And when the forts were gone, he didn’t simply accept the situation.

He completed it — he made sure the forts couldn’t come back before he acknowledged that the fight was over.

The burned forts left marks in the landscape that archaeologists have found and documented.

The specific locations of the stockade walls, the barracks, the magazine — these can be traced in the soil of northeastern Wyoming, where fire and time have left their record.

The land has recovered.