Explore the real-world places that appear in Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly Bears by Matthew P. Mayo. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Little Bighorn Battlefield, Three Forks of the Missouri, Hugh Glass Grizzly Attack Site, Fort Kiowa Site, Green River Launch, Powell Expedition and 6 more.
Crow Agency, Montana — Custer's Last Stand
Mayo recounts the June 25, 1876 clash in which Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led the 7th Cavalry against a huge Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment. Custer divided his command, and he and about 210 men were wiped out on the ridge above the river. Leaders such as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Gall figure in the account of the Native victory.
The battle was the most famous Native American victory of the Plains Indian Wars. The site was made a national cemetery in 1879 and later became a national monument. Its name was changed from Custer Battlefield in 1991.
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument has a visitor center, a museum, and markers where soldiers fell. An Indian Memorial honors the Native warriors who died there.
Visit: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (historic site)
Near Three Forks, Montana — John Colter's escape from the Blackfeet
John Colter, a veteran of the Lewis and Clark expedition, returned to trap beaver here. In 1808 he and John Potts were ambushed by Blackfeet warriors. Potts was killed, and Colter was stripped naked and told to run. He outran his pursuers for miles, killed one of them, hid beneath a beaver lodge in the river, and then trekked about 200 miles to a trading post.
The Missouri River headwaters were a vital beaver country and contested ground among the Blackfeet and other tribes. Lewis and Clark named the three rivers Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin in 1805. Fur trappers began working the area soon after.
Missouri Headwaters State Park preserves the confluence and offers trails and interpretive displays. Visitors can walk the landscape that Colter and Lewis and Clark traversed.
Visit: Missouri Headwaters State Park (park)
Grand River, near Lemmon, South Dakota — Glass's mauling and abandonment
In 1823, while scouting for Andrew Henry's fur brigade, Hugh Glass surprised a she-grizzly with cubs and was savagely mauled. Left for dead, he was abandoned by John Fitzgerald and young Jim Bridger, who had been told to wait with him. Glass woke alone and crawled and hobbled some 200 miles to Fort Kiowa.
The Rocky Mountain Fur Company's trappers worked the northern plains in the 1820s. Glass's survival became one of the great legends of the fur trade. A monument in Perkins County marks the traditional location of the attack.
A roadside monument and state historical marker near Lemmon commemorate the attack. The site sits in quiet rangeland with few services nearby.
Visit: Hugh Glass Monument (monument)
Missouri River near Chamberlain, South Dakota — end of Glass's crawl
After weeks of crawling, eating roots, berries and scavenged wolf-killed carrion, a barely alive Hugh Glass reached this trading post on the Missouri River. He later tracked down Bridger and Fitzgerald, ultimately sparing them. The tale has become a staple of frontier lore.
Fort Kiowa was a trading post established for the fur trade, also called Brazeau's Post. It was active in the 1820s and early 1830s. Its exact location has been lost to river changes.
The actual fort site is not preserved, but the Missouri River area near Chamberlain has Akta Lakota Museum and overlooks. The setting lets visitors imagine Glass's journey.
Green River, Wyoming — Start of John Wesley Powell's 1869 voyage
On May 24, 1869, one-armed Civil War veteran Major John Wesley Powell led nine men in four wooden boats from Green River. They set out to explore the unmapped Green and Colorado Rivers. Their journey into the canyons would become one of the great expeditions in American history.
Powell's expedition filled one of the last blank spaces on U.S. maps. The town of Green River was a Union Pacific railroad stop. Powell later led the U.S. Geological Survey.
Expedition Island Park in Green River commemorates the launch with markers. The riverfront park is open to the public.
Visit: Expedition Island Park (park)
Colorado River, Arizona — Powell's treacherous run
Powell and his crew battled boiling rapids and towering walls of the Grand Canyon. Boats were smashed and supplies lost. Three men, the Howland brothers and William Dunn, left the party at Separation Rapid, climbed out, and were killed, while Powell's crew completed the run.
The Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon over millions of years. Powell's 1869 and 1871-72 expeditions produced the first scientific descriptions of the canyon. Grand Canyon National Park was established in 1919.
Grand Canyon National Park draws millions of visitors, and river rafting trips run the same route. Overlooks like Grand Canyon Village provide views.
Visit: Grand Canyon National Park (park)
Main Street, Deadwood, South Dakota — Wild Bill Hickok's murder
On August 2, 1876, gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok was playing poker at Nuttall & Mann's No. 10 Saloon. Jack McCall slipped in and shot him in the back of the head. Hickok held the famed 'dead man's hand' of aces and eights.
Deadwood was a lawless gold-rush town in Lakota territory. McCall was acquitted in a miners' trial, then retried and hanged in Yankton in 1877. Hickok was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery.
Saloon No. 10 operates in Deadwood as a bar and museum with a recreated death scene. Deadwood is a National Historic Landmark district.
Visit: Saloon No. 10 (restaurant)
Fremont Street, Tombstone, Arizona — Earp and Holliday gunfight
On October 26, 1881, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday faced the Clantons and McLaurys in a roughly 30-second gunfight. Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury died. The fight fed the legend of the Wild West lawmen.
Tombstone boomed after silver was found in 1877. The feud between the Earps and the Cochise County Cowboys grew from politics and rivalry. The gunfight actually occurred in a vacant lot near the corral on Fremont Street.
The O.K. Corral is a tourist attraction with reenactments and exhibits. Tombstone is a National Historic Landmark.
Visit: O.K. Corral Historic Complex (historic site)
Dodge City, Kansas — Cowtown and lawmen
Dodge City was the end of the cattle trail where Texas cowboys drove herds to the railhead. Lawmen like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson worked its rowdy streets. Cowboys, gamblers and buffalo hunters made it a symbol of the cattle frontier.
The town was founded in 1872 along the Santa Fe Railway. It became the 'Queen of the Cowtowns' and shipped enormous numbers of cattle. Boot Hill cemetery gained fame for its dead gunfighters.
Boot Hill Museum recreates Front Street with a saloon, shops and gunfight shows. It is a major Wild West attraction.
Visit: Boot Hill Museum (museum)
Near Fort Laramie, Wyoming — Fur trade and treaties
Fort Laramie anchored the fur trade, then the emigrant trails and the Indian treaties. Mountain men, traders, Lakota leaders and army officers crossed paths here. The 1851 and 1868 treaties were negotiated nearby.
Founded in 1834 as a fur-trading post, it was bought by the U.S. Army in 1849. It served as a key stop on the Oregon Trail. The army abandoned it in 1890.
Fort Laramie National Historic Site preserves restored buildings and exhibits. Rangers offer living-history programs.
Visit: Fort Laramie National Historic Site (historic site)
Near Billings, Montana — Clark's signature on the Yellowstone
This sandstone pillar on the Yellowstone River served as a landmark for explorers, trappers and travelers. William Clark carved his name into it in 1806 on the return of the Corps of Discovery. It is the only physical evidence along the route of the expedition.
Clark named it after Sacagawea's son, Jean Baptiste, nicknamed Pomp. The Crow and other tribes had long marked the rock with petroglyphs. It was named a national monument in 2001.
Pompeys Pillar National Monument has a visitor center and a boardwalk to Clark's signature. It is run by the Bureau of Land Management.
Visit: Pompeys Pillar National Monument (monument)
More by Matthew P. Mayo: All Matthew P. Mayo books
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