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:
“Despite my asbestos gloves,
the cough is filling me with black,
and a red powder seeps through my veins....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“There are books so alive that you’re always afraid that while you weren’t reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away. No one has stepped twice into the same river. But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?”
—Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941)
“Every good cause gained a victory when the Union troops were triumphant. Our final victory was the triumph of religion, of virtue, of knowledge.... During those four years, whatever our motives, whatever our lives, we were fighting on God’s side. We were doing His work. What would this country have been if we had failed?”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)