Exploring with Custer is the type of history book that you want to read cover to cover before putting it down. The book documents in great precision the path traveled by General Custer’s 1874 expedition through the Black Hills of South Dakota. Page after page of detailed topographical maps accurately plot the original route of the expedition. Campsites and points of historical interest from the exploration are located on the maps that identify current roads and landmarks to keep the traveler properly oriented. This attention to detail allows the reader to experience the journey from their couch or follow Custer’s trail in the car. The painstaking work of the authors Ernest Grafe and Paul Horsted make it possible to travel to the past and stand exactly where the soldiers went about their duties.

Piquing the curiosity of the reader is where this book shines. The authors found the sites of the original photographs and successfully recreated the compositions taken by the expedition photographer. The results are phenomenal! Details captured in the 1874 photographs have proven that some things remain the same 140 years later! Dead trees from that long past era look identical in appearance today. Stumps on the ground can still be detected in the same position and unchanged over the decades. The authors were even able to locate the rock ledge where Custer posed notoriously with a large grizzly bear he killed.

This work contains a collection of amazing photographs and important details indispensable to Custer aficionados and those that are interested in the high drama of that epoch. Anyone looking to escape back to a time of historical importance will be extremely satisfied in this unique work. After reading this book, it will be hard to resist the call of the road with a copy of Exploring with Custer as your guide.