Fur trappers came upriver after the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806 and left behind tales of their adventures and a few trading posts along the Yellowstone River. Southeastern Montana remained Indian and buffalo country until the late nineteenth century. In March 1876, six companies of cavalry under Colonel Joseph Reynolds attacked the village of Northern Cheyenne leader Two Moons about 36 miles south of here. During the day-long battle, soldiers captured the Cheyenne pony herd and burned tepees, many filled with ammunition, but later the Indians counterattacked, recaptured their horses, and forced the soldiers to retreat. Two warriors and four soldiers were killed. The skirmish strengthened the alliance between the Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne and was one of the first battles in the Great Sioux War. By the early 1880s, the buffalo had disappeared and the Indian Wars were over, and the grasslands drew the Texas-based Niobrara Cattle Company to the area. Within a generation, homesteaders' plows and barbed wire replaced the open range and the cowboys.