SEPT 11: Exploration of Battlefield Begins

This week in 1983, The New York Times publishes a story, “Fire May Unveil Mysteries of Custer,” with details on a planned 5-year search for clues as to what happened to Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Custer and most of the U.S. 7th Cavalry were wiped out at the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. (Credit: Library of Congress)

A grass fire at the battlefield monument in August 1983 burned away all 600 acres, uncovering areas worth exploring. It was the first fire there since the battle on June 25, 1876.

National Park Service historians hoped to learn over the next five years how and why Custer deployed him men and “how they reacted once they encountered thousands of warriors from the Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfoot and other tribes of the Great Plains,” the Times reported.

“There are questions that have nagged historians for years,” said Neil Mangum, a Park Service historian based at the site. “Now is an advantageous time for us to start looking.”

The fire also made it easier to find the spot where the Indians and the cavalry stood in the battle. Using a metal detector, “Mr. Mangum has found concentrations of cartridges in one spot. But while graves, cartridges and horseshoes have been found, the fire did not reveal a wealth of artifacts.”

Richard Fox, an archaeologist from the University of Calgary in Alberta, said most of those “were probably gone forever.

“Through the 1940s, anyone could come out here, have a picnic and collect artifacts,” Fox said.