Long road to Massacre.

We left Burlington on the by now very familiar Highway 385. South to Cheyenne Wells where we found another closed museum. The landscape varied from intensive arable, through beef farms where the cattle were kept in small compounds each with a mound in the middle, to almost desert like wilderness, sandy soil with sage brush. We passed signs for Beecher Island but no mention of the battlefield shown on the map. The road was straight and hardly undulated, but busy with trucks. We eventually came to Sandy Creek, the scene of one of Americas most inglorious incidents. Following a period of horsestealing and raids by hostile Indians, culminating in the murder of a family, a regiment of local volunteers was raised with the single intention of wreaking revenge. The rabble of farmers, drunks and old veterans rode out to Fort Lyon where they learnt of an Indian Camp at Sandy Creek. After a heated debate among the officers the soldiers, almost a thousand strong attacked the camp, apparently ignoring the US Flag under which Chief Black Kettle, who had made peace with the Whiteman, was told he would be safe. A massacre ensued in which 200 natives died, the majority women and children. The atrocity was compounded when the bodies were subsequently mutilated. The subsequent Indian wars were a direct result. In defence of the US Govt they held Courts of Enquiry and the Sand Creek massacre was exposed for the disaster it was. There was very little to see at the site which is not surprisingly sacred ground to the native American. However, the visit was made more than worth while by our conversation with one of the Rangers who gave us an in depth insight into the back ground and events of the massacre. His was an unbiased account and the twists and turns of the Indian policy set in the back ground of the Civil War, debates over statehood and the arguments about abolitionism. Characters involved included a Methodist preacher (Chivington) who was anti slavery but publicly stated that the only good Indian was a dead one. An Army Colonel removed for being sympathetic to the Indians and calling them together for Peace talks. A lieutenant who marched his troop around the massacre site but didnt shoot a single shot and was shot dead after giving evidence. Black Kettle miraculously survived Sand Creek only to die under very similar circumstances when attacked by troops led by CUSTER.
We resumed our journey over the semi desert landscape to Limon where we had lunch at a Wendys staffed by numerous staff not one of whom was seemingly aged under seventy! We then took the Interstate into Denver and visited what looks like a very interesting Transport Museum which no one was surprised to find closed. Rush hour in Denver is like rush hour the world over.