2025 Reunion

11th Christenot Family Reunion

“In Their Footsteps Along the Bozeman Trail”

July 24-27, 2025, near Buffalo, Wyoming, at the Kearney Community Hall.

Join us for Play Time, Family Time, and a Little Bit of Historical Stuff (or a lot)

You can choose your own adventures at this reunion! Settle in for lots of visiting, meeting new kin, and beating them at yard games. Venture into Buffalo’s old-fashioned downtown with museums, modern shops and scenic options. Visit the Brinton Museum with a world-renowned collection of Western Art. Hike, camp, and fish the local waters. Enjoy activities for the kids at the reunion, the local fish hatchery, or at the Johnson County Rodeo. View the family history displays and learn about new discoveries. And indulge us as we offer up a big helping of the history of the Bozeman Trail, upon which our Christenot kin emigrated in 1866. In fact, they camped near our reunion site!

We’ll gather at the Kearney Community Hall located 12 miles north of Buffalo and 18 miles south of Sheridan.  This renovated hall, with a deep, wrap-around porch, is along the Bozeman Trail on an acre of land near Little Piney Creek. (See pictures on the 2025 Reunion Planning page.) We’ll gaze across miles of open territory, with scattered ranch buildings, to the Big Horn Mountains four miles directly west, and see the land where the wagon trains snaked along the Bozeman Trail from the left, stopped near Fort Phil Kearny about half mile to the west, and continued northwest as far as the eye can see.  We’ll soak up that view and remark upon the fact that our Christenot kin stopped right there, as noted in the diary of the journey by Thomas Creigh: August 25th, Saturday –  Broke corral at 4:45 a.m., corraled at 7:30 a.m. on 1st Piney Fork (Little Piney Creek), close to “Fort Philip Kearny” Walked to Fort (1 ½ miles) met Jeff, Megeath, and Dr. Horton.  Train moved across 2d Piney Fork and corraled at 5 p.m.

Bozeman Trail Tours and Programs

Tours: We’ll offer choices of tours along different portions of the Bozeman Trail and stops into museums. Choose your own distance and difficulty. Go with the group or with a provided map. The endurance and light attention-spans of our children will be kept in mind.

Programs: Evening programs from area experts are sure to entertain all ages.

Fort Phil Kearny State Historical Site: Just a mile away, experts at the fort have offered us a big program on Saturday: Guided Tours, demonstrations of fort life and native skills, with a chance to try yourself.

Favorite Reunion Activities

As always, we’ll have our big family gatherings in the evening with a catered dinner, fun program, family history updates, and a lengthy time to sit and visit. Bring your handcrafts, books, local fare, antiques, or kid stuff for our famous Christenot Auction (Silent & Live) on Saturday evening.

Vacation Time

Vacation Time: Infrastructure for the historical tourist is all in place with road markers and signs along remote portions of the Bozeman Trail, linked by museums with pertinent exhibits.  There is also plenty to do for the modern-minded visitor from visits to town, camping and hiking in the nearby mountains, and playing in rivers and lakes.  Buffalo is twelve miles south of the reunion site at Kearney Community Hall and Sheridan is eighteen miles north. Lodging, campgrounds, guest ranches, and vacation rentals can be found in those towns or in small communities between them.

Buffalo, Wyoming, is a small, historic-looking town of 4,400 people.  (Think two-story brick and stone buildings of the 1880s, not the wooden ones of 1860s Virginia City.) Buffalo is the setting of the fictional town of Durant in the Longmire series of books by Craig Johnson and found downtown are the Historical Occidental Hotel and Busy Bee Cafe which appear in the books. The television show was not filmed here. Venture into Buffalo’s old-fashioned downtown with the ice cream store, sports & outdoor rec, toy store, clothing, quilting, and old-time hotels, bars, and restaurants.

The Johnson County Fair, just one mile from downtown, will be happening when we are there!  Sadly, their rodeos take place the next weekend, but families do love a fair.  The Bozeman Trail crosses through the town and the Trail is visible in the open range and flowing fields both north and south.

The Brinton Museum, just miles away at the Quarter Circle A Ranch, opened its new state-of-the-art Forrest E. Mars, Jr. Building. Located on the 620-acre historic Quarter Circle A Ranch in Big Horn, WY, the new 24,000-square-foot $15.8-million, eco-conscious museum houses one of the most significant and extensive 19th and 20th century Western and American Indian Art collections in the U.S. featuring Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell, Thomas Moran, Edward Borein, Winold Reiss, and the largest Hans Kleiber collection in the world. It includes four galleries, a museum store and the Brinton Bistro, which offers indoor and outdoor dining with 180-degree views of the Bighorn Mountains. There’s also the 2.4 miles Quarter Circle A Nature Trail.

Reserve Your Lodging Now!

We are not kidding!  Reserving your lodging now is the key to a successful reunion!    This area is super busy in the summer, so plan ahead and beat the crowds! We suggest calling the hotels and campgrounds, as opposed to booking online, to make your reservation for July 24-27, 2025.  This “Discover Buffalo” site has a page with these below and more Hotels, Guest Ranches and Campgrounds.

Hotels

Story – 5 miles north west of Kearney Community Hall

Wagon Box Inn & Cabins, VRBO: Your Bighorn Mountain Getaway,

Lake De Smet – 7 miles south west of KCH

Lake Stop Resort – On Lake De Smet, 8 miles from reunion site. Modest hotels, cabins, and RV sites.

Buffalo Area – 12 miles south of KCH
Sheridan & Big Horn

Eighteen miles north of the reunion site is the town of Sheridan, population 19,000, in Sheridan County. Explore the area via their website. Big Horn, a small community, is closer to the reunion site and has vacation rentals.

  • Historic Downtown: Visit here and look for Best Western Sheridan Center, the Nelson Inn, and Sheridan Inn.
  • South Sheridan: Easy access to the freeway and 18 mile drive to the reunion – Search your internet or here for Candlewood Suites, Comfort Inn, Days Inn, Fairfield Inn, Mill Inn, Quality Inn, and Ramada Plaza.

Camping

From campgrounds with pools, to dispersed camping in the very-close Bighorn National Forest, there are lots of options.  Dispersed camping is the term used for camping anywhere in the National Forest outside of a designated campground.

  • Camping on the one-acre lot of our reunion is available for five self-contained RV/Vans.
  • Lake Stop Resort – On Lake De Smet, 8 miles from reunion site. Modest hotels, cabins, and RV sites.
  • Closest Camping: Lake DeSmet Recreation Area –
  • Buffalo KOA – near both Hwy 25 and 90, next door to the Hampton Inn
  • Deer Park Campground – Near Hwy 25 & 90 in Buffalo.
  • Indian Campground – Near Hwy 25 & 90 in Buffalo, lots of tall trees.
  • Mountain View Motel and Campground – In Bufallo, on Hwy 16. Camping and rustic-looking cabins, some that sleep up to 6 people.
  • Bighorn National Forest – Many campgrounds starting 14 miles west of Buffalo, out Hwy 16, in the Big Horn Mountains. Use the link to explore campgrounds and cabins. Start with Middle Fork and Sourdough Campground. Reservations taken six months in advance.
  • Bighorn National Forest – Dispersed Camping: You are allowed to drive up to 300 feet off of an open road to set up camp, providing it will not result in damage to the land, is in an area that is not signed otherwise, or if restrictions are in place prohibiting that use.   
  • Bighorn Off-Road Vehicle Roads & Trails – Info & maps
  • Wyoming Campground Association – Lists of Private Campgrounds and RV Parks.

Sheridan Camping: Sheridan Bighorn KOA. Also, a list of Private and Public Campgrounds in the Sheridan area.

The Bozeman Trail and the Christenot Family

The blue line is the approximate route of the Bozeman Trail in 1866.  Kearney Community Hall is located where the blue line crosses the yellow smudge northwest of Buffalo.  Yellow-highlighted towns have excellent museums of westward expansion.
Christenot Wagon Train

The Christenot Wagon Train, with 52 wagons and 235 yoke of oxen left Nebraska City on June 23, 1866, and arrived at the Christenot Mill, south of Virginia City, Montana, on October 4th.  This was a freight train, carrying heavy equipment for crushing iron ore to extract gold, and included seven members of the Christenot family.  They had followed the Overland Trail amongst emigrant trains that were headed farther west.  Our train then turned northward and first drove onto the Bozeman Trail at Douglas, Wyoming, on August 14th, 1866. Scroll below for maps of the Bozeman Trail and Wyoming.

This reunion will focus on the area north of Pumpkin Buttes which the Christenot train passed going northwest toward Fort Reno, along the Powder River, on August 19th, 1866, and where upon they first sighted the Bighorn Mountains, until August 30th, 1866, when they passed into Montana Territory. We will drive along and visit portions of the trail where they made their stops and camps.

1866 marked the last year the wagon trains were allowed along the Bozeman Trail as the Native people became increasingly irate over the encroachment of their land.  Skirmishes took place before and after the Christenot Train journeyed through, with fear, encounters, and troubles noted in the Creigh Diary.  Red Cloud’s War (1866-1868) began.

The folks at the museum at the Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site are thrilled to hear about our reunion and are ready to provide tours of the grounds, evening speakers, and historical demonstrators. Consider joining the Bozeman Trail Association to support their long-term efforts of historical preservation and educational outreach.

Make Great Plans To Attend!

Plans are under way to provide the type of Christenot Family Reunion you’d like to attend whether it’s your first time or the eleventh! There will be outdoor games and crafts for all ages, meals at the Hall, and evening programs.  Food for lunches and snacks would be on hand because of the location between towns, allowing flexibility for daytime trips and hikes, or sitting and chatting with cousins.

The Kearney Community Hall is along Little Piney Creek. On July 24-27th, 2025, we’ll be sitting a spell where the Christenots stopped on along the Bozeman Trail on August 25th, 1866.

This special spot at the Kearney Community Hall ticks all the boxes for a great reunion!  Mark your calendars today and make your lodging plans soon! 
Visit our 2025 Reunion Planning page for many pictures of the reunion site.
Panorama of the Kearney Community Hall
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