Explore History: Iron Rides GPS Tour

On Tuesday, Nov. 12, Kevin Knapp of the Sheridan Community Land Trust, (SCLT) gave an explore history program on the new GPS Tour, The Iron Riders, which was released in June. It can be downloaded on a phone, and if it is download while one has cell service, the tour will continue along the route. As one drives along the route, the GPS Tour will pick up the narrative at various sites along the way.

Kevin Smith, Missouri Parks reenactor and historian narrates the tour. He is an honorary Buffalo Soldier in the 9th and 10th Horse Cavalry Association.

He reads from the original text from Edward Boos, the reporter who was along on the ride, and 2nd Lt. James Moss, the 25th Infantry’s commanding officer and a bicycling enthusiast.

Also along on the ride was a mechanic and an Army physician, Dr. James Kennedy, and twenty Buffalo Soldiers. They rode from Fort Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri, and distance of 1,900 miles across all terrain and in all weather. The journey took 41 days to complete, and the tour went through Sheridan County, Wyoming, from Parkman through Sheridan, Wyarno, Arvada, Gillette, Moorcroft and Newcastle before crossing into South Dakota.

Kevin Knapp added interesting tidbits about the ride in his talk, and then Smith picked up the narrative, quoting Lt. Moss about the experiment.

This is from The Newcastle News-Journal, July 30, 1897 – Averaged 50 Miles a Day. The Twenty-fifth United States infantry bicycle corps which passed through Newcastle some time since, reached St. Louis Saturday night, completing its 2,000-mile ride from Fort Missoula, Mont. in forty days, thirty-five of which were actually spent on the road. The corps left Missoula on June 14, twenty-three in number—Lt Moss, Army Surgeon J. M. Kennedy and Edward H. Boos, the official reporter, and twenty soldiers selected from the four companies stationed at Fort Missoula.

During the trip one of the men was returned to Fort Missoula on account of not being able to keep up. In an interview Lieut. Moss said: “The trip has proved beyond peradventure my contention that the bicycle has a place in modern warfare. In every kind of weather, overall sorts of roads, we averaged fifty miles a day. At the end of the journey, we are all in good physical condition. Seventeen tires and a half dozen broken frames are the sum of our damage. The practical result of the trip shows that an army bicycle corps can travel twice as fast as cavalry or infantry under any conditions and at one-third the cost and effort. I am not sure whether we will return on our wheels or not but will know as soon as orders are received from Washington.

The group, having proved the point that the bicycle could be used in warfare, returned from St. Louis to Fort Missoula via the train.

The tour can be found at the SCLT Website; History Stories – Sheridan Community Land Trust