Custer's Last Stand

Today -- June 25 is the date, back in 1876 of Custer's Last Stand. I have had many enjoyable hours reading and at the actual battlefield. I don't know when or where I heard this joke, but I pass it along. Next time you meet someone from North Dakota, tell them you have a North Dakota joke, and they can't resist hearing it.

To get this joke, you have to know that General Custer and his men started off from Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota, headed toward Montana.

Now the scene switches to Last Stand Hill (and it really is a hill) although the romanticized renditions of Custer fighting to the bitter end is probably not historically accurate. Some historians believe he was killed early in the battle.

So Custer says to his men, "Men, I have good news and bad news, and I'll give you the bad news first. We're goners. We are all going to be dead within minutes. There's no way out."

One of the men, really confused, said, "Gee, what's the good news?" And the General replied, "We never have to go back to North Dakota."

Ba dum.



This is a pretty good photo of what it's like. The grave markers were put where each dead body was found and there are just over 200 of them (here in this photo and elsewhere). The entire battlefiled is considered a cemetery so you can't walk on the actual battlefield. A road goes behind this photo and so there is parking up by the big marker which is a memorial to the men who died.