We started the day’s exploration back at Badger Clark’s cabin as it was closed yesterday after our hike around it. He had almost 1,000 books that are in shelves around the fireplace and along one wall. They have preserved the cabin as he left it, and have his boots lining the wall of his bedroom. Today we learned about the Treaty of Ft. Laramie with Plains Indians that was ignored by the gold-hungry general public after Custer found gold during an expedition.

The Gordon Stockade Historical Landmark is near our campground at Stockade Lake. I thought the lake was named for cattle activities. The stockade was built by the Gordon party who evaded the US Calvary to be here and felt they needed protection from the Lakota. The US Calvary did discover them after about five month of fruitless search for gold and evicted them from the Black Hills. Two years later, it was pretty much a free-for-all with the Plains Indians on the losing end of the deal. We enjoyed hiking on the trails around the lake and our campground. The ground is very shiny because of the mica everywhere that does resemble flakes of gold. Even mud is pretty here!