Ferdinand Brandstetter Post #1. First American Legion Post in the United States. Van Tassell Wyoming

This is the the memorial for the Ferdinand Brandstetter American Legion Post in Van Tassel, Wyoming.  This was the location of the first American Legion post in the United States.  The town must have been much larger at the time, as it hardly even exists now, and the legion post very obviously no longer exist.  The American Legion was formed in Paris immediately following World War One, for veterans of that war, and had very active participation almost immediately from veterans of the Great War.

Note:  Please see the correction in the comments, this Legion post is in fact still active!

Crazy Horse and Levi Robinson Memorials, Ft. Robinson, Nebrask

 

 

 

 

 

These are photographs of the memorials dedicated to Crazy Horse and Levi Robinson at Ft. Robinson, Nebraska.  These monuments were ones placed by the Army sometime during the period the post was an active Army post.

Levi Robinson was an Army lieutenant killed near Ft. Laramie, Wyoming.  The post was named after him.  Crazy Horse, the famous Sioux leader, was killed on the post during the famous incident that lead to his death.  Another monument to Crazy Horse, depicted just below on this blog, is also on the post near the spot of his death.

Crazy Horse Monument, Ft. Robinson Nebraska

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Ft. Robinson, Nebraska

Quite a few relevant monuments are depicted on this thread on SMH, which deals with Ft. Robinson, Nebraska:

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Ft. Robinson, Nebraska

Holscher's Hub: Gas Hills-Crook's Gap Monuments

Not an appropriate monument for this site, but given as I'm cataloging monuments, I thought I'd note this other one, of another type, that I've noted elsewhere:

Holscher's Hub: Gas Hills-Crook's Gap Monuments: This has to be one of the most obscure monuments in Wyoming. These are signs dedicated to the history of uranium mining in the...

Ft. Fetterman Cemetary, Wyoming

This is the military cemetery at Ft. Fetterman, Wyoming. The cemetery continued in use as a civilian cemetery after the post closed.

Ft. Fetterman was not an active post all that long. The number of soldiers buried there gives a good idea of the hard nature of frontier soldiering. For that matter, the civilian list gives a good idea of the harsh nature of 19th Century life.

Monuments in Lewistown, Montana

Lewistown Montana, which I recently went through, has a nice assortment of public monuments, several of which I missed, including a veterans park. Therefore, this is only a selection of the monuments that are located there.

The Fergus County Courthouse has a nice selection of monuments, at least one of which I was too hurried to photograph. This one is probably a post WWI vintage monument, but recalls the veterans of all wars. 

This is the first time I've seen a memorial of this type.  It's to Pioneer Freighters of Central Montana.

This is a park in Lewistown, which appears to feature retired heavy ordnance.  The gun appears to be a 155 Long Tom of WWII vintage, while the missle is a Minuteman, I think.

Bighorn Mountain Sheep Trailing, Wyoming

This may seem like an odd one to add here, but it does commemorate, in part, the dead  of a war, albeit a private war. This Federal monument commemorates the Wyoming sheep industry, now a mere shadow of its former self.  In its early days, the hill behind what is displayed here was the "Deadline", literally the line which sheepmen were not to cross, according to cattlemen, lest they end up dead.

The monument itself recalls a "Sheepherders Monument", a type of rock cairn that sheepherders once used to mark trails, and which are still very common in Wyoming.

Legacy Park, Gillette Wyoming

These photos depict memorials in Legacy Park, in Gillette Wyoming.  An earlier war memorial outside of the Campbell County Courthouse appears earlier in this blog.

This park is a bit unusual in that it combines an all war memorial with a memorial to an individual soldier. The park also includes a memorial, not depicted in these photographs, to cancer victims.

Ft. Reno, Wyoming

This is the marker for Ft. Reno, Wyoming. Ft. Reno was occupied from 1865 to 1868, with the nearby (three miles) Reno Cantonment being occupied from 1876 to 1878. The history of the post can be read on the entry on it at the Society of the Military Horse site.

The post had a cemetery, but the bodies located t here were relocated to the national cemetery at Little Big Horn some years after the post was abandoned.

Ft. Phil Kearny, Wyoming

These are monuments at Ft. Phil Kearny, the command which suffered defeat at the Fetterman Fight, but endured an attack later at the Wagon Box Fight.

This blog does not attempt to document battlefields photographically, and the same is true of historic sites. For this reason, this entry does not attempt to depict all of Ft. Phil Kearny. Those wishing to see more photos of the post should look here. Rather, this only attempts to depict a few things topical to this blog.

The monument depicted above is an early one, placed by the State of Wyoming well before any archeology on the post had been done, and very little about its grounds was known. Now, because of archeology on the site, this monument is in a location where it is probably only rarely viewed.


These photographs depict a common device for historic sites in Wyoming, a pipe used for sighting a distant location. In this case, the location is the location of the post cemetery. The cemetary originally held the bodies of the soldiers, and civilians, killed at the Fetterman Fight, but the bodies were later removed to the national cemetery at Little Big Horn.

These are the monuments and markers at the Wagon Box Fight battlefield. These monuments reflect the evolution of how Indian Wars' battles are viewed, as a marker at the the site of the brass monument notes that this monument wholly omits Indian casualties, which of course is correct. As it notes, at the time it was erected this was simply not a consideration, whereas it would be now.

This is a well preserved battlefield. More photos of the location itself may be viewed here. For some reason, when I took these photos, I did not think to get a photograph of the entire monument, perhaps because I was more focused on the battlefield.

In addition to the bronze monument, there is also this early stone monument erected by the State of Wyoming. This monument is in a location where it is probably that most visitors to this site do not take note of it.