National Park Mystery Spot 26 Revealed: A Hill Like No Other

Submitted by Bob Janiskee on July 7, 2011 - 2:59am

The identity of National Park Mystery Spot 26 is hidden in these clues. Were you able to figure it out?

The furled umbrella, black as a crow, is stored upright and ready to go.
It's the only one left, so it's guarded from theft.

A legendary singer found intense excitement through elevation.

Bonus clue, no extra charge: It's small, and not quite a Dall.

Additional clues were provided In the comments section by popular request. It was specified that the mystery spot is a hill, and that it is in a western national park that is not National Park-designated.

The answer is Last Stand Hill, the main attraction of Montana's Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

Last Stand Hill is the place where a large detachment of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry under the command of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer was overwhelmed and killed to the last man by Lakota and Northern Cheyenne warriors during the June 25-26, 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn. Today, Last Stand Hill is situated in the Custer Battlefield unit of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Although the main battlefield sites are preserved within the park, most of the ground on which skirmishing, movements of the combatants, and other battle-related activities occurred during the Battle of the Little Bighorn is located within the Crow Indian Reservation.

Here is how the clues take you to the answer.

Umbrellas (including ones that are "black as a crow") are stored in an upright rack called an umbrella stand. If an umbrella is the only one left, it is the last one. Fats Domino , the best known black singer of the 1950s, famously found his thrill on Blueberry Hill. (His hit song Blueberry Hill sold over 5 million copies during 1956-57 and became an R&B classic.)

The bonus clue, "It's small, and not quite a Dall" refers to a small bighorn sheep -- in other words, it refers to a little bighorn. The bighorn (Ovis canadensis), one of two species of mountain sheep found in North America, inhabits some mountain and desert areas of the west from northern Mexico to southern Canada. Bighorns are quite similar to the Dall sheep (Ovis dalli) that live in some mountainous areas of Alaska and in Canada as far south as northern British Columbia.

For some interesting facts and statistics about Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and Last Stand Hill, click to By the Numbers: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

Comments

Submitted by Lee Dalton on July 7, 2011 - 7:15am.

This one was kind of far out. Did anyone get it?

Submitted by Ilex_Opaca on July 7, 2011 - 7:50am.

It was the singer that messed me up. I kept thinking it was John Denver (Rocky Mountain High) so I was focusing on Colorado or anything that started with "John"

Submitted by Bob Janiskee on July 7, 2011 - 8:00am.

Nobody submitted the correct answer for this one. It was obviously much more difficult than the usual mystery spot quiz, though by no means impossible to solve. The quizmeister judged the first draft too easy, so he edited out some clues (ones that pertained to Indians, troopers, and "seventh") until he arrived at a challenge that could yield a real breakthrough performance by one or two of our "think outside the box" readers. This line of thinking is now on the quizmeister's don't-do-it-again list, and he acknowledges that he now owes Traveler readers an easy one.

Submitted by RoadRanger (not verified) on July 7, 2011 - 12:47pm.

Bob, no need to lighten up too much. My nerves may be shot trying to figure out #26, but I learned more about physiography in the western parks in the last day than in the past year!

Submitted by Richard Smith (not verified) on July 7, 2011 - 3:23pm.

Guarded from theft? Why is that included?

Submitted by Bob Janiskee on July 7, 2011 - 4:20pm.

Gosh, I was sorta hopin' you guys would just accept my apology and let me slink away. :o)

Submitted by Lisa Vance (not verified) on July 12, 2011 - 7:32am.

There is a fence around the headstones at the top of the hill, maybe that is why guarded from theft was included. (I was just there last Wednesday)