Caspar Collins died during a futile mission to rescue a wagon train about a half-mile west of the Platte Bridge Station on July 26, 1965.

While Caspar Collins' body was returned to Ohio for burial, the site of the 22 soldiers who died in the wagon train massacre between 3.5 miles and 4 miles west of Platte Bridge Station - now Fort Caspar - has never been located.

Two men, Steven Haack of Lincoln, Neb., and retired Casper Police Officer Randy Bjorklund, believed they are close to solving the mystery of what Haack calls Wyoming's largest undiscovered battlefield graveyard,

"This is an opportunity … to build a thread back to the past," Haack said Saturday.

They've researched the sometimes conflicting reports of the Battle of the Red Buttes and believe Commissary Sgt. Amos Custard of the 11th Kansas Volunteer Infantry and his group died in a hollow between two mounds that are visible north of Highway 220 west of Casper.

The site also is on the western edge of the Prairie Park subdivision, which is being developed north of Trevett Road west of Robertson Road, Haack said.

They are conducting the research with the permission of Kevin Keller of Cheyenne, whose IGC Management owns a total of 284 acres of the Prairie Park subdivision, Haack said. "The landowners have been wonderfully cooperative," he said.

Keller could not be reached for comment last week.

Later this month, Haack and another researcher plan to conduct ground penetrating radar above a depression in the ground where they believe the battle occurred,

The biggest problem Haack and Bjorklund have is money, Haack said.

They have approached local foundations for help, and have established the nonprofit Red Buttes Battlefield Preservation Association to coordinate funding, he said.

Reporter Tom Morton can be reached at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@casperstartribune.net.