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Last Soldier LbNA #54034

Owner:Half Empty
Plant date:Jun 18, 2010
Location:
City:Banner
County:Sheridan
State:Wyoming
Boxes:1
Found by: Martini Man
Last found:Sep 9, 2011
Status:FFU
Last edited:Aug 4, 2019
New box is in place as of July 2019. Please check carefully for rattlesnakes before retrieving the box. *

This box is located at the Fort Phil Kearny Historic Site near Banner, WY (in between Buffalo and Sheridan) - just a few miles off the interstate at exit 44. The site is a pay-area and costs several dollars per person to explore the partially reconstructed fort and the two nearby battle sites of the Fetterman Massacre and the Wagon Box Fight.

Here are the clues:

Stop here: first a bivouac long ago
Then a fort over a hundred years gone
On the Bozeman Trail wagons ran
Continuing on to western land
Kearny gave his name to this milieu
A Walled stockade rose 8 feet high to maintain
Defenses and keep the travelers' harried
Enterprises away from Indian desire
Fighting on the horizon draws near
On horses, Arapaho, Sioux and Cheyenne move closer
Listening to the sound as wagons go
Lamenting the end of a life plethoric
Omens dark as soldiers seek attack
Waiting: an ambush hidden by hills
Roaring, Crazy Horse and warriors explode through scrub
Invincible, they kill Fetterman’s men quickly
Go now, to the summer Wagon Box brawl
Hemmed-in, the soldiers held off many attackers for a
Time, yes, though it wasn't long before the railroad tracks
Went past and a treaty closed the doors of the fort
A fire marked its end, Cheyennes' war whoop
Look and find the last soldier before you go
Lost still until you assemble the clues
Two letters per line, the first and last.