Big Hole National Battlefield

I stopped here last week on my way to Yellowstone National Park, its a very beautiful, interesting and emotional place. There is the beauty of the Big Hole river valley stretching out away from the mountains, and there’s the sad history of the area, the flight of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce and their struggle against the U.S. Army.
The visitors center is very nice on a hill over looking the village and battle site, and they have a very good 30 minute movie that details the history of the site.

The US Army tried to capture the Nez Perce here on August 9th and 10th 1877 as they were fleeing to Canada. You can walk up the hill to where the US Army shelled the encampment with a mountain Howitzer (one of the originals was in the visitor’s center), which the Nez Perce eventually captured, but were unable to use because the man with the firing pins ran away.

http://www.nps.gov/biho/