More than 300,000 people visit the site of George Armstrong Custer’s Last Stand every year… but how many of those people know of Custer’s “first stand” on the Great Plains and where to find it? Or know of the mountains that Custer climbed on the plains and carved his name at the summit of one? And what’s the story of the two “Custer Houses” in Kansas, long attributed as his homes but likely weren’t?

The Great Plains Guide to Custer is the first historical travel guide to 85 sites visited by George Custer in his decade west of the Mississippi. You’ll find not only directions to the battlefields and forts at which Custer served, you’ll also find locations where he met with Buffalo Bill Cody, the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, and William Tecumseh Sherman. You’ll also learn of the personal conflicts Custer had on the plains, with commanders, fellow officers and even a buffalo.

The book gives detailed directions to well-known-events-yet-seldom-seen sites such as the Cheyenne/Sioux Village and Kidder Massacre in Kansas, the Great Buffalo Hunt’s Camp Alexis in Nebraska, or the “desertion camp” in Colorado. It pinpoints the location of historical markers and artifacts connected to Custer and the Seventh Cavalry, and features information on more than 100 related historical sites and attractions to fill out your Great Plains excursion.

The Great Plains Guide to Custer is an outstanding introduction to one of the best-known and most controversial characters of the American west. For the already-Custer enthusiast, it’s guaranteed to provide new information that you didn’t know. Even if you’re not a fan of Custer, you’ll come away with a greater understanding of the land and history that helped build his legend.

The book features 150 images and four maps, many of the historical images appearing in print for the first time. For those unable to travel to the sites, contemporary photographs show the sites as they exist today.

—Robert M. Utley, author of Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier

“This is an excellent resource on the subject, and Barnes is the perfect guide: smart, lively, knowledgeable... full of fascinating facts that you won't find anywhere else. Highly recommended."

—James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn—the Last Great Battle of the American West