Longtime South Dakota lobbyist and Stockgrowers Association chief Jack McCullough spoke on Custer's journey through Harding County at the West River History Conference, which I attended last weekend in Rapid City. Harding County is a lovely paradise -- part forest, part badlands and the rest prairie. All westerners love its beautiful panoramas. So Jack researched Custer's journals to see if he felt the same way. Apparently not. It seems he came through on a hot afternoon, just after the Indians had burned the prairie grass to black tinders so Custer's horses and mules wouldn't have any fuel.

Also at the conference, historian/journalist Dale Lewis told me how to find the spot were Sitting Bull was killed -- something I've been meaning to do. I'd heard it was marked with a copper plate sometime after his death at the hands of Indian policemen on Dec. 15, 1890. Dale got the directions from Will Robinson, the great state historian of yesteryear. Robinson said to go to McLaughlin and go south on the road until you see an old Indian walking. Ask the Indian and he'll tell you. If the Indian isn't walking along the road then you aren't going to find it.