August 29,2012

August 29, 2012

It can be confusing around here. For example, if a person says that he is “going to Custer,” he can mean the town of Custer, Custer County, Custer Park, Custer gas station, or a number of other possible destinations. To make myself clear, we went to the Custer State Park today. Even though George Armstrong Custer and his entire command were wiped up many miles from here way up in Montana, every book store and gift shop within a hundred miles from Hot Springs has a shelve of Custer books and assorted Custer regalia.

I have never understood the continuing adulation of Custer. Admittedly, he did make an effective Bengal Lancer-type charge against Jeb Stuart at Gettysburg, but that was the only bright spot in an otherwise unremarkable military career. He graduated at the bottom of his class at West Point, and validated his class ranking by his actions at Little Bighorn. It is difficult to conjure up a similar bone-headed mistake by any military leader to match the campaign which led to his long-lasting popularity. Almost immediately after his death, he became a national hero. By the 1890s, most bars in the United States proudly displayed a copy of the painting commissioned by Annheuser-Bush of “Custer’s Last Fight.” Paxton’s painting of “Custer’s Last Stand” was nearly as popular. In the following years, he was portrayed in the movies and on television by a number of actors, most notably by Errol Flynn in They Died With Their Boots On.

In contrast, consider the St. Clair Massacre. General Arthur St. Clair had been a respected officer in the Revolutionary War and was later named as the Governor of the Northwest Territory, the huge area which later became the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. In 1791, St. Clair was ordered by President Washington to raise an army and deal with some contentious Indians in the future state of Ohio. Like Custer, his blundering led to a massacre. While Custer lost only 220 men at the Little Big Horn, St. Clair lost nearly 900 men near present day Ft. Recovery, Ohio. In short, he was a bigger loser than Custer. It follows that he should have been a bigger hero.

Perhaps because St. Clair was one of the 20 survivors of the massacre, he did not become a hero; rather, he was consigned to the dustbin of history.  One searches in vain for books about St. Clair, and there is no doubt that Hollywood never considered casting Errol Flynn to portray him in a movie. If St. Clair is mentioned at all in the history books, it is only as background for the launching of the career of Mad Anthony Wayne, the officer dispatched to wreak vengeance on the Indians who wiped out St. Clair’s command.

Custer did not deserve the effusive accolades afforded him, and he certainly did not deserve to have such a great park as the one we visited today named after him. Custer State Park is one of the best parks in the country for viewing wildlife. It even has a herd of one type of animal which is a fitting memorial to Custer.

The bison herd at the park is one of the largest in the world.

At one point, I saw a turtle close to the herd. Ignoring the posted warnings to stay in your vehicles when Bison were present, I jumped out of our car and ran to rescue the turtle from being trampled. As I got closer, I realized that the turtle was not really a turtle.

We also had fleeting glimpses of Pronghorned antelopes, the fastest animal in the United States. We saw one coyote, but could not get him to pose for a picture.

Easily our favorite animal was the prairie dog.  They gather in “towns” living in underground tunnels with multiple entrances and exits. Most of the time, they stand around munching grass while watching for predators. According to scientists, they have a highly developed communication system comprised of a variety of chirps coupled with body language. The “jump back and chirp,” a common warning of danger, looks like something from an old Road Runner Cartoon. I am not sure, but I think one of them was cussing me out.  It is easy to see why Lewis and Clark’s men spent an entire day watching them.

We could have watched the prairie dogs for hours, but we left the park and proceeded to the town of Custer. Just outside of the town, is the National Wood Carving Museum which contains the life work of Dr. Harvey Niblack. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wood carvers of all time, he is credited with being the first wood carver to animate his carvings of people. Carole is convinced that an old Italian wood carver named Geppetto produced an animated carving of a young boy long before Niblack was born; she was too kind to share her feelings with the museum guide. I became excited when I learned that I may have had a slight role in Niblack’s career.  The guide mentioned that Niblack was able to retire in his late 30s to devote full time to his carvings. He had made a fortune from the sales of his invention of the Diathermy, a now out-moded method of treating muscle strains and injuries. Like tens of thousands of other athletes, I had a number of Diathermy treatments back in the day.

When we reached Rapid City, the temperature was 108 degrees. I know that Twain thought the piddling travel problems he described in his book Roughing It were nearly unbearable, but he never had to jump in and out of an air conditioned vehicle in 108 degree weather and drive through intermittent cell phone usage areas. We were really roughing it today.