Custer's Payroll
In 1957, Billings, Montana journalist Kathryn Wright broke the story of Custer’s missing payroll. According to the story, about a month before the ill-fated Battle of Little Bighorn, the army paid out $25,000 to the men of Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. This was the equivalent to four months of back pay. The army paid the troops while they were out in the field, far away from any town, to deter potential deserters and to avoid having to round up men who had went into town and had too much to drink. Paying soldiers in this manner was standard practice in the day. So, essentially, the U.S. soldiers who fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn had a total of about $25,000 on them.
Little Big Horn
The army suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn. According to Wikipedia:
The 7th Cavalry suffered 52 percent casualties: 16 officers and 242 troopers killed or died of wounds, 1 officer and 51 troopers wounded. Every soldier of the five companies with Custer was killed (except for some Crow scouts and several troopers that had left that column before the battle or as the battle was starting). Among the dead were Custer's brothers Boston and Thomas, his brother-in-law James Calhoun, and his nephew Henry Reed.
By all accounts, the victorious Indians stripped the dead cavalrymen of everything of value including guns, ammunition, and clothing. This stripping of the dead is where the treasure story comes in. According to a July 1, 1957 article in the Daily Inter Lake, a Kalispell, Montana newspaper:
When other platoons of the Seventh Cavalry arrived at the scene of the famous massacre, the bodies of Custer’s soldiers bad been stripped of money, religious articles and personal possessions.
But the money apparently was never spent. Cheyenne participants years later admitted that loot was placed in a large cache and buried somewhere near the site of the bloody battle. The exact burial spot of the cache remained a closely guarded secret among Cheyenne chiefs who fought at the Little Big Horn.
Charles Windolph, A U.S. Cavalryman who fought at Little Bighorn, wrote a book chronicling his experiences. Windolph’s account corroborates that the Seventh Cavalry received four months of back pay and that the Indians stripped the fallen soldiers after the battle and they took at least some of the money. Said Windolph:
About half of that payroll found its way into the hands of squaws and Sioux children when the dead troopers were stripped and mutilated a little over a month on the Little Big Horn. I remember finding a little clay pony in an abandoned Indian camp the following spring. There was a worn five-dollar bill folded up and tied on the clay pony for a blanket. I was always sure that it had come out of the pocket of some dead trooper, who had been paid off that afternoon of May 17 on the Heart River. We got $13 a month in those days.
No Gold?
Those skeptical of the Custer’s treasure story believe no gold is out there. They say the army paid soldiers using paper currency. But according to Kathryn Wright: “Not all of it was in currency. Army regulations covering 1876, which were checked for me by Raymond P. Flynn, archivist at Washington, D.C. at the request of Chief of Air Staff General Nathan F. Twining, show that the troopers were paid in gold, silver, and U.S. treasury or bank notes.”
It seems to me there probably is some of the Seventh Cavalry’s gold and silver somewhere out there.
The Investigation
The aforementioned Daily Inter Lake article chronicled Kathryn Wright’s investigation into the cache of treasure:
A few years ago Mrs. Wright first stopped and inspected a stone monument on a hill near the town of Busby, Montana, located on the Cheyenne Indian reservation.
The inscription of the monument read, “here lie the remains of Two Moons, chief of the Cheyenne Indians, who led his men against General Custer in the battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876. Erected by W.P. Moncure, Indian trader.”
Mrs. Wright noticed that the bronze plaque on the monument was hinged at the top, indicating it could be opened.
After several visits to the monument, Mrs. Wright persuaded Willie Hollow Breast, a Cheyenne council member, to show her the Contents of the vault behind the plaque.
Inside the vault were remembrances of Two Moons. These included a portrait of Two Moons, stone tools, arrowheads, sacred Indian relics and a rifle belonging to one of the troopers of the Seventh Cavalry.
There was also a large manilla envelope.
Typed on the face of the envelope was: “June 25, 1936. Why I erected the Two Moons monument. My connection with Montana pioneers, Broadwater, Granville Stewart, W.G. Conrad and others. Busby, Montana, where General Custer spent his last night on earth. History and location of Starved to Death Rock. Bozeman expedition 1874 up Rosebud Creek. Two soldiers got away from Custer battle alive. History, Indian fort up Busby Creek. Hiding place and location of money and trinkets taken from dead soldiers on Custer Battlefield. To be opened Jun 25, 1986. W.P. Moncure, Busby Montana, June 25, 1935."”
Thus informed, Mrs. Wright doubled her efforts to find the story behind the building of the monument and thereby solve the riddle of the missing treasure.
She found that Moncure is still living and resides in Callabassas Calif. Moncure had become a fast friend of Two Moons when he opened his trading post in Busby in the early 1900’s. He was ceremoniously admitted to the tribe.
Each summer Moncure returns to the Cheyenne reservation am visits with his Indian friends. He is an accepted and highly regarded member of the tribe.
Mrs. Wright has met Moncure and has corresponded with him many times. He told her that the envelope would be opened in “due time.” He said the information written in the letter was for the benefit of the generations of Cheyenne Indians in 1988 so “they'll know how the Cheyennes lived when they were free.”
Mrs. Wright is one of many who believe that the envelope should be opened soon. She pointed out that if it contains the directions to the hidden loot, it should be known by Indian and historical officials before someone happens to stumble across it.
Mrs. Wright said, “if properly uncovered and preserved by archaeologists, the value of the money, religious articles, letters and pictures of loved ones would be infinite from a historical viewpoint.”
Moncure plans to return to Busby in August on his annual visit. He has promised to meet with Mrs. Wright and discuss the opening of the manila envelope.
What is inside the envelope may be a hoax, and again It may the solution to a mystery which has baffled men since June 25, 1876, known as the day of “Custer's Last Stand.”
If the envelope is opened and the cache is found, Mrs. Wright may be credited with solving one of the foremost historical riddles of our time.
The Aftermath
Cheyenne tribal authorities gave Kathryn Wright permission to open the mysterious manilla envelope. However, before she could open it, someone broke into the vault and stole the envelope and various relics.
Custer’s treasure has never been found—at least officially. Is it still out there somewhere? Was the whole thing a hoax? We may never know.
I discuss this story and other lost treasure tales in the fifth book of my Detours Into the Paranormal series.
