To avoid confusion, the restored fort is commonly referred to as Fort McKeen, distinguishing it from the later Fort Abraham Lincoln, although the latter included both posts. The FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN SITE is right of the park road just south of the Indian village. Markers indicate the sites of the various structures, and holes partly filled with debris also show where the buildings of the Northwest's strongest fortress once stood. A row of cottonwoods, which grew along Officers' Row, stands in lonesome splendor. When Gen. George A. Custer and his spirited Seventh Cavalry came to Fort Abraham Lincoln in 1873 it became a nine-company cavalry and infantry post, with the cavalry established on the level plain below, where a good drill and parade ground was available. Custer, with his long sandy-colored hair and restless vivacity, was one of the most personable and interesting military men of his time. He and his wife, a young and talented woman, soon drew about themselves a social circle that was widely known and aspired to. Balls, musicales, and other entertainments drew people from the surrounding territory, including the new town of Bismarck across the river. The social life at Fort Abraham Lincoln would have been a credit to any city, as, beneath crystal chandeliers, to the music of the Seventh's band, stately couples moved in the graceful figures of the dance. For the soldiers, life consisted chiefly of maintaining order among the Indians and the incoming white population. At one time the guardhouse at the fort had a distinguished occupant, Rain-in-the-Face, the Sioux warrior. He had been heard boasting of "counting coup" on the bodies of two white men killed on the Stanley expedition in 1873, and Tom Custer, brother of General Custer, was sent to take him into custody at Standing Rock Agency (_see Side Tour 8C_). Rain-in-the-Face was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Abraham Lincoln, but escaped in a jailbreak engineered by friends of some of the other prisoners, and joined Sitting Bull. Life at the post often grew monotonous for the troopers, who in winter found their activities hampered by the severe cold, and in the summer suffered from the torments of the heat and the mosquitoes.