Celebrating The 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps – 1897 Missoula to St.Louis

Overview

1,900 Miles. 41 Days. They Didn’t Expect to Finish. In 1897 the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps — all-Black, steel-framed, no gears, no fears

The U.S. Army wanted to know whether the bicycle could replace the horse. So it handed the question to the 25th Infantry — a Black regiment — and sent them into the Rockies to find out.

In the summer of 1897, twenty soldiers left Fort Missoula, Montana on single-speed steel bicycles loaded with rifles, bedrolls, and rations. Forty-one days later they rolled into St. Louis, roughly 1,900 miles behind them: gumbo mud, unbridged rivers, mountain passes, and the low expectations of a nation deep in the Jim Crow era. They averaged better than 45 miles a day on roads that mostly weren’t.

The Army got its answer and shrugged. The men got no promotion, no parade, no lasting credit. History moved on. We’re moving it back.

Tonight is a collaboration with the Minnesota Historical Society, and it comes with something you can’t get from a book: period gear from the era of the journey, up close. We’ll trace the 25th Infantry’s Minnesota chapter — the regiment’s years stationed at Fort Snelling — and follow the thread to the soldiers and families who eventually made Minneapolis home.

Then we ride. Because the point of remembering people who rode is to ride.

Expect historians, artifacts, and a route that connects the telling to the ground it happened on. Bring someone who thinks history is boring. Let the bikes handle it.

▸ RIDE DETAILS

• Program: 6: 00 PM gear exhibit & talk · Dinner 7:15 PM
• Start/Finish: Venture Bikes, 2834 10th Ave S (Greenway Level, Midtown Bike Center)
• Featuring: Minnesota Historical Society staff + period equipment
• Bring: Helmet, water, lights, and questions
• Good for: History heads, families, anyone who’s never heard this story