Across The Fence: A gathering of warriors at Arikaree Fork

A few miles east of present day Haigler, Neb., the north fork of the Republican River intercepts the smaller tributary of the Arikaree River as it flows northeasterly from Colorado.

The Arikaree fork meanders across the Colorado plains before it reaches its three-point crossing of the Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado borders. However, before reaching that junction it passes by a soggy sandbar now known as Beecher's Island.

At that place, in 1868, 50 U.S. Cavalry scouts lay under siege by Cheyenne warrior Roman Nose with a force of more than 700 Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors. Behind a makeshif...