Badlands and then turns W. and SW. in a large arc along the edge of
the breaks to SPERATI POINT, =14 m.= (_see Tour 10_), a high shoulder
of the plateau, overlooking the spectacular GRAND CANYON OF THE LITTLE
MISSOURI. Lying just W. of the bend of the Little Missouri where it
turns E. toward the Missouri, the point affords views up and down the
canyon, which in places is 600 ft. deep. It is proposed to make this a
completely developed recreational center, with cabins, stables, lodge,
and a store.
From Sperati Point an unmarked and indefinite trail, which should not
be tried without a guide, leads SW.
Left on this trail to a PETRIFIED FOREST, =2 m.=, one of those Badlands
areas, often many acres in extent, which abound with petrified logs
and stumps. Petrified stumps are a common sight throughout the valley
of the Little Missouri, suggesting that at one time it must have
been heavily forested. When the originals of these stone trees died,
their trunks, either standing or fallen, soaked up soil water holding
mineral matter in solution. As the water evaporated, the mineral matter
was left behind, filling the pores of the wood and the tiny cavities
produced by decomposition. In time decay removed all the wood and
the trees became stone, or, popularly, petrified wood. Some of the
logs--for, of course, the trees are not now standing--are as much as 35
ft. in length and 2 ft. in diameter. In some places the soil has been
washed and blown away from beneath the stumps, leaving odd formations
shaped like toadstools.
SOUTH ROOSEVELT REGIONAL STATE PARK TOUR
East entrance (_see Tour 8_)--Hell's Hole--West entrance (_see Tour
8_), 10 m.
The South Roosevelt Regional State Park comprises an area of
approximately 90 square miles, lying along the Little Missouri just N.
of US 10. In addition to the fantastic beauty of the Badlands buttes,
it contains a petrified forest, and one of the largest burning coal
mines in the Badlands.
From the eastern entrance the route leads NW. over the broad, pale-pink
ribbon of the graveled and scoria park highway.
HELL'S HOLE (L), =4 m.=, was named for a burning coal mine once
situated in this valley. The mine burned out, causing the earth to
crumble and destroy a tiny lake which lay under the cliff.
At =7 m.= three trails form a triangle on a level area adjacent to the
LITTLE MISSOURI RIVER. Here it is proposed to develop a recreational
center with full tourist accommodations, including cabins, store,
lodge, and stables. At the north end of the proposed area is the
old PEACEFUL VALLEY RANCH, which served tourists many years. It has
been acquired by the park, and the ranch house and corrals are to be
preserved as a recreational center. At Peaceful Valley Ranch are the
junctions with an unimproved trail, a graveled truck trail, and an
unmarked and indefinite horse trail.
1. Right from the ranch on the unimproved trail to PADDOCK CREEK, =0.4
m.=, which like all the creeks here is dry except in rainy seasons. Up
the creek, one on the L. bank at =1 m.= and the other on the R. at =1.5
m.= are the mounds of two PRAIRIE-DOG TOWNS.
2. Right from the ranch on the truck trail which crosses JONES CREEK,
=0.8 m.=, and turns E. just before reaching CATHEDRAL BUTTE, =2 m.=, an
old landmark on the trail.
Left from Cathedral Butte =0.5 m.= on an unimproved trail to WIND
CANYON, a narrow, deep valley leading down to a broad elbow of the
Little Missouri. Its name was suggested by the striking examples of
erosion by winds, which, whipping at the buttes for centuries, have
worn them into odd shapes. From Wind Canyon the trail passes NW. along
the river to SHELL BUTTE, =0.8 m.=, a high butte into which the river
has cut deeply, revealing large deposits of marine shells.
East of Cathedral Butte on the main side route following the truck
trail for about a mile and then NE. across JUEL CREEK, =3.3 m.=, to
GOD'S GARDENS (R), =4.5 m.=, an unusually attractive stretch of butte
and lowland, from which the road leads NW. across GOVERNMENT CREEK,
=5.3 m.=, where to the R., one on either side of the creek, are two
PRAIRIE-DOG TOWNS. At the crossing of Government Creek is the junction
with an unimproved trail (_do not follow without guide_).
Right on this trail =3 m.= to a BURNING COAL MINE, which is one of the
largest in the Badlands. The burning of the coal causes cracks to form
in the earth above the vein; one guide says he has brought water to a
boil in 15 min. by placing it above one of these cracks. As the vein is
consumed, the earth crumbles and falls, and the rains carry it away to
the streams.
Amid some of the finest Badlands scenery the truck trail continues in a
general northwesterly direction to the north boundary of the park, =10
m.=
3. Left from the ranch on the unmarked and indefinite horse trail to a
PETRIFIED FOREST, =5.5 m.=, considered one of the best examples of a
petrified forest (_see North Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour above_)
in the Badlands. The trip to this forest, which makes a nice day's
outing, requires a guide.
Southwest of Peaceful Valley Ranch, the route runs along the east bank
of the winding, shallow Little Missouri to a CAMPING AREA (R), =8 m.=,
sheltered by trees along the stream. It is furnished with tables,
fireplaces, and wells, and several individual camping spaces have been
developed along the road that circles through it.
At =8.5 m.= the route fords the river--a passage which in times of
high water cannot be effected by motorcars--and, turning SW. along the
western bank, reaches a permanent CCC CAMP (L), =9 m.=, with its low,
trim, slate-blue buildings lying next the stream on a level piece of
bottom land overshadowed by lofty buttes.
At =9.5 m.=, is a junction with a graveled road leading uphill away
from the river.
Right on this trail is a PICNIC SHELTER, =0.5 m.=, built over a spring
and provided with a fireplace.
Right from this shelter =5 m.= on a marked HORSE TRAIL, which winds
among the buttes in a figure eight. At some points on the trail the
tops of Square (Flat Top) and Sentinel Buttes (_see Tour 8_) are
visible far away to the SW. At the center of the figure eight, forming
a pleasant place for lunch, is a clump of trees with a spring flowing
down over little sandstone terraces.
At =9.8 m.= is the sandstone portal of the west entrance, beyond which
is the junction with US 10 (_see Tour 8_), =10 m.=
HIGHWAYS AND TRAILS
TOUR 1
(Winnipeg, Man., Can.)--Pembina--Grand
Forks--Fargo--Wahpeton--(Watertown, S. Dak.). US 81.
Canadian boundary to South Dakota Line, 256.5 m.
N. P. Ry. parallels route between Canadian border and Joliette; G.
N. Ry. between Hamilton and Fargo; Milwaukee R. R. between Fargo
and South Dakota Line. Winnipeg-Fargo route of Northwest Airlines
parallels route between Canadian border and Fargo. Graveled roadbed
except about 31 m. bituminous-surfaced. Accommodations of all types
in principal towns.
US 81 crosses North Dakota along its eastern boundary from the Canadian
to the South Dakota border, and passes through the rich low valley of
the Red River of the North, a wide level plain that was once the bed of
the great prehistoric Lake Agassiz. The route parallels the Red River
to Wahpeton, and the Bois de Sioux River between that city and the
South Dakota Line. Constantly in sight to the left of the road are the
heavily wooded river banks, but except for crossing several timbered
tributaries the route runs through almost unbelievably flat green
fields, broken here and there by an occasional farmstead.
During the early settlement of this region the Red River provided
transportation into the newly opened Northwest, and beside its course
slow-moving trains of creaking oxcarts preceded the steamboat into
the new land. It was in the Red River Valley that the first white
settlements in the State were made. Here in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century flourished the bonanza farms--those huge land tracts
entirely devoted to the growing of wheat that earned for this valley
the title of "the bread basket of the world." Today the Red River
Valley produces many other crops--potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa--in
addition to wheat. Its natural endowments of rich soil and good
rainfall combine with the man-made facilities of transportation to
constitute the most prosperous section of North Dakota.
US 81 crosses the Canadian border =64.5 m.= S. of Winnipeg, Can.
PEMBINA (Chippewa, _highbush cranberry_), =3 m.= (792 alt., 551 pop.),
named for the berries that lend their flaming color to the nearby woods
in autumn, is the cradle of North Dakota white settlement. Here, at
the confluence of the Red and Pembina Rivers, the earliest trading
posts and the first white colony in the State were established. Charles
Chaboillez, representing the North West Co., built the first fur post
on North Dakota soil on the south bank of the Pembina River within the
present site of Pembina in 1797-98. Rudely constructed and of short
duration, it had already disappeared when Alexander Henry, Jr., also
of the North West Co., came up the Red River in 1800. The following
year he built a post on the north side of the Pembina, and in the same
year both the XY and the Hudson's Bay Co. opened posts at the mouth
of the river. The three competing companies, with their free rum and
unscrupulous trading, brought about a lawless social condition in
the new settlement. Drinking bouts and brawls were continuous as the
Indians were plied with liquor by the conscienceless traders, who
excused their conduct on grounds of competition.
It was during this time that the first child of other than Indian blood
was born on North Dakota soil. The child was not white, but Negro, the
daughter of Pierre Bonza, Henry's personal servant. The first white
child in the State was born at Henry's post in 1807, the illegitimate
son of the "Orkney Lad", a woman who had worked at the post for several
years in the guise of a man. Her imposture was not generally known
until the birth of her child, after which a collection was taken up and
she and the child were sent back to her home in the Orkney Islands.
During the middle of the nineteenth century Pembina was the rendezvous
for white and metis hunters, and the town was the starting point for
the great Pembina buffalo hunts (_see Side Tour 5A_).
The fur trade brought some white settlers to this area, but it was
not until 1812 that systematic colonization was attempted. In that
year William Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, brought a group of dispossessed
Scottish peasants to the Red River Valley to farm under an agreement
with the Hudson's Bay Co. Untrained for the rigors of frontier
life, and persecuted by the fur traders of the rival North West
Co. who did not want settlers in their lucrative area, many of the
Selkirk colonists moved to Canada in 1818 after establishment of the
international boundary defined Pembina as United States soil. The next
30 years saw a slow influx of settlers into the Red River Valley and
by 1851 Pembina had become a fairly important river port. In that year
Norman Kittson, a fur trader, was named postmaster, the first in North
Dakota; and Charles Cavileer, for whom the town and county of Cavalier
were later named (_see Tour 5_), was appointed collector of customs
at Pembina. Cavileer became postmaster in 1852, and, as under his
influence newcomers arrived to farm, the fur trade declined and there
developed the first permanent agricultural community in the State.
Pembina appears from a distance more like a grove of trees than a town.
Most of its buildings are old, reflecting the rococo architecture of an
earlier day.
On the Red River at the eastern end of Rolette St. is MASONIC PARK,
where a marker commemorates the site of the first Masonic lodge in the
State, organized at Pembina in 1863. Each year, both on July 1, which
is Dominion Day (the Canadian holiday similar to the U. S. Independence
Day) and on July 4, the flag of the United States and the Canadian
Union Jack fly together from the park flagpole, a practice illustrating
the neighborliness of the border States and Provinces. The Canadian
flag is a gift of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Manitoba.
The highway crosses the Pembina River, which in dry seasons is likely
to appear more like mud than water. Left on the highway is PEMBINA
STATE PARK (_good water, firewood, kitchens, and tables_), which
includes the site of the Chaboillez trading post.
A bridge over the Red River connects Pembina with St. Vincent, Minn.,
situated on US 59 (_see Minn. Tour 17_).
At =4 m.= is the PEMBINA AIRPORT (R), airport of entry operated by the
Northwest Airlines. It is on part of the former military reservation
of Fort Pembina, established in 1870. The reservation was turned over
to the U. S. Department of the Interior in 1895 and sold at public
auction. The fort was situated a mile and a half S. of the city of
Pembina on the Red River.
JOLIETTE, =14.5 m.= (796 alt., 100 pop.), is a French-Canadian
community named for Joliette, Quebec.
At =16.4 m.= is the junction with ND 44, a graveled highway and an
alternate route of shorter distance between Joliette and Manvel (_see
below_).
Left on ND 44 is BOWESMONT, =8.6 m.= (794 alt., 125 pop.), named for
William Bowes, the first storekeeper. It lies on the level land just W.
of the Red River, its treeless streets more like a western North Dakota
prairie town than the usual Red River Valley village. The story is told
that Bowes won the opportunity to name the town in a game of cards.
Bowesmont was first built on the banks of the river, but settlers
experienced great hardships when the stream overflowed its banks each
spring, and the buildings were moved.
Near Bowesmont in the spring of 1860 occurred an event illustrative of
the hardships suffered by the missionaries to this region. The Rev.
Joseph Goiffon, assistant at the Pembina Catholic Mission, returning
from a trip to St. Paul, left his party behind in an effort to reach
the mission in time to conduct a certain Mass. A driving rain had been
falling and this suddenly turned to a swirling snowstorm. In a short
time the ground was covered with six or seven inches of snow, and the
driving wind made it impossible for him to continue. The blizzard did
not abate, and in two days his horse had died from exposure and his
own legs had frozen so that he was unable to walk. For five days he
remained on the prairie, living on the flesh of his horse, until the
storm subsided and a passer-by heard his feeble cries for help. It was
found necessary to amputate parts of both legs, but in spite of this he
returned to the Pembina mission, and was later transferred to St. Paul
and Mendota, where he served until his death in 1910.
DRAYTON, =18.5 m.= (800 alt., 509 pop.), first known as Hastings
Landing, was given its present name by settlers who came west from
Drayton, Ont., Canada. In contrast with its neighbor Bowesmont, Drayton
is situated directly in the timber on the banks of the Red. Its 42-acre
city park is unusual in that it lies in another State, across the river
in Minnesota. The bridge leading to the park is also unusual; it is a
drawbridge, built in 1911, when the high stage of the Red aroused hope
of reviving steamboating. After the bridge had been completed the river
stage fell, and has never risen, so that the draw has not been lifted
since it was built.
Drayton is an active sports town, especially interested in curling, and
10 teams compete in the large enclosed rink each winter.
Left on ND 44 to ACTON HALL, =29.5 m.=, a community building.
On ND 44 to the junction (R) with a graveled road, =36.5 m.= In a
triangle formed by the junction is a CRUCIFIX. On a base of natural
boulders, in summer the clear, marble-like whiteness of the cross
and canopied figure stands out in contrast with the green of the
surrounding countryside.
At =50 m.= is the junction with US 81 (_see below_).
HAMILTON, =24.5 m.= (830 alt., 151 pop.), also a Canadian settlement,
is named for Hamilton, Ont. The oldest State bank in North Dakota,
organized in 1886, is operated here. The Pembina County Fair,
established in 1894, is held here (_June or July_) each year. In
Hamilton is the junction with ND 5 (_see Tour 5_).
In GLASSTON, =31.5 m.= (843 alt., 70 pop.), named for Archibald Glass,
first postmaster, and ST. THOMAS, =37 m.= (846 alt., 595 pop.), named
for St. Thomas, Ont., are the homes of many retired farmers. The latter
is also a potato and sugar-beet shipping center.
AUBURN, =46.5 m.= (848 alt., 50 pop.), was larger than its neighbor
GRAFTON, =52.5 m.= (833 alt., 3,136 pop.), until the latter became
a railroad junction. Named by early settlers for Grafton County, N.
H., Grafton is on the Park River in the center of a rich farming
area. It was the first city in this part of the Northwest to maintain
a municipal light plant, and had the first public library in North
Dakota, established by a women's club in 1897. A SPANISH-AMERICAN
WAR MEMORIAL, one of the few in the State, is on the Walsh County
Courthouse grounds. On a hill W. of the town is the GRAFTON STATE
SCHOOL for the feeble-minded. Opened in 1904, the institution in 1937
had 778 inmates and a faculty and staff of 110. The grounds, including
the school farm, cover 20 acres.
Left from Grafton on ND 17, a graveled highway, to the junction with ND
18, =10 m.=
Right on this highway =8.5 m.= is HOOPLE, (901 alt., 325 pop.), one
of the largest primary potato-shipping points in the State. More than
a thousand carloads of Red River Valley potatoes are loaded here each
year. The town is named for Allen Hoople, an early settler. U. S.
Senator Lynn J. Frazier, former Governor of the State (1917-1921),
lives on a farm NE. of here.
On ND 17 is PARK RIVER, =16.5 m.= (1,000 alt., 1,131 pop.), on the PARK
RIVER, probably named by early explorers for the buffalo parks along
the stream. The Indians had no weapons which were effective on buffalo
at long range, so they constructed corrals of brush into which the
animals could be herded for killing. Whenever possible these corrals,
which the first white explorers called buffalo parks, were built near
the bank of a river or edge of a hill so that the buffalo would charge
over the edge and be killed or badly injured in the crushing fall. The
WALSH COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AND TRAINING SCHOOL, secondary vocational
institution, is located in the town. In Park River are offices of the
SOUTH BRANCH PARK RIVER PROJECT of the Soil Conservation Service, which
has a demonstration area of 51,000 acres in central Walsh County on
which contour farming and wind strip cropping are practiced. Sinclair
Lewis, the novelist, owns a farm 1 m. S. of Park River, which he has
never seen.
William Avery Rockefeller, father of John D. Rockefeller, the late oil
magnate, lived on a Park River farm for some time. In 1881 an elderly
man who gave his name as Dr. William Levingston homesteaded on a
quarter section of land just E. of the town, where he lived each summer
for 15 years. He later purchased an adjoining quarter, but the deed to
this land was in the name of Pierson W. Briggs, a son-in-law of William
Rockefeller and then purchasing agent for the Standard Oil Company. In
1895 George W. Towle, former Park River banker, who transacted much of
Dr. Levingston's business, saw a picture of the senior Rockefeller in a
copy of _McClure's Magazine_, and recognized it as that of his former
client, Levingston. William A. Rockefeller was not a doctor, but sold
patent medicines and acted as a cancer specialist.
MINTO, =63 m.= (826 alt., 565 pop.), originally settled by Canadians
and named for an Ontario town, is now a Czech and Polish settlement.
The Feast of St. Wenslaus, September 28, and Czechoslovakian
Independence Day, October 28, are occasions of festivity. Minto is
situated on the FOREST RIVER. There is a park by the stream S. of the
town (_swimming pool, recreational area, and campgrounds._)
ARDOCH, =69 m.= (830 alt., 110 pop.), also named for an Ontario town,
is now predominantly Polish. LAKE ARDOCH, a large artificial lake
constructed as a water conservation and migratory waterfowl project,
adjoins the town on the E.
At =80.5 m.= is the second junction with ND 44 (_see above_).
MANVEL, =81.5 m.= (826 alt., 183 pop.), is named for Gen. A. A. Manvel
of the G. N. Ry. Originally known as the Turtle River station, it
was one of six stops on the Fort Abercrombie-Fort Garry trail in
the 1860's. The stage station was a crude log hut, roofed first with
prairie sod and later with a thatch of weeds when the rain washed the
sod away. The hut had one window and one door. Cooking was done on a
fireplace made of clay dobes or hand-made bricks. For meals, served on
an improvised table, the traveler paid 50 cents, and for the same price
he had the privilege of sleeping on the dirt floor. These stations were
comfortable, however, in the coldest weather, with great fires roaring
in the fireplaces to warm and cheer the traveler.
At =92.5 m.= is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road to the GRAND FORKS SILVER FOX FARM, =2 m.= (_visitors
allowed Jan. 1-June 1; arrange with manager_). About 200 pair of foxes
are kept at the farm each winter.
Left at =93 m.= is a stone memorial marking a point on the old RED
RIVER OXCART TRAIL between St. Paul, Minn., and Fort Garry (Winnipeg),
Canada. During the late summer and fall most of the traffic through the
region was on this trail. It was first used by traders at Fort Garry to
transport furs to St. Paul. The exact route is not known today, but it
is believed to have run through Grand Forks on 3rd St., turned S. at
the present corner of S. 3rd St. and Minnesota Ave., whence it followed
approximately the route of US 81 to the Lincoln Park golf course. Here
it is believed to have turned E. toward the river, which it followed to
Frog Point (_Belmont, see below_), and thence up the valley. Mr. and
Mrs. Charles Cavileer, pioneer settlers at Pembina, made a romantic
honeymoon journey to St. Paul on this trail in 1840.
At =93 m.= is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road to the NORTHERN PACKING COMPANY PLANT (_open_), =0.3
m.=, which in its 15-year existence (1937) has purchased more than
$20,000,000 worth of livestock.
At =93.5 m.= (R) is the NORTH DAKOTA STATE MILL AND ELEVATOR (_open
weekdays 9-5; conducted tours_), a State-owned plant. A product of
the Nonpartisan League's industrial program, this institution has
played an important role in State politics since its opening in 1922.
As early as 1915 the Society of Equity and the Equity Exchange had
attempted to establish a State-owned elevator, but had failed, and
this failure hastened the formation of the Nonpartisan League. By
1919 the league was strong enough in the legislature to establish its
industrial program, part of which was a State mill and elevator. The
State Industrial Commission governs the mill and elevator. Managership
is generally considered a political plum. Whether or not the mill is a
paying venture is a perennially hotly debated question. Its opponents,
taking into consideration the original cost of the mill, an amount
in excess of $3,000,000, cannot see how it will ever pay for itself,
while those who favor its operation maintain that it makes a profit,
and assert further that the creation of a market within the boundaries
of the State is of invaluable benefit to the farmers. Salesmen for
the State sell the mill's product in eastern States, and one of the
accusations repeatedly hurled at the mill manager during political
campaigns is that Dakota Maid Flour retails at a lower price in the
East than in North Dakota.
A State law requires all official State documents to be stamped "Buy
'Dakota Maid' Flour."
The mill and elevator consists of six steel-and-concrete fire-proof
buildings. The mill proper has three storage wings, and contains three
mills, each with a daily capacity of 1,000 bbl. The elevator, equal in
height to the average 12-story skyscraper, has a capacity of 1,659,600
bu. Thirty-two storage tanks each have a capacity of 50,000 bu. The
elevator is operated independently of the mill, which buys in the open
market and pays a rental to the elevator for storage space. In addition
to Dakota Maid Flour the mill manufactures cereals, oatmeals, and
poultry feeds.
GRAND FORKS, =94.5 m.= (834 alt., 17,112 pop.) (_see_ GRAND FORKS)
_Points of Interest_: University of North Dakota, Wesley College.
At N. 16th St. and Skidmore Ave. N. is the junction with US 2 (_see
Tour 6_).
At =105.5 m.= is the junction with ND 15, a graveled highway.
Right on this road is THOMPSON, =2 m.= (972 alt., 273 pop.), the center
of a large potato-farming area.
At =116.5 m.= is the junction with a graveled road.