introduced to the subject of the "Lost Colony" in grade school, my first introduction to the subject of the Eleanor Dare Stone came in the form of an episode of the television series America Unearthed, hosted by "forensic geologist" and scam artist Scott Wolter, so I assumed from the beginning that the whole thing was a hoax. And, to be honest, there are many questions and doubts about the authenticity of the first stone as well, although some people still believe it might be authentic. A 2015 documentary on the History Channel Return to Roanoke, Search For The Seven reached this conclusion, that the first stone might be a real inscription by Eleanor Dare and that further tests were called for. The History Channel documentary was certainly done better than America Unearthed and is worth watching as a reasonably conducted investigation and interesting piece of documentary, no matter what your position is on the authenticity of the Eleanor Dare Stone(s). To me the fascination of this story, and I do find it fascinating, is that people will still fall for these hoaxes.

NOTE: The images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this report you should read the original at the site listed below.

REFERENCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dare_Stones

ANOTHER SUPPOSED NORTH AMERICAN RUNE STONE:

Noman's Land Island Rune

Stone, Massachusetts.

Every so often, here in North America, we run into an inscription on a stone that is claimed to be done in authentic Viking runes and proves that they were here hundreds of years before the discovery of the Americas by Columbus. The most famous of these, of course, is the Kensington Rune Stone. This column is about a stone on an island off of Martha's Vineyard, the Noman's Land Rune Stone.

Noman's Land Island, off southern
tip of Martha's Vineyard,
Massachusetts.
Image: Google Earth.

The small, uninhabited island called Noman's Land is about three miles off of the southwest corner of Martha's Vineyard. It was previously owned by the U.S. Navy which used it for a bombing range (unexploded ordnance is believed to remain there). It has been owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1975, and is now used as a wildlife refuge, primarily for migratory birds. (Hickey 2007)

"In 1602, during the British ship Concord's exploration of Cape Cod, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold named Nomans Land "Martha's Vineyard" after his eldest daughter, Martha. However, the name was later transferred to the larger island currently known as Martha's Vinyard, which is located northeast of Nomans Land. The island was probably named "Nomans Land" after a Martha's Vineyard Wampanoag sachem, Tequenoman, who had jurisdiction over the island when the English came in the early 17th century: named from TequeNoman's Land." (Wikipedia)

The stone is reportedly located a little way off of the beach of the island and is usually obscured by water but is apparently exposed at low tide.

Closeup of the inscription,

Noman's Land Island Rune

Stone, Massachusetts.

"Joshua Crane, the former owner of Noman's Land, first discovered the strange lettering on the large black rock late one afternoon when the setting sun sank low on the horizon on afternoon in 1926. Mr. Crane took the oldest known photographs of the inscription in 1926, which were published in a book by Edward Gray titled Leif Eriksson, Discoverer of America." (Hickey 2007)

Gray "sent his photos to some experts at Oslo University. What the professors came back with was certainly interesting - and had the potential to throw three centuries of accepted history on its head. Once deciphered the text read, "Liif Iriksson, MI." (Berke 2015) In this text, the MI is taken to be the Roman numerals for 1001 (the supposed year of the inscription). This mixing of runes and Latin script was known in Britain after AD 700 (where Anglo-Saxon runes and Latin numerals were sometimes used together). "The characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianization, by approximately 700 AD in central Europe and 1100 AD in northern Europe." (Wikipedia) This suggests that it would be contradictory for an authentic Northman's Viking inscription from the year 1001 to contain a Latin notation, and since none of the records seem to suggest that Leif Ericsson's expedition included Anglo-Saxons, that would seem to settle it.

"The stone was later examined by E. B. Delbarre in the New England Quarterly in 1935 and again by Hjamar P. Holland in the same publication in 1944, both of whom dismissed the rock as a hoax." (Hickey 2007)

If one plugs the name Leif Ericson into a modern English to Runic translator, the results come back fairly convincingly like the inscription with slight differences for the different spelling (it actually translates to Liif Iriksson as noted above). This would be close enough to convince me - if the ancient Vikings of a thousand years ago had spelled their words the same way that we do in modern English. Different languages do not always share all of the same sounds and pronunciations. This, in itself, would be enough to make me suspicious of any supposed Runic inscription that translates so handily into English.

Of course, now that we know of L'anse aux Meadows and other possibly Viking sites in North America there is much less of a motive to have to believe in dubious inscriptions to prove the early Viking presence. In this case, I fear I have to classify myself with the doubters and proclaim the Noman's Land Rune Stone a hoax.

REFERENCES:

Berke, Jeremy

2015 Object of Intrigue: The Possibly Viking Runestone of Massachusetts, https://atlasobscura.com/articles/the-vikings-of-noman-s-land-island

Hickey, Jim

2007 Revisiting Viking Myth on Island, Noman's Expedition Is Planned, The Vineyard Gazette, Edgartown

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomans_Land_(Massachusetts)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runes

MEET THE ROCK ARTIST - BIRD RATTLE AT WRITING-ON-STONE:

Bird Rattle's petroglyph record of his 1924

visit to Writing-On-Stone. Photograph

Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.

It is a verity in our branch of Art History study that we rarely get to know who created the art we study. In my March 3, 2018, posting I presented rock art (of a sort) that had been created by Sir Isaac Newton. Now, in this posting, I am visiting the author of a historic panel found in Writing-On-Stone, in Canada.

Close-up of the car on the right,

next to large "V"-necked figure

(the figure was not created

by Bird Rattle, it was already there).

Photograph Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.

This car contains 4 passengers.

A couple of years ago I finally had the pleasure of visiting the famous rock art site of Writing-On-Stone provincial park, in Alberta, Canada. There, along the cliffs on the north side of the Milk River valley, a whole lot of world-class rock art can be seen.

Close-up of the car on the left.

Bird Rattle's petroglyph record of his 1924

visit to Writing-On-Stone. Photograph

Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.
This car contains 2 passengers.

Among many images in the Plains Biographic tradition to be found at Writing-On-Stone, one panel shows a pair of automobiles with passengers clearly seen within. While unmistakably of historic origin, the actual details of its creation were debated until a photograph turned up which shows the creation of the images by a Piegan elder named Bird Rattle in 1924.

Bird Rattle carving his petroglyph,1924,

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park,

Alberta, Canada. Public Domain.

"Taken by Roland Willcomb, the photograph clearly shows the South Piegan elder Bird Rattle carving a petroglyph - one of two very similar, detailed automobiles - on a panel at the main site in what is now Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park. The origin of these automobile images has long been a source of debate. Several early researchers assumed the vehicles were recent Euro-American images, while one of us in more recent research had identified certain stylistic elements which suggested a possible aboriginal source. The photograph conclusively ends the question as to the origin of the automobile petroglyphs, but more importantly, its discovery led the authors to additional photographs, correspondence, and documents pertaining to Bird Rattle's and Willcomb's association with Writing-on-Stone." (Klassen et al 2000:189)

Bird Rattle, ca. 1910, Photograph

Edward S. Curtis. Public Domain.

"Born about 1863 near Writing-On-Stone (Willcomb 1968a:3), Bird Rattle grew up during the last of the buffalo days on the Northern Plains. He was intimately familiar with Writing-On-Stone. As a boy in 1866, he and his famil were camped near the locale at the time of the Retreats-Up-The-Hill battle - one of the last major conflicts involving the Blackfoot Nation. Bird Rattle's name has long been association with both Retreats-Up-The-Hill and Writing-On-Stone, as his version of this battle directly links the rock art with this famous conflict. (Dempsey 1973) After the buffalo were gone, Bird Rattle settled in a cabin on Cut Bank Creek, just north of Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation of Montana. By the 1920s, Bird Rattle was a prominent Piegan elder and the owner of a sacred Beaver Bundle. (Willcomb 1970a:44)." (Klassen et al 2000:191)

Roland H. Willcomb was born in Massachusetts and educated in engineering. He had first come to Montana in 1908 (Willcomb 1970a). Willcomb worked around the American West until 1923 when he returned to Montana to work for the Montana Highway Commission. Between 1923 and 1925, he was the Project Engineer overseeing construction of roads across the Blackfeet Reservation. Willcomb met Blackfeet elders including Bird Rattle in Browning, Montana, and "a close friendship developed between Bird Rattle and Willcomb which continued until Bird Rattle's death on October 31, 1937 (Willcomb 1979a)." (Klassen et al 2000:191-2)

"Within a year of their meeting, Willcomb had arranged to take Bird Rattle on a visit to Writing-On-Stone. Apparently, Willcomb had been told stories of this "place of mystery, 'where ghosts live'" (Willcomb 1968a:1) and he wished to experience it himself. Their journey to Writing-On-Stone was documented by Willcomb with a series of photographs, and he later recorded a narrative of the journey (Willcomb 1968a), apparently based on his original notes and letters." (Klassen et al 2000:191-2)

”On the morning of September 13, 1924, Willcomb and Bird Rattle, accompanied by a second Piegan elder, Split Ears, and Jack Wagner who acted as an interpreter, left Browning in Willcomb's car. The party drove north to the Canadian border. There they were joined by two of Willcomb's friends from Great Falls, John Stevenson and I. O. Deshon, who arrived in a second car. From the border the two cards proceeded to Writing-On-Stone, where the party set up camp near the cliffs. After briefly inspecting the rock art on the cliffs, the party gathered around the campfire where Bird Rattle and Split Ears described the rock art as messages from the spirit world which could be read by Medicine Men (Willcomb 1968a:13). These messages, which frequently changed overnight, warned of enemies in the area, told them the location of buffalo herds or strayed horses, and foretold future events. One of the stories told by Bird Rattle that evening was that of the Retreats-Up-The-Hill battle, which Willcomb transcribed in great detail in his later narrative. (Willcomb 1968a; Dempsey 1973)." (Klassen et al, 2000:193)

It was during this visit that Bird Rattle decided to add a record of his trip to the Biographic rock art at Writing-On-Stone. "According to Willcomb, at one point during the day, "Bird Rattle decided that he should record our trip. He selected a bare rock face some distance from any of the ancient 'writings.' He tried his best with a hard piece of quartz, but was barely able to scratch the surface of the sandstone" (Willcomb 1968a:17). Bird rattle, in fact, selected a face already containing rock art, and despite Willcomb's assertion to the contrary, he was quite successful in carving his record of the trip, judging from the resulting petroglyphs." (Klassen et al 2000:194)

"By recording this significant event as rock art, Bird Rattle demonstrated the relationship between narrative expression and the spirit powers of a sacred place. Bird Rattle's petroglyphs, and Willcomb's narrative of this trip (together with the anonymous 1932 narrative), provide new insights into the aboriginal significance of Writing-On-Stone, and the meaning of its rock art."

(Klassen et al 2000:195)

(I wonder whether Bird Rattle actually wore his feather headdress as he created his images, or whether the photo was posed later.)

For students of this art form which is all too often presented to us anonymously on the surface of the cliff, cave, or boulder, and incident like this where we have factual knowledge of the time and place, as well as the thoughts of the creator, can be of inestimable value in looking for meaning.

I am personally very grateful to Klassen, Keyser, and Loendorf for their work in winkling out the facts of this story, and then bringing it to us.

NOTE: The images of Bird Rattle in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Dempsey, Hugh A.,

1973 A History of Writing-On-Stone, Unpublished manuscript on file with the Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

Klassen, Michael A., James D Keyser & Lawrence L. Loendorf,

2000 Bird Rattle’s Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone:Continuity in the Biographic Rock Art Tradition, Plains Anthropologist, 45:172, 189-201.

Willcomb, Roland H.

1968a        Ah-sin-efp: Writing-On-Stone, Manuscript on file at the Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena.

1970a        Bird Rattle and the Medicine Prayer, Montana Magazine of Western History 20:42-49.

HISTORICAL INSCRIPTIONS AT THE TOMB OF A BIBLICAL PROPHET:

Esarhaddon inscription, Tomb of

Jonah, Nineveh, Iraq. Photograph

Live Science, Public Domain.

Explorations on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq, in the ruins of The Tomb of Jonah, an ancient shrine that was blown up by ISIS (the so-called Islamic State) on July 24, 2014, in the ancient Iraqi city of Nineveh, revealed seven inscriptions that describe the rule of Assyrian king Esarhaddon. (Jarus 2018)

"Jonah, known as Yunus in the Koran, is a religious figure in Abrahamic religions most famous for the story of being swallowed by a 'giant fish,' or possibly a whale. The text says that he preached in the city of Nineveh, which was the capital of the ancient Assyrian empire" (Hugo 2018)

Mosque of the Prophet Yunus.

Photograph Voice of America,

Public domain.

When Iraqi forces reoccupied the ruins they discovered that ISIS had been tunneling beneath the mosque, presumably for artifacts that could be sold on the black market, one of their sources of income. The mosque, and the Tomb of Jonah, had been blown up by ISIS as one act in their campaign to eradicate what they perceive as idolatry and heresy.

Tunnels beneath the Mosque

of the Prophet Yunus.

Public domain.

Tunnels beneath the Mosque

of the Prophet Yunus.

Public domain.

"The seven inscriptions were discovered in four tunnels beneath the biblical prophet's tomb, which is a shrine that's sacred to both Christians and Muslims." (Jarus 2018)

"One inscription, in translation, reads: 'The palace of Esarhaddon, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, governor of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the kings of lower Egypt, upper Egypt and Kush.'" (Jarus 2018)

An inscription which was engraved on the back of a fallen Lamassu (a deity with a human head and the body of a bull or lion) reads in translation: "The palace of Ashurbanipal, great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, descendant of Sennacherib, king of Assyria." (Jarus 2018)

Stele of Esarhaddon,

Public Domain.

"Another inscription found under the Tomb of Jonah says that Esarhaddon 'reconstructed the temple of the god Assur (the chief god of the Assyrians),' rebuilt the ancient cities of Babylon and Esagil, and 'renewed the statues of the great gods.' The inscriptions also tell of Esarhaddon's family history, saying that he is the son of Sennacherib (reign 704-681 B.C.) and a descendent of Sargon II (reign 721-705 B.C.), who was also 'king of the world, king of Assyria.'" (Jarus 2018)

Sennacherib is known to biblical scholars  because in the Christian bible the Second Book of Chronicles, Chapter 32, describes how the Assyrian King Sennacherib invaded Judah.

So, while the destruction of historically significant cultural properties should be lamented by all civilized humans, the resulting discovery has added to our knowledge of the early history of the Middle East, and that, at least, is a good thing.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Hugo, Kristin

2018 Ancient Tomb of Biblical Prophet Discovered in Iraq Contain Engravings Describing Brutal Assyrian Ruler, February 21, 2018, Newsweek, https://www.yahoo.com/news/ancient-tomb-biblical-prophet-discovered-170054149.html

Jarus, Owen

2018 Beneath Biblical Prophet's Tomb, an Archaeological Surprise, Live Science, Feb. 18, 2018, https://www.livescience.com/61798-biblical-prophet-tomb-iraq.html#?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=02-21-ls

HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS - GEORGE A. CUSTER, 1873:

George A. Custer, 1873.

From Urbaniak, 2015.

On December 27, 2009, I posted a column on ROCK ART OF THE LITTLE BIGHORN in which I presented a couple of rock art panels which have relations to the battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, the so-called Custer Massacre.

In his 2014 thesis for the University of Montana titled HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION, Timothy Urbaniak has included an inscription of George A. Custer, although apparently we cannot relate it to the Little Bighorn battle. This inscription can, however, be associated with the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition/Northern Plains Railroad Survey.

"The Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 was an expedition of the United States Army in the summer of 1873 in Dakota Territory and Montana Territory, to survey a route for the Northern Pacific Railroad along the Yellowstone River. The expedition was under the overall command of Colonel David S. Stanley, with Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer second in command." (Wikipedia)

1873 Yellowstone Expedition

map. Public domain.

"During the summer of 1873, troops under the command of Colonel David S. Stanley, Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Custer, 7th Cavalry Detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Luther P. Bradley, 8th and 9th Infantry Battalion, Major Robert E. A. Crofton, 6th and 17th Infantry Battalion, and Charles J. Dickey, 22nd Infantry Battalion, accompanied surveyors of the Northern Pacific Railroad under the leadership of Thomas L. Rosser, Engineer in Chief in an expedition to examine the Northern Plains landscape along the Yellowstone and Musselshell Rivers in the Montana Territory for the purpose of potential railway routing (Eckroth 2013:13). Toward the close of that Expedition, Lieutenant Colonel Custer remained with the surveyors as they left the Musselshell River and navigated east to rendezvous with Colonel Stanley, who had taken another route." (Urbaniak 2015:120-1)

Portrait of George Armstrong

Custer, 1873, St. Louis Missouri,

Wikimedia.org.

"During this process it became apparent that an inscription reading "George A. Custer 1873" (Figure 5.35) was adjacent to the plotted route. Although the GPS location of the inscription is several miles to the north of the route mapped by the railroad surveyors, it is well within the viewshed of the thousands of people and associated traveling wagons, horses, and livestock that accompanied the expedition. The inscription certainly is not in an area that would lend itself to "being carved to promote tourism," and if the intent was to attract attention, it may have been more neatly inscribed. It is interesting that the inscription does not include a group association with a military unit, a common communication behavior shown to occur elsewhere. Other faint lines on the sandstone surface may indicate that it was superimposed over a petroglyph figure. In addition to the proximity to the mapped trail of the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition, anecdotal support from the sparsely populated locals maintain that the inscription has been known to have been there since first viewed by early immigrants (Jim Meyers 2012, elec. comm.)." (Urbaniak 2015:121)

I am personally somewhat surprised that this inscription has survived un-vandalized, given the approbation that the name George A. Custer arouses among most Native Americans. Not that I would condone vandalism in any way. My personal opinion is that having a historic inscription of the name George A. Custer, serves as a reminder of how badly we once behaved toward the original inhabitants of the area, and may, perhaps, prompt us to do better by all people in the future.

NOTE: Once again I wish to thank Timothy Urbaniak for permission to use material from his thesis. Good work Tim, and thank you.

REFERENCES:

Urbianik, Timothy Rostov,

2014    HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION, Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology The University of Montana, Missoula, MT,  July 2014.

Wikipedia

HISTORIC INSCTIPTIONS - GENERAL CROOK, 1876:

"G. Crook, 1876", inscription.

Photo:Urbaniak, 2014.

I have mentioned this inscription in two previous postings (to view them click on the General Crook entry in the cloud index at the bottom of the blog) but only from field drawings as I did not have an actual photo of it. Now I can present a photograph of the General Crook inscription courtesy of the previously cited (Tom Horn, 12/11/2015; Kid Curry) 2014 thesis dissertation of Timothy Urbaniak, HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION . Tim has generously allowed me to reproduce some of his illustrations of historic inscriptions and quote his text.

"From 1875 to 1882 - Crook was head of the Department of the Platte. Crook served against the Sioux during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. He fought the Lakota at the Battle of the Rosebud. On 28 May 1876, Brigadier General George Crook assumed direct command of the Bighorn and Yellowstone Expedition at Fort Fetterman." (Wikipedia)

General Crook, Wikimedia.

Crook left Fort Fetterman the next day with over 1,000 troops consisting of "15 companies from the 2nd and 3rd Cavalry, 5 companies from the 4th and 9th Infantry, 250 mules and 106 wagons. On 14 June, the column was joined by 261 Shoshone and Crow allies." (Wikipedia)

"The Battle of the Rosebud," from

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper,

1876, public domain.

On 17 June, during a rest break, the troops heard gunfire from the north and a scout rushed into the camp shouting, "Lakota, Lakota" and the Battle of the Rosebud was beginning. "By 0830, the Sioux and Cheyenne had hotly engaged Crook's Indian allies on the high ground north of the main body. Heavily outnumbered, the Crow and Shoshone scouts fell back toward the camp, but their fighting withdrawal gave Crook time to deploy his forces. Rapidly firing the soldiers drove off the attackers but used up much of the ammunition meant for use later in the campaign. Low on ammunition and with numerous wounded, the General returned to his post. Historians debate whether Crook's pressing on could have prevented the killing of five companies of the 7th Cavalry Regiment led by George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn." (Wikipedia)

"G. Crook, 1876", inscription

highlighted. Photo:Urbaniak, 2014.

"At the Rosebud Battlefield there is a long sandstone cliff line that was once used as a buffalo jump and that has provided a canvas for communication for millennia. Petroglyphs dating to precontact times, primarily in the form of shield figures, are incised along the surface of the sandstone cliff. The surface also contains historic inscriptions including one of "G. Crook 1876" (Figure 5.40); since the incising is shallow, it has been traced for clarity (Figure 5.41). Due to the fact that it takes time to create an inscription, even such a shallow one, and due to the fact that the Rosebud Battle began in the morning and just a few hours after Crook and his men arrived at Rosebud Creek, there was not likely a lot of time for a pre-battle incising, and there is no mention of the act in Crook's autobiography (Crook 1986:194). It is possible that someone else carved it as a commemoration; or Crook created he inscription when he returned to the site in the 1890s; although if that was the case he did not spend much in the effort." (Urbaniak 2014:122-3)

So, is this inscription attributable to General Crook? Well, if in the sense of did General Crook carve it himself, I do not think we can answer that. But, if in the sense of was it carved by someone else when General Crook was there (in the general vicinity) I think that is very likely. In either case it brings back a fascinating period of Western History - thank you Tim.

REFERENCES:

Urbianik, Timothy Rostov,

2014    HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION, Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology The University of Montana Missoula, MT,  July 2014.

Wikipedia

HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS - TOM HORN, 1894:

Tom Horn, 1894, inscription. South-central

Montana. Photograph by Timothy Urbaniak,

used by permission.

Periodically, I include historic inscriptions in RockArtBlog, not that they are art per se, but because they provide a direct link to the history of the Western US. This week I am illustrating the inscription pictured above, Tom Horn, 1894.

"Thomas "Tom" Horn, Jr. (November 21,1860 - November 20, 1903) was an American Old West scout, who carried out varied roles as hired gunman, Pinkerton range detective, cowboy, and soldier." (Wikipedia)

Tom Horn, photograph from internet.

"At Names Hill in western Wyoming, local ranchers continued to participate in the cultural tradition of inscribing at that site. During that time there (were) new threats coming to the cattle ranches across the Northern Plains in the form of rustlers. As part of an effort to control rustling, Wyoming ranchers from around Cheyenne hired Tom Horn as an enforcer. In 1894 he was brought in as a detective by the Swan Land & Cattle Company of Cheyenne. Reputed as a cold-blooded killer that liked to shoot from afar, the placement of an inscription reading "Tom Horn, 1894" (Figure 5.68) is placed high along sandstone rimrocks. An interesting note about the inscription site is that it is placed on a cliff at the top of a valley between Billings and Hardin, Montana, with an excellent vantage spot of the travel corridor, and a place in a break in the sandstone cliffs large enough to contain a horse and bedroll." (Urbaniak 2014:128)

"Believed to have committed 17 murders as a hured gunman in the West, in 1902 Horn was convicted of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell near Iron Mountain, Wyoming. The boy was the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller. On the day before his 43rd birthday, Horn was executed by hanging in Cheyenne Wyoming.

While in jail he wrote his autobiography, Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter (1904), which was published posthumously. Numerous editions have been published of this book since the late 20th century, and debate continues as to whether he was guilty of Nickell's murder." (Wikipedia)

Tom Horn presents us with an interesting and controversial case because, as noted above, historians of he are still argue over his guilt or innocence in that particular murder. Horn had reportedly confessed to it while drunk but the circumstances throw enough doubt on the case to keep the question open. Not that Horn did not deserve hanging. His career of murder as a hired gun certainly qualified him for capital punishment. Reportedly, when asked if he had any last request before his 1903 hanging Horn asked to have a friend of his in another cell sing him the song "Life's Railway to Heaven" or "Life is Like a Mountain Railway." This is also one of my favorite hymns.

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NOTE: Presented through the generosity of Tim Urbaniak, who compiled this material for his 2014 PhD thesis, HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION RECORD at the University of Montana, in Missoula.

REFERENCES:

Urbianik, Timothy Rostov,

2014    HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION, Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology The University of Montana Missoula, MT,  July 2014.

Wikipedia.