Oregon Trail

The stone names one people, and the fight had three. Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors, gathered in the months after the Sand Creek massacre, met Collins's detachment when it rode out across the bridge on the morning of July 26, 1865. The historian John McDermott records that Lakota warriors knew Collins as a friend and let him pass, and that Cheyenne who did not know him shot him. George Bent, a Cheyenne who rode that day, told the fight from their side in letters forty years later.

What the plaque says

Unveiled by Ft. Caspar Chapter D.A.R. July 5, 1920 Oregon Trail Marked by the State of Wyoming 1914 Lieutenant Caspar W. Collins killed by Sioux Indians near this spot July 26, 1865

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Caspar Museum — 0.6 mi
  The crossing before the fort: the Mormon ferry of 1847 and Guinard's toll bridge of 1859, rebuilt beside the 1936 log station.

More markers nearby

• The "Mormon" Ferry — steps away
• Oregon Trail Memorial — 0.7 mi
• The Pony Express — 0.7 mi
• Oregon Trail — 0.7 mi