Rockpile Museum Welcomes Author and Historian Paul Hedren
Written by broebling on July 11, 2017
Press Release – The Rockpile Museum Association and Wyoming Humanities are pleased to announce that historian and author Paul L. Hedren will be at the Campbell County Rockpile Museum in Gillette on Thursday, July 13th at 7:00 p.m. to speak about his book Powder River: Disastrous Opening of the Great Sioux War.
The Great Sioux War of 1876–77 began at daybreak on March 17, 1876, when Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds and six cavalry companies struck a village of Northern Cheyennes camped along Powder River thereby propelling the Northern Plains tribes into war. Powder River: Disastrous Opening of the Great Sioux War recounts the wintertime Big Horn Expedition and its singular great battle, along with the stories of the Northern Cheyennes and their elusive leader Old Bear. Historian Paul Hedren will talk about his research into both sides of the conflict and the rich array of primary source material he used, including the transcripts of Reynolds’s court-martial and Indian recollections.
Paul Hedren retired from the National Park Service in 2007 after nearly thirty-seven years as a park historian and superintendent at such storied places as Fort Laramie National Historic Site, the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah, and the Niobrara National Scenic River in Nebraska. Paul is also a lifelong writer and the author of scores of scholarly and popular articles plus eleven books. He is now at work on his twelfth book, a new history of the Rosebud fight of June 17, 1876, an episode that in many ways explains Custer’s great disaster at the Little Big Horn eight days later.
This program is generously sponsored in part by a grant from thinkWY|Wyoming Humanities, a state-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This grant is made possible by the Wyoming State Legislature through the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.
For additional information about programs and events at the Rockpile Museum, please call (307) 682-5723.
The Campbell County Rockpile Museum is located at 900 W. 2nd Street in Gillette, Wyoming.
