Ghostly Soldiers in Montana

The Little Bighorn Battlefield is located in Southeastern Montana in a place called Crow Agency. This is the place where General Custer and his men were horribly and tragically defeated by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors under the order of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. The battle took place on the grassy plains of the Bighorn River Valley and bluffs along and around the Bighorn River. If General Custer had listened to his scouts so many soldiers would not have died needlessly. At the battlefield site both soldiers and Indians are remembered by markers. One can visit the site and see all the battlefields such as Last Stand Hill and Reno’s Crossing.

At the Outside Battleground Area people have heard the frightened screams of men filling the air. Park Ranger, Mardell Plainfeather, who is a Crow Indian had a sweat lodge located next to the Bighorn River. After an elder had finished using the lodge Mardell went to pour water over the hot stones within. Coming outside she saw up on a bluff some 60 or 70 yards above her two Indian warriors on horseback. They had feathers and shields. One of them got off his horse for a better look at her. The moon and stars being bright that night the park ranger knew what she saw and left there quickly. The following morning climbing up the bluff she saw no evidence of horses having been there the night before. Mardell then prayed for the dead and left an offering of sage and sweet tobacco for all the spirits that haunt the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

Having reached Last Stand Hill and the battlefield cemetery, many visitors have been overcome by a sense of deep sorrow and loss. The apparition of 2nd Lt. Benjamin Hodgson reliving his death at Reno’s Crossing has been seen.

During the summer of 1983 Miss Hope who was working at the national park as a student intern was staying at the on-site apartments built at the edge of the battleground cemetery. One evening having fallen asleep on the couch in the living room she awoke sometime around midnight with an overwhelming feeling of dread. Looking across her living room she saw a man sitting in her easy chair directly across from where she was lying. The figure of the man could be seen clearly because he was bathed in the light falling from a window which had no curtains. He was wearing modern clothes and it appeared to Miss Hope that there was something familiar about his face. His haircut resembled those of the soldiers fighting the Battle of Little Bighorn. He also had a light beard and a handlebar mustache. His eyes were wide with terror and in a few minutes he disappeared.

Later the next day Miss Hope and Ranger Tim were exploring Reno’s Crossing where after the battle Major Marcas A. Reno and his defeated troops, some carrying wounded soldiers were forced to retreat under the cover of trees with advancing warriors hot on their trail. The terrified troops plunged into the river turning it blood red. Those who managed to reach the other side of the river were cut down by warriors on the top of the other bank. Miss Hope found the marker which marked the place where 2nd Lt. Benjamin H. Hodgson had died by the water’s edge. When they returned to the visitor’s center she found a picture of Hodgson and was able to identify him as the man who had sat in her living room. Throughout the years many employees in the Employee Apartments A & D have reported seeing shimmering forms standing at the foot of their beds.

One of the most haunted places at the battleground site is the 1894 Stone House built for the cemetery caretaker in the center of the battlefield. In recent years it has been turned into two apartments – one downstairs and one upstairs. After Ranger Jacobson and his wife moved into the downstairs apartment they experienced doorknobs twisting, door opening by themselves and the sound of unexplained footprints. Once taking a frozen chicken from the freezer Jacobson’s wife heard a high-pitched whining. When she put the chicken down the whining stopped but upon picking it up again the whining started again. Needless to say she threw the chicken away.

In 1983, the Massies were living in a fourplex near the Stone House. Mr. Massie was the Park Interpreter. That year no one was living in the Stone House. Late one night Mardell Plainfeather who was also living in the fourplex and who had already experienced a ghostly encounter noticed that the lights on the second floor at the Stone House were on. She decided to ask Mr. Massie to check this out. He searched both floors but found nothing. After switching off the lights Mr. Massie went out to see his terrified wife running toward him. She had been watching TV when the screen had gone blank and she heard a voice that said, "The second floor of the Stone House." No rational explanation could be found for this voice.

At the Visitor’s Center the apparition of a soldier, dressed in a brown shirt, wearing a black cartridge belt across his chest has been seen and General Custer himself has been seen roaming around the center late at night. Artifacts taken from the battlefield have told many stories to people who are able to read and interpret the psychic energy radiating from these objects.