Initial Rock

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

From the record

“Initial Rock, also known as Name Rock, in the Medora Ranger District of the Little Missouri National Grassland, near Medora, North Dakota, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1976. It was the site of an overnight camp on May 28, 1876 of George Armstrong Custer's men, on their way to the Battle of Little Big Horn, which happened on June 25, 1876.”
Wikipedia article Initial Rock, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 8 National Register listings published here for Billings County · listed in 1976 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site, 1 object as contributing to the listing.
Address. SE of Medora in Custer National Forest, Medora, 58645
When was it listed? November 1976
Category. site
Unorganized territory. South Billings
National Register reference number. 76002271 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

16 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Initial Rock between 1999 and 2018, burning about 137 acres in total. 2 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Equipment and vehicle use	10
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Natural	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
26 September 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Dakota Prairie National Grasslands	EAST SULLY SPRINGS
18 September 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	2.4 acres	Dakota Prairie National Grasslands	WEST PORT 14-24
26 August 2003	Natural	under an acre	Dakota Prairie National Grasslands	LITTLE CREEK
29 July 2012	Natural	63 acres	Dakota Prairie National Grasslands	PLUMELY DRAW
27 July 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.8 acres	Dakota Prairie National Grasslands	WESTPORT 12-35
23 July 2018	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.0 acres	North Dakota State Forest Service	TRACY MNT RD POLE
10 July 2003	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Dakota Prairie National Grasslands	FEDERAL 44X
23 April 2003	Equipment and vehicle use	2.3 acres	Dakota Prairie National Grasslands	WESTPORT

Every fire recorded in Billings County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Initial Rock: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Scoria Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Billings County

Storms near this property

36 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Medora, the town this property stands in, in 36 storm reports between 1996 and 2022: 24 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 tornado. The reports record 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 1996	Hail	Medora	3 hurt, $25,000	no account filed
May 2011	Flood	Medora	$50,000	See the event episode narrative for details.
July 2011	Flash Flood	Medora	$25,000	Up to four inches of very heavy rainfall resulted in the camp grounds at Medora being flash flooded.
June 2019	Hail	Medora	$15,000	A roof was damaged on a home.
June 2006	Hail	Medora	$10,000	Hail accompanied by measured 68 mph wind gust on a hand held anemometer. Damage to a ranch 4 miles south of Medora included the roof and windows and tree limbs down in the farm yard.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	$1,500	Multiple tree limbs down.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated by the public.
July 2009	Tornado (EF0)	Medora	-	A brief tornado touchdown was reported. No reports of damage or injuries were received.
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	-	RAWS site near Painted Canyon visitor center.
July 2003	Hail	Medora	-	Heavy rain reported with the storm.
July 2003	Hail	Medora	-	Hail damaged numerous vehicles in and around the Medora area.
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	-	Several tree's uprooted.
June 1998	Hail	Medora	-	Deputy reported ground was white with hail.
August 1998	Lightning	Medora	-	53 acres theodore roosevelt nat'l park by fire caused by lightning
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	-	winds occurred 3 E Medora
July 2020	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
July 2020	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
September 2018	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 2017	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 2017	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
June 2016	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 2006	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 2006	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	-	no account filed
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Medora	-	no account filed
July 2001	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
July 2000	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 1999	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 1998	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
August 1998	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed
July 1997	Hail	Medora	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Billings County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 76002271 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Billings County	All 8 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.