On August 20, Henry Fraeb, with thirty-two trappers under his command, had a desperate battle with an overwhelming force of Cheyenne and Sioux Indians. On that day, ten men were sent out from camp to drive buffalo. Those remaining in camp would head off the bison after the ten started them running in their direction. By accident, the ten men ran onto a large body of Indians, and were attacked with great fury. One trapper was wounded badly in the fight and he turned his horse in the direction of camp, which he reached safely. Fraeb ordered twenty of his men to mount, and he led them to the rescue of the nine who were desperately fighting the unequal conflict. The arrival of the reinforcements decided the battle and the Indians retreated.

The Indians’ resentment of their defeat was immediate. Retreating northeast, they fired the forest, thus serving notice that they would make the country a wasteland rather than let the white men take it. The immediate area was denuded.

From this trapper-Indian conflict, Battle Creek, Battle Lake, the town of Battle and Battle Mountain received their name.

The battle occurred where the creek in front of you joins the Little Snake River, about eight miles south.