Fort Robinson

Driving across northwest Nebraska, you can almost picture the
days before the European-Americans arrived on the scene. Miles
of miles of empty grassland stretching to the horizon. I really enjoy
this type of landscape and since most of this area is ranch land, it
lets the imagination roam as we drive the seemingly endless miles.


In a small corner of the Nebraska Panhandle is the small town of
Crawford, and nearby is historic Fort Robinson. We visited Fort
Robinson briefly over ten years ago and vowed we would return
someday for a longer visit. As well as being place of historic
interest, it's also in a pretty area, protected by bluffs, with streams
running nearby.


To Lynn and I, it's also important as the place where Lakota chief
Crazy Horse was killed by U.S. troops. Both of us hold Crazy Horse
in high esteem and I felt it was a solemn moment when we were
able to see where he met his very untimely death.


In the scope of U.S. History, Fort Robinson has been around a
fairly long time. It opened in the 1870's as an Indian Agency and
closed after World War II. As a result, there are lots of buildings here
from many different eras, serving many purposes. These were officers
quarters at one time.


Fort Robinson is now a Nebraska State Park and during the summer,
it hosts lots of folks camping and staying in some of the refurbished
buildings. This particular building is now a visitor's history museum
and there was lots of information and artifacts from the the Fort's
history.


To remind us of what this area used to be, we took a short drive west
of Fort Robinson, where a small buffalo (American Bison) herd is kept.
These animals never fail to fascinate me with their almost prehistoric
and noble look. It was a perfect ending to our visit to this interesting
piece of American history.