My first stop about 80 miles away was Cheyenne, OK, site in November 1868 of the Battle of the Wash!ta (or Wash!ta Massacre) [please imagine an i in place of ! -- the profanity filter won't let me spell the name of the site] where Custer's troops staged a pre-dawn attack on a sleeping Cheyenne camp. Estimates vary as to the number of dead, but around 50 Cheyenne were killed, including women and children. Custer's men also shot 700-800 horses, the main revenue source of the Cheyenne.
Here is the battle site:
There is a wonderful new visitor center at the Wa****a Battlefield site (operated by the National Park Service). Here is the American flag flying outside the center:
After eating lunch in Cheyenne, I headed west for the Texas panhandle, and made my way to Canadian, TX before starting my loop back into northwest Oklahoma. Once back in Oklahoma, I detoured to the small town of Shattuck, home since 1994 to a really cool outdoor museum dedicated to the windmill. Each one is labeled with the date of its general use. There are many varieties:
On the way home from Shattuck, I detoured again to one of my favorite twisty county roads along Canadian river valley. I got home after 317 miles, tired but happy.
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