Big Hole National Battlefield, Historic battlefield in Beaverhead County, Montana

Big Hole National Battlefield covers 975.61 acres in Beaverhead County, Montana, ten miles west of Wisdom on Highway 43, just east of the Continental Divide at Chief Joseph Pass. The protected ground includes 320 acres held privately. A year-round visitor center stands in the park.

On August 9 and 10, 1877, the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Regiment attacked a Nez Perce encampment at Big Hole during the tribe's attempt to reach Canada. The Nez Perce counterattacked and cornered the soldiers on a hillside while women and children fled. Over the day and a half of fighting, an estimated 60 to 90 Nez Perce were killed, most of them women and children, while the Army lost 29 soldiers with 40 more seriously wounded.

The battlefield lies within Nez Perce National Historical Park, created in 1992 and made up of 38 sites in five states. The Nez Perce farmed before settlers arrived, and in 1877 around 750 people, only 200 of them warriors, were moving toward Canada when the attack came. A year-round visitor center holds exhibits on the battle.

A visitor center provides exhibits and educational materials explaining the battle and its context. The open terrain requires comfortable walking shoes and allows you to follow marked positions across the grassland.

Marked positions on the ground show exactly where military units and the tribal camp were positioned during the conflict. These markers help visitors understand how the battle actually unfolded across the landscape.