Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's Black Hills Expedition crossed northeastern Wyoming from July 17-25, 1874, camping within three miles of this location. Forged by 1000 men, including cavalry, infantry, teamsters, scientists, miners, newspaper reporters, Santee Sioux guides, and Arikara guides, along with four artillery pieces, 110 supply wagons, and about 1600 animals, the trail's traces can still be seen today. The expedition trespassed on Lakota land and helped lead to war, seizure of the land by the U.S. government, and Euro-American immigration to the region, while later travelers and roads reused parts of the route. Custer, known for victories during the American Civil War and Indian Wars and later for his defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, brought national attention to the Black Hills through the 1874 expedition. Although the U.S. government had recognized the Black Hills in the treaties of 1856 and 1868 as belonging to the Lakota Nation, the economic recession of 1873, reports of gold, and railroad pressure for westward travel led President Ulysses Grant to order this military exploration in violation of those treaties. Its stated purpose was to scout sites for military outposts on the edge of the Black Hills, but Custer reported on the region's agricultural and mining potential, and officers, miners, and correspondents sought, found, and proclaimed gold, which is generally believed to have been the expedition's paramount objective. An inscription reading "74 G Custer" atop Inyan Kara, probably left by a member of the party after climbing the peak on July 23, 1874, remains as one sign of the expedition, but its larger consequence came when newspaper reports of gold touched off the Black Hills Gold Rush. Lakota resistance to the intrusion and failed U.S. efforts to buy the land helped bring on the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, which ended with further loss of American Indian land and the absorption of the Black Hills into the U.S. for gold mining, ranching, and settlement.