New Trousers

At the beginning of this summer when looking for a uniform to wear this summer at the Cavalry Post, I was unable to find any pants that fit and lacked a stripe of rank (Corporals and Sergeants have stripes of yellow that indicate their rank, I am only a Private). So after asking management if they had any other pants that would fit me, they said that they did not, but that they would order a pair that fit. Recently the new pair came in and so I returned my pair of Corporal pants for a pair of new Private pants. However, I soon realized that the pants were a bit too long, one of the other workers at the Fort, a Laundress, volunteered to hem them up for me so the trousers did not drag on the ground too much. While Miss Nora was sewing up my pants, I had to hide in the tent that we have set up waiting for the trousers to be mended. While I was waiting and Miss Nora was sewing an elderly man came over and announced that he wished to look inside that tent. Nora replied that he had best not go into the tent as a Private was napping inside. The man then chatted for the next forty-five minutes the man talked while Nora finished sewing my pants and managed to give me the pants without the man noticing. I managed to get the trousers on under the army blanket in the tent without any visiter being any the wiser. The man continued talking about how thirty years ago he had slept in the barracks, which had not been rebuilt yet.

A Day at the Custer House

Today while working at the Cavalry Post I only gave one tour of the Custer House because it rained all day which kept the tourists away. After giving my tour and waiting for more tourists to arrive, I helped dust the Custer House and read Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense. Common Sense, a document that as it helped spark the American Revolution would also have been something that could have been read when solders occupied the post, although as many soldiers were immigrants literacy rates in the Army were around fifty percent.

Also recently we learned that from last year to this year we had an increase of 21% in tourism. This may be because many tourists from other parts of the country taking advantage of comparably low gas prices have decided to travel through the area. A small number of out of state workers have also told me that they are temporarily stopping in North Dakota to capitalize on this states economic successes while riding out other states economies failings. This increase in tourism has come at a time where the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation has fewer people working than were working last summer. This has meant many busy days of work. So although today was fairly uneventful, it is the exception rather than the rule for there to be so few tourists. Most days there are fairly large numbers of people coming to see history come to life.

Day to Day Life In the Village

Today at the On-A-Slant Village I started working at 9:00 AM. As I was arriving another guide was taking out the first tour of the day into the village. So as I was the only other guide working at this time, it was my job to greet the tourist and let them know that my tour would be leaving at 9:30, and that if they would like to look around the museum in the meantime I would come in and announce when my tour was about to begin. At 9:30 I took out my first tour of the day. After the tour I took over the desk inside the museum where I answer any questions people may have about items in the museum or about the Mandan people, while answering the phone, and selling passes to the Custer House and the On-A-Slant Village. After doing that for about an hour I was relieved from that post and I went into the village and started weeding earthlodges, a task that would not have been done by the Mandan but is necessary for us to do in order to maintain the clean appearance on top of the earthlodges that would have been provided with the river clay on the roof of the earthlodges. After weeding lodges for a while, I took my second tour out into On-A-Slant. After this tour I helped sweep the museum and then took another turn sitting behind the museum desk. After greeting and giving my last tour I went home for the day.

Summer at the Fort

Looks like a great summer so far, Brock! Enjoying the images and musings.

Give us a little more, too, about your day-to-day work and duties.

Fort Lincoln Melodrama

Here are some photographs taken from the June Melodrama as recorded by the Bismarck Tribune:

http://spotted.bismarcktribune.com/photos/index.php?id=180123

Some other photos from the Melodrama as taken by my father, Randy Schmeling:

http://gallery.me.com/randyschmeling#100042&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Currently the July melodrama of "A Pair of Lunatics" and "A Marriage Proposal," are going on in to its second weekend. My family went to it last weekend and enjoyed watching it very much.

Fest at the Fort Pictures

The following website has some pictures that were taken at the Fest at the Fort:

http://www.me.com/gallery/#100025

Parade ground- Where the encampment and most of the demonstrations were.

Encampment- Lots of tents with reenactors in them.

Barracks- Where Dr. Herb Wilson talked about medicine used in 1885.

Custer House- Tours of the house given every 20 minutes.

Horses- The thing that set the Cavalry apart from the Infantry.

Chickens- Kept by the General for eggs and dinner.

Laundresses cooking, and Infantry Laundresses- These Infantry Laundresses can cook! They had all sorts of pies that they had made for the Festival. Vinegar and Sweet Onion pies, my oh my, I may have to become an infantry solder because our Cavalry Laundresses can't cook nearly as well as the infantry ones.

Gatling gun- Not used at the Little Bighorn, because Custer attacked before the Infantry could get there.

Infantry soldier- looks a lot like a Cavalry soldier however the light blue that outlines his collar and sleeves and the bugle on his Kepi.

Cannons- Another weapon that was not used at the Little Bighorn because Custer wanted to attack with the element of surprise. Could have shifted the tide of the battle with its firing power.

Cavalry soldiers- Needed at Fort Abraham Lincoln to help defend the railroad.

General Custer- Actually only a Lt. Col. at the time he resided at Fort Lincoln. Previously a Civil War hero attained the rank of Major General during that war.

Prairie Schooner- Used to transport people and goods in the absence of the railroad that only came as far West as Bismarck at the time.