By Mike Bowen, co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
This boot heel cap was found at the Lost Sand Creek Site. It would have belonged to a soldier.
This artifact is proof of soldiers being on what would become the Bowen family ranch, and it was found over two miles up the creek from the alleged massacre location. It’s unknown how it was lost, but we believe it was from a young soldier. It would have fit a smaller sized boot. The boot pictured with the boot heel cap below is a size 11 1/2. Soldier, Irving Howbert, was 18 at Sand Creek, and soldier, Lant Williams, was 19 at Sand Creek. We don’t know who it belonged to, but soldiers as young as 18 fought there.
The boot heel cap was one of many artifacts Dr. Doug Scott, former National Park Service Sand Creek Lead Archaeologist, viewed and identified. Watch the video clip below of Dr. Scott identifying the boot heel cap in Chuck and Sheri Bowen’s home in the spring of ‘99.
Dr. Scott said the boot heel cap was, “not uncommon at all on shoes of that period.”
That artifact is among over 4,000 battle and village artifacts Chuck Bowen found at what is called the Lost Sand Creek Site on the Bowen family ranch. All of the artifacts Bowen found started nearly two miles up the creek from the bluff at the NPS Sand Creek site. It’s below that bluff the NPS alleges the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were camped and killed by soldiers. However, the location below that bluff is void of period artifacts. As it’s said, no bullets no battlefield.
The massacre claim further alleges the Indians were all camped in a small congested area below that bluff. As stated above, no physical evidence has been found there and the real location of Black Kettle’s village and battle areas show there aren’t any congested areas with artifacts. The village was spread out about 2-3 miles, and very little fighting took place in the village. It’s also well documented that the fighting at Sand Creek lasted from just before the sun came up into the afternoon. Major Anthony, Commanding Officer at Fort Lyon, testified the fight lasted seven hours (Report on the Conduct of the War, 38 Congress, 2nd session, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1865).
If the Indians were all camped together below that bluff or anywhere else in a congested area, that would have resulted in a quick event of less than an hour.
The location artifacts were found shows two separate locations: the village site and running battle areas. The battle areas started on the opposite side of the creek from the village and both the village site and battle areas extended for over two miles.
In our last blog, Sand Creek soldier accounts were compared, from men in different companies, in the Colorado 1st and Colorado 3rd, and who did not know each other. These soldiers all detailed Sand Creek as a running battle. Read the blog here: ComparisonSandCreekSoldierAccounts.
You can learn about many of the artifacts found by Chuck Bowen in our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site. The book is first about the discovery of the real location of Black Kettle’s village and running battle areas and it also provides information about how the discovery reveals the truth about the event.
Get our book here: AuthorHouse (paperback or hardcover) or Amazon (hardcover)
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Click on the link below to see Dr. Scott identify more artifacts, including bullets, casings, a grindstone that may have been pierced by a bullet and a Sand Creek artifact that is the most important artifact of all. Dr. Scott spent over two hours identifying artifacts. Dr.ScottArtifacts
