The Washita Battlefield in Oklahoma

When planning our trip, one of the resources we used was the National Park Service website to see what parks, landmarks, etc., would be possible to visit.  Our route from Elk City, Oklahoma, to Dodge City, Kansas, took us right by the Washita Battlefield, a National Historic Site. 

There is a visitor center there that has a good film that explains the events of the battle that occurred there on November 27, 1868, when Lt. Colonel Custer led a surprise attack (massacre) on Peace Chief Black Kettle and his people.  Chief Black Kettle had already survived the Sand Creek Massacre nearly four years earlier, but neither he nor his wife survived this one.  If you enlarge these photos, you may be able to read more about what happened at Washita; if that doesn't work, I've linked to information throughout this blog post.

In addition to the Visitor Center, you can drive about a mile to an observation point of where the massacre took place.  There is a trail you can walk if you have time (we didn't).  

We also learned that there is a National Grasslands program; the one in this area is the Black Kettle National Grasslands.  The National Grasslands are administered by the US Department of Agriculture.  You can learn more about them here:

While this is the first time I learned about Black Kettle and his life, it won't be the only time we hear about him on our trip.  The events at Sand Creek played a major role in events later on.

This stop wasn't a cheery one; it was pretty sobering to think of the battles and strife that occurred during the settling of our nation.  But that's one of the things we wanted to do on this trip - to learn more about our nation by taking time to see what's out there.  These "fly over states" are full of events that shaped our country, one way or the other.

And just because it seems most of the National Park Service places we have visited so far always have a bison, here's the one from the Washita Battlefield Historic Site.

~ Cindy D.