How Was Genealogy Used in Sand Creek Research?

By Mike Bowen, co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site

Throughout their many years studying Sand Creek, Chuck and Sheri Bowen used genealogy with some of their research. 

Mike Bowen presented on Genealogy and Sand Creek Monday, March 6 for the Prowers County Genealogy Society. 

If you weren’t able to attend, check out this video of the program. (Blog continues below the video).

Chuck and Sheri used ancestry records to research Irving Howbert, George Bent, the Creaghe family, and Elbridge Gerry, to name a few.

Irving Howbert, a soldier at Sand Creek, had a grandson of the same name. In 2007, the grandson came out to see Chuck and Sheri’s Lost Sand Creek Site. A program was held at the Cow Palace in Lamar to honor him. He was provided an honorary membership into the U.S. Cavalry Association by Butch Kelley, a Cavalry reenactor. 

Butch assisted Chuck with identifying some of the Sand Creek artifacts he found. One item was identified as something that could only be from the Sand Creek event. Chuck was not prepared for what it was. 

Chuck has been accompanied on many metal detecting trips by Joe Harbert for over 20 years. They have found bullets, metal arrowheads, kettle fragments, eagle buttons, percussion caps, and cannonball shell fragments, to name a few. 

Joe shared at the program about some of the items he found with Chuck at the real Sand Creek site. You can see his portion of the program in the video above. 

We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site details the discovery of thousands of artifacts by Chuck and Sheri Bowen. Sheri was the researcher and Chuck was the archaeologist. 

You can learn all about this discovery in the book. Buy it on Amazon here: We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.

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