BEAR PAW BATTLEFIELD

Hoof from U.S. cavalryman’s horse killed during the Battle of the Bear Paw, John Michaud Collection, 1877. Attached is a Burden style horseshoe, the standard style used by the U.S. Army from the 1860s through World War I.
Artist Lorenzo Ghiglieri painting a depiction of the Battle of the Bear Paw, which is featured in our “Forty Miles from Freedom” multi-media presentation. The Blaine County Museum commissioned Ghiglieri to complete the work in 1985.

The Blaine County Museum offers a full exhibit relating to the Bear Paw Battlefield, the site of the last battle of the four-month Nez Perce War of 1877. The battlefield, located 16 miles south of Chinook, is part of the Nez Perce National Park and the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail. Our exhibit houses displays of artifacts found at the Bear Paw Battlefield, time-period photographs, and the twenty-minute multi-media presentation “Forty Miles from Freedom”. Centered around Lorenzo Ghiglieri’s paintings of the conflict, the presentation recounts the events leading up to the battle and siege of the Bear Paw which ended one of the most remarkable and tragic retreats in this nation’s history.We also provide Bear Paw Battlefield cancellation stamps for the National Park Service’s Passport to Your National Parks® and Bear Paw Battlefield activity books for the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger program.

TOURS

Tours of the Blaine County Museum and the Bear Paw Battlefield can be organized jointly.

For tours of the Bear Paw Battlefield, please contact local National Park Service staff:

Phone: 406-357-3130
Office Address: 301 Ohio Street
Chinook, MT 59523

More information about visiting the Bear Paw Battlefield can be found on the National Park Service website.

BATTLEFIELD LOCATION