The stated purposes included reconnoitering the terrain and identifying possible locations for a military post.

But the expedition also included civilian miners, and the questions those miners were asking about the Hills were not about military fortifications.

Custer’s expedition found gold.

Or more precisely, some members of the expedition found gold, or what they believed to be gold, in creek beds near what is now the town of Custer, South Dakota.

By mid-August, Custer had reported the findings in dispatches that were picked up and amplified by newspapers across the country.

The reports were florid, enthusiastic, and widely read.