History & Culture

The Old Gate at the Lockhart Ranch

Christy Fleming

 

If you love history, then Bighorn Canyon is the place to be!

From paths blazed by Paleo-Indians, to the story of the Crow people’s fight for land and justice. From the era of mountain men and their transforming passages through the area, to the story of the first war lost by the United States government.

The historical legacies of open range, family and dude ranching and a host of eccentrics living out extraordinary lives live on at the park. Fast forward to our own times, where the harnessing of a river’s power helps set light to our world and today, where two hundred thousand arrive annually in search of their own adventure.

The history of the Bighorn Canyon area illustrates how humans left their imprint upon the landscape and how the land itself shaped their lives into a story unsurpassed in the history of the American West.