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reached the site of the Battle of the Little Big Horn on the eve-
ning of the 25th—the 21st anniversary of that battle. They rested
up an extra day below the battlefield. As bad as this section was,
it was only going to get worse.
Heading southeast across Wyoming and South Dakota, they
faced a new challenge. After days of rain through Montana, wa-
ter was now scarce here. What water that was found was tainted
with poisonous alkali. They had to rely on railroad water tanks.
The wind whipped up a toxic mix of dust and alkali fumes. Boos
wrote of that time: "They were tired and covered with mud…
Wild Horse Creek near Arvada, was a mass of mud. Hail stones
which fell Sunday were drifted seven and eight feet
high. The weather was hot and no good water could
be obtained. The corps is making a forced ride to
get out of the Bad Lands."
Despite the continual hardships of weather,
the lack of potable water and any semblance of
decent roads, the corps made it through the south-
west corner of South Dakota and reached Crawford
in eastern Nebraska on the afternoon of July 3rd.
When they arrived, the town was having an early
4th of July parade and they just rode along in their customary
double-file formation. The local paper reported: "Thousands of
spectators who lined the sidewalks on either side of the street
rent the air with the wildest cheers to speed them on their jour-
ney." The corps pressed on east over the Nebraska plains in ex-
treme heat and the water problems intensified. Two days later
they reached the famous sand hills.
For nearly 200 miles, the sand in the road was eight to 10
inches deep. According to Moss, "This part of the trip was a real
nightmare. It was impossible to make any headway by following
ORTHO REHAB 1/2 H
