Back to MWAC Publications

An archeological reconnaissance was conducted of 1,400 acres within the Bear Paw Battlefield boundary as defined in a recent general management plan. Although a heavy vegetation matte obscured most of the inventory area ground surface, the inventory team was able, by means of Global Positioning System units and a total station transit, to locate and map 36 stone circles, 29 rock cairns, 10 rock alignments, 55 battle-related riflepits, the soldiers' mass grave, an early-twentieth-century trash deposit, a homestead site, 1 battle-related artifact, 66 wooden staked locations related to the 1992 Anderson-English study, and 45 of C. R. Noyes' staked locations. The project correlated the newly mapped data with older digitized maps of known features, sites, and staked locations. The newly mapped locations represent no more than 30 to 40 percent of the known features on the property.