No wagons accompanied Custer’s independent column of all-cavalry, their supplies being carried on pack horses and mules in a pack train. A FEW of the items lost in the battle of the Little Bighorn have turned up, including several rifles, a watch, a pennant flag which had been made into a pillow etc – some are in private possession of the descendants of Indian participants.

The story of gold being lost along the Bighorn river was supposed to be left by miners whom had just left the Montana gold fields, and buried it along the bank of the river. The miners were either killed or never returned; not sure why this is connected with Custer at all, as it dates to the Montana gold rush and Powder River war 1866-68. There are several similar and historical incidents including one in which the gold was taken by the Indians after killing the Montana miners and simply dumped on the ground, the Indians having more use for the sacks the gold was in than the gold itself.

There are however doubtless more than one lost cache of gold, for during the 1876-77 war with the Sioux and Cheyennes, quite a few incidents occurred in the Black Hills in which the unfortunate gold miners were killed by hostile Indians. In one case, four miners with a wagon-load of gold were found murdered, the wagon smashed and the gold GONE. Custer city had to start a separate cemetary for there were so many victims of Indian attacks around the town, and men cutting hay had to have armed guards stand watch and this within sight of town.