Flow on Mighty Yellowstone! Flow on!
Continuing our look at rivers that cross the Great Plains Trail, as we head south, the next major river after the Missouri is none other than the majestic Yellowstone. The Yellowstone is about 700 miles long from where it begins in Yellowstone National Park to its confluence with the Missouri in western North Dakota. It is […]
Goin’ to the Dance
I love basketball. I grew up playing it, but now I’m just a big fan, particularly of the college game. So just for fun, I couldn’t help but notice, pleasantly, that this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament contained a fair number of teams with ties to the Great Plains. First of all, there are nine […]
A River No More
The next few entries will take a look at the various rivers that cross the Great Plains. From the Missouri in Montana to the Pecos in New Mexico, many great rivers flow across the region. They are scenic, historic, big, and attract a wide variety of wildlife. There are also countless smaller tributaries that wind […]
The Boy Henry Kelsey
We tend to want to think of the history of America (or even North America) as a great noble experiment, a grand epic struggle for freedom. Often the reality was much more mundane, and far less noble. For the most part, the reasons Europeans came to the Americas was to make money. In the 1600s, […]
The Logo is Here!
The new logo is here for the Great Plains Trail and the Great Plains Trail Alliance! The buffalo turned out fantastic. He exudes the calm and confident demeanor of a well seasoned ambassador, and yet, he appears slightly friendly, as if he is about to say, “Welcome to the Great Plains Trail. This way if […]
If You Squint Just a Bit . . .
From colonial times until the late Industrial Revolution in the mid 1800s, America was a largely rural and agrarian nation. Most people lived on farms or in small towns. The cities that existed were a mere shadow of what they would become. Even New York City, which is every American’s idea of what a big […]
Thanks to Best Hike for posting about the Great Plains Trail!
Around for a Long Time to Come
It’s nice to know that there are some successful trail stories out there. It’s even better to find one in the Great Plains! The Maah Daah Hey National Recreation Trail in western North Dakota is one such success story. The trail is 96 miles long, and connects the north and south units of Theodore Roosevelt […]
It is Accomplished
Huzzah! IRS Form 1023 is in the mail! It took close to a month to sort everything out, but in the end, I feel good about the finished product. It’s now a waiting game for an unspecified amount of time (could be 6 weeks, could be 6 months). If all goes well, we will receive […]
IRS Form 1023 – Chapter II
OK. Here’s an update on the status of the daunting application known as IRS Form 1023. I am pleased to report that it is nearly complete. The issue I wrote about earlier has been cleared up (It cost me an additional $25 to file an amendment with the State of Colorado – file that in […]
Montana’s Cowboy Artist
As promised last week, let’s take a brief look at another artist of the plains, Charles Marion Russell. Born in Missouri, Russell traveled to Montana as a young man in the late 1800s. He worked as a ranch hand through the brutal winter of 1886-87. His first recognition as an artist came from the trials […]
From Petroglyphs to Portraits
Thanks to everyone for a great week on the Great Plains Trail! With the article in National Parks Traveler, it’s exciting to see the momentum building for the project! The next two posts will be brief outlines of two major artists that are connected with the West and the Great Plains. (Don’t worry – an […]
