The Powder River Country refers to an area of the Great Plains in northeastern Wyoming in the United States. The area is loosely defined between the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills, in the upper drainage areas of the Powder, Tongue, and Little Bighorn rivers.
During the late 1860s, the area was the scene of Red Cloud's War between the Lakota and the United States. The Lakota victory in the war resulted in the preservation of their control of the area for the next decade.
After control fell to the U.S. government in 1870s following the end of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, the area was opened to white settlement, one of the last such areas opened for homesteading in the continental United States. In 1892, the area was the scene of the Johnson County War.
In the early 20th century, the discovery of petroleum in the area led to the development of the area's oil fields.
Famous quotes containing the words powder, river and/or country:
“Uncle Ben’s brass bullet-mould
And powder horn, and Major Bogan’s face
Above the fire, in the half-light, plainly said
There’s naught to kill but the animated dead;”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Hard by the lilied Nile I saw
A duskish river dragon stretched along.
The brown habergeon of his limbs enamelled
With sanguine alamandines and rainy pearl:
And on his back there lay a young one sleeping,
No bigger than a mouse;”
—Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849)
“The world, as a rule, does not live on beaches and in country clubs.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)