Dr. Henry Reynolds, an early settler and temperance apostle. The town
is on the Grand Forks-Traill County line and many of the residents have
their business places in one county and their homes in the other.
At =121.5 m.= is the junction with a graveled spur.
Right on this spur is BUXTON, =1 m.= (935 alt., 410 pop.), a
Scandinavian town named for Thomas Buxton, a business associate of
Bud Reeves, the town site owner. Reeves, active in State politics,
was one of the leaders in the drive to obtain funds for maintenance
of State colleges after veto of the appropriation bill in 1895 (_see
Side Tour 1A_). When Reeves campaigned for election to Congress on
the Democratic ticket in 1894 he traveled over the State in what was
probably the first house trailer ever used here, and one of the first
used in the region. He had a log cabin built on wheels, and in this
he visited every part of the State, a large cowbell attached to the
cabin announcing his arrival in each town. No mean patriot, during his
speeches he had with him on the platform the American flag and a live
eagle.
Several important personages have been residents of Buxton, including
two Governors of the State, R. A. Nestos (1877-) and A. G. Sorlie
(1874-1928); U. S. Senator A. J. Gronna (1858-1922), one of the six
members of the Senate who opposed entrance of the United States into
the World War; and Dr. Lila M. O'Neale (1886-), anthropologist and
ethnologist who has engaged in research work in Guatemala under the
auspices of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and is now a faculty
member at the University of California.
At =123.5 m.= is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is BELMONT, =11.5 m.=, a ghost town which in the
1870's was a booming river port known as Frog Point. It was named by
Capt. Sam Painter, one of the first Red River pilots, on an early
trip down the river, probably in 1860. Finding the shores almost
covered with frogs, he is said to have erected a rude sign reading
"Frog Point", and through the rise and fall of the town which grew up
there the name remained. In 1871 the Hudson's Bay Co. established a
trading post on the point. A year later, because of the fall of the
river, Frog Point became head of navigation, and in short order was a
rendezvous for boatmen, trappers, hunters, teamsters, and drifters,
all living in tents or hastily constructed buildings. Teamsters
hauling freight overland from the S. in their heavy, eight-horse,
high-wheeled "jumpers", and trappers and Indians with their catches,
here boarded the Hudson's Bay Co. steamer _International_, and James
J. Hill's _Selkirk_. The town, cut from the woods on the bank of the
Red, and towered over by tall oaks, became a wilderness metropolis,
and its reputation spread to Europe. In England it was believed by
many to be a city of broad avenues and tall spires, second in size
only to Liverpool, and filled with the hum of industry. Foreign
visitors, traveling to Fort Garry, looked eagerly for this Red River
capital, and even their disillusionment on seeing the little backwoods
city could not dim its reputation. In its streets rough, rugged,
heavy-booted woodsmen, rivermen, and trappers thundered up and down
the wooden walks, and many a citizen was hastily despatched by their
44's. Heavy-jowled saloonkeepers, slim-fingered sleek gamblers, and gay
dance-hall girls were all a part of the mushroom town.
Nature brought downfall to the Point as quickly as she had elevated
it to importance. The river fell lower still, and Frog Point lost its
position as head of navigation. Many of its inhabitants departed as
swiftly as they had come. Fire wiped out a number of buildings which
were never rebuilt. Trade dwindled and storekeepers shut up shop. Some
20 years later, with the river level again up, the town revived as a
grain-shipping center, but the flood of 1897 ruined grain elevators and
their contents, and within a short time the bustle of the town again
faded into the past. Today the Hudson's Bay Co. building, which houses
a farm implement shop, is all that remains of the early affluence.
The present population of the hamlet, which is not even an organized
village, is 33.
CUMMINGS, =124.5 m.= (935 alt., 84 pop.), named for Henry Cumings, an
early G. N. employee who helped build the railroad, is principally a
Scandinavian community. Originally spelled with one "m", its name was
misspelled so consistently that the Post Office Department legitimized
the misspelling by inserting the second "m."
At =129.5 m.= is the junction with ND 7, a graveled highway (_see Side
Tour 1A_).
HILLSBORO, =132.5 m.= (907 alt., 1,317 pop.), named for James J. Hill,
the "Empire Builder" of the G. N. Ry., was platted in 1880 on the
attractive GOOSE RIVER. A bitter fight for the Traill County seat was
prominent in the early history of the town. Neighboring Caledonia, on
the Red River, had been the county seat since organization of Traill
County in 1875, but the routing of the G. N. Ry. through Hillsboro gave
that young city aspirations, and in 1890 it came forward as a contender
for the county seat. The campaign grew heated, and Caledonia citizens
carried arms and posted guards around their village. To lead their
defense they organized a committee, whom Hillsboro residents dubbed
Tigers of the Jungle and Irreconcilables. The Tigers imported Col. W.
C. Plummer, a widely known professional standard bearer who had served
as campaign speaker in many parts of the country, and whom James G.
Blaine once called "one of the three best political speakers in the
United States." The colonel became the leading figure in the county
seat fight. He was an impressive speaker, and the floods of oratory he
loosed in behalf of Caledonia were greatly enjoyed by his listeners.
The majority of them, however, apparently remained impervious to his
arguments--when the votes were counted Hillsboro enjoyed a 1,291 to 218
majority.
WOODLAND PARK, a 25-acre recreational and tourist camp area in the
northern part of town, contains a log cabin, originally built at
Belmont, in which are an old-fashioned loom once used in weaving the
homespun clothing of a pioneer family, and other relics of pioneer days.
Right from Hillsboro on a graveled highway to STONY POINT, =1.5 m.=,
site of a camp used by pioneers freighting their supplies overland from
Fargo during early settlement of the region. The camp site, situated on
a sandy ridge left by the recession of glacial Lake Agassiz, is marked
by a large, pointed boulder 20 ft. in diameter, which once served as a
landmark. In early days it was believed, from the manner in which the
rock was situated in the earth, that it might have dropped from the sky.
South of Hillsboro are many well-built farmsteads--some of which were
once part of bonanza farms--and four peaceful villages which in bonanza
days were busy wheat centers, but now lie quietly basking in their
memories.
GRANDIN, =146 m.= (898 alt., 172 pop.), is the largest of these towns.
It was named for J. L. Grandin, one of the two Tidioute, Pa., brothers
who bought 99 sections of Red River Valley land and farmed them under
the bonanza system. Dividing their land into 1,500-acre farms, each
with a superintendent and a foreman, they harvested their first crop
in 1878. They had 14,000 acres under cultivation near Grandin, and
6,000 at Mayville. Before the advent of the railroad the wheat raised
on their land was hauled on barges towed by the steamers _Grandin_ and
_Alsop_ to Fargo, a distance of 90 m.--overland Grandin is 35 m. from
Fargo. The Grandin farm was one of the earliest practical users of the
telephone, although whether the first in the State was installed on
this or the Dalrymple farm (_see Tour 8_) is in dispute.
GARDNER, =154.5 m.= (891 alt., 108 pop.), named for the town site
owner, was founded in 1880 when the surrounding territory was being
developed as wheat country, but was not incorporated village until 1929.
ARGUSVILLE, =161.5 m.= (889 alt., 115 pop.), is believed to have
received its name from the _Daily Argus_, Fargo newspaper published at
the time of the town's founding in 1880.
HARWOOD, =169 m.= (892 alt., 82 pop.), was named for A. J. Harwood,
a prominent Fargo real estate dealer who bought all the town sites
between Fargo and Grand Forks when the G. N. Ry. was built.
At =179.3 m.= is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road to HECTOR AIRPORT, =0.5 m.=, a U. S. Department
of Commerce A-1 field, land for which was donated by Martin Hector,
pioneer Fargo banker, in 1931. The buildings include a city hangar of
laminated truss-arch construction, completed in 1936 under the Works
Progress Administration.
FARGO, 181 m. (907 alt., 28,619 pop.) (_see_ FARGO).
_Points of Interest_: North Dakota Agricultural College, Veterans'
Hospital, Dovre Ski Slide.
At Front and 13th Sts. is the junction with US 10 (_see Tour 8_).
The WILD RICE RIVER, which the route crosses at =188 m.=, was named for
the wild grain which formerly grew on its banks. Near here, in a battle
between the Sioux and Chippewa in 1807, Tabashaw, a Chippewa chief, was
slain while avenging the death of his eldest son, who had been killed a
short time before by the Sioux.
At =189 m.= is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is HOLY CROSS CEMETERY, =0.3 m.=, one of the first
cemeteries in the State, established in 1862. The first burial here is
said to have been that of a priest who had been beheaded by an Indian.
Another victim of frontier tragedy whose body rests here was Archibald
Montrose, a young English nobleman who came to America to establish
a home. He was found frozen within a few rods of his own door during
a blizzard in 1871. His devoted young wife ordered a covered shelf
built on the outside wall of their cabin beneath her bedroom window,
and had his coffin placed there. In the spring, when the ground had
thawed sufficiently to permit the digging of a grave, she unwillingly
consented to the burial of her husband's body. Soon afterward their
baby daughter, born after the father's death, died also, and the
mother, her mind affected by the grief of her bereavements, joined them
in the nearby burial ground. For many years a large wooden cross marked
the spot where Montrose died.
WILD RICE, =191 m.= (909 alt., 35 pop.), is the center of a
French-Canadian farming community.
HICKSON, =196 m.= (915 alt., 100 pop.), is named for the Ole Hicks
family who were early farmers in the vicinity.
At =198.5 m.= is the junction with ND 46, a graveled highway.
Right on this highway to a bridge crossing the SHEYENNE RIVER, =9 m.=
On the bridge a tablet has been placed reading: "Sibley Trail 1863.
Sibley's Indian Expedition crossed the Sheyenne at this point Aug. 20,
returning from the Missouri to Fort Abercrombie."
At =9.5 m.= is the junction with a graveled spur.
Right on this road to KINDRED, =1 m.= (948 alt., 429 pop.), a
tree-shaded town named for F. E. and W. A. Kindred, surveyors who
platted the town site and later were large landholders in the vicinity.
The community is principally Scandinavian. An interesting COLLECTION
(_open by arrangement_) of European museum pieces and Indian artifacts
is owned by Hjalmer Rustad of Kindred, and is kept at his home.
ND 46 traverses a low range of sandy hills, the western rim of glacial
Lake Agassiz. At =19 m.= is the junction with a dry-weather dirt road.
Left on this road at =26.5 m.=, just across the river to the SHEYENNE
RIVER PARK (_central building of native logs, spring-fed swimming pool,
five picnic areas, cabins, and camp sites_), under development (1938)
as a recreational center by a Federal land utilization project. The
park includes an area of unusual scenic attraction. A road winds along
the heavily wooded river bottom, and side roads and graveled trails
lead out of the valley to the sand dunes which stretch away to the S.
The great plain here was deposited in glacial days, when the rushing
Sheyenne, then a large stream carrying the sediment-laden waters of the
melting ice sheet, flowed into Lake Agassiz. As the lake retreated the
sand was left to the winds, which pushed and whipped it into dunes that
dip away toward the horizon. Hummocks of trees and shrubs appear like
green islands in this wide sea of dull brown. In some places, to combat
the moving sand, elm and oak bark has been laid lengthwise in the road
to preserve the trail.
CHRISTINE, =204.5 m.= (926 alt., 204 pop.), has a population 95 percent
Scandinavian. When Christine Nilsson, the noted Swedish operatic
soprano, appeared in the United States in 1873, she was honored by
American Scandinavians, who named this town for her. A COLLECTION
(_open by arrangement_) of pioneer implements, including spinning
wheels, brass kitchen utensils, and relics from Fort Abercrombie, is
owned by Dr. M. U. Ivers.
ABERCROMBIE, =212.5 m.= (935 alt., 242 pop.), is a typically peaceful
small town on the banks of the Red River. The air of serenity which
lies over its tree-lined streets and substantial homes is in decided
contrast with the bustling activity of the settlement which surrounded
the pioneer post of Fort Abercrombie, first Federal fort in North
Dakota, built in 1858. It was named for Lt. Col. John J. Abercrombie,
officer in charge of its erection. The most westerly outpost of the
settlers' advance during the 1860's, Fort Abercrombie became the
gateway to the Dakotas. From here expeditions set out to the unexplored
plains of the Northwest, and trains of settlers left by oxcart and
covered wagons to seek homes on the prairie beyond.
It was between Fort Abercrombie and Fort Garry that the first steamboat
to ply the waters of the Red River of the North carried passengers
and freight. Built in Georgetown in 1859, the _Anson Northrup_, named
for its owner, who hauled the machinery overland from the Mississippi
River, made its maiden trip to the Canadian post the same summer.
Because of its position on the outskirts of the white settlement,
Fort Abercrombie was particularly vulnerable to Indian attacks, and
during the Minnesota uprising of 1862 was besieged for five weeks by
the hostile Sioux. The first attack, September 3, was repulsed with
the loss of one man. At the close of this encounter the defenders
discovered that only 350 rounds of rifle ammunition remained---
a supply had been ordered in the spring but had not arrived. The
ingenuity of the garrison was exercised; canister shells for the
12-pound howitzers contained balls which fitted the rifles, so the
women in the fort were put to work opening the canisters. The makeshift
ammunition served its purpose well.
The fort had no stockade; consequently, after the first attack, the
defenders threw up around the entire fort a cordwood breastwork 8 ft.
high. In the meantime messengers had slipped through the Indian lines
to summon aid from Fort Snelling at Minneapolis. On September 6 a force
estimated at 400 warriors again attacked the fort, but was driven
back after a long fight in which two soldiers were killed and many
wounded. The Indians made no more determined attacks on the fort, but
continually harassed the beleaguered settlers with desultory sniping
until the arrival of a detachment of 350 infantrymen from Fort Snelling
relieved the garrison September 23.
In November of the same year 10 acres of the fort reserve were enclosed
by a heavy oak-log stockade with blockhouses at three corners, and
about the same time a larger garrison was stationed at Abercrombie. It
was from this enlarged post that the Sibley expedition set forth to
punish the Sioux the following summer (_see_ HISTORY). The enlarged
garrison was maintained until the abandonment of the fort in 1877.
During the 1870's Fort Abercrombie was the point from which trails led
W. to Forts Totten, Ransom, Wadsworth, and Garry, and many a train of
home seekers or gold seekers spent a few days there before embarking on
the hazardous trip through Dakota.
Fort Abercrombie in 1870 was the scene of a treaty between the Chippewa
and Sioux, concluded through the influence of Father J. B. Genin,
a Roman Catholic priest. After this treaty the eastern part of the
Territory was comparatively free from fear of Indian attacks.
FORT ABERCROMBIE STATE PARK, on the eastern edge of the town, preserves
7 acres of the original 7 sq. m. of military reservation. The park
lies along the river, and its natural beauty makes it a pleasant
recreation center. An old cabin in the park houses a collection of
early-day relics. Nearby stands a Red River oxcart whose wooden wheels
once creaked over the old river trail before the days of railroads and
highways.
DWIGHT, =224 m.= (959 alt., 104 pop.), was named for Jeremiah W.
Dwight, head of a large bonanza farm company organized here in 1879,
and was the home of John Miller, first Governor of North Dakota. Miller
was superintendent of the Dwight Farm and Land Company, which operated
27,000 acres, and was established with a cash capital of $150,000. The
MILLER RESIDENCE (_private_), former home of the family, is R. of US 81
in the southeastern corner of the village.
At =227.5 m.= is the junction with ND 13, a graveled highway.
Right on this road is MOORETON, =7 m.= (966 alt., 147 pop.). Here is
the headquarters farm of F. A. Bagg, one of the largest landowners in
the Red River Valley. He maintains three airplanes in a hangar on his
farm and supervises his holdings by air.
WAHPETON (Sioux, _village of the leaves_), =233 m.= (969 alt., 3,176
pop.), is at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux (Fr., _forest of
the Sioux_) and Ottertail Rivers, where the two streams meet to form
the Red River of the North. From 1871 to 1893 the town was known as
Chahinkapa (Sioux, _top of the trees_), an old Indian name given this
area by the Sioux who, coming from the W. to fight the Chippewa, would
here see the tops of the trees appear over the level prairie.
Alexander Faribault, for whom Faribault, Minn., was named, has told of
visiting the present site of Wahpeton in 1810 when 3,000 Indians were
encamped and engaged in hunting buffalo and drying the meats for food.
At that time the grasslands along the Red River were black with bison,
who summered on the grazing lands here, and wintered on the uplands of
the Missouri Slope W. of the Missouri River.
That politics was a momentous vocation when Wahpeton was a young county
seat is indicated in this political advertisement in an 1880 issue of
the Richland County _Gazette_:
"Republicans of Richland County, please remember and vote for me
on election day. Come old and young, father and son, one and all
and vote for me. Do not look on money or on the rich man but on an
honest man. I have come to this lovely country and have made my
happy home and I will be a good citizen of Richland County. You
know I am a candidate for County Treasurer of Richland County. Come
and spend the whole day on election day and vote for me. We are all
brothers and sisters. It makes no difference whether a man is rich
or poor, if he is honest; then he is a good man. Come all and see
me on election day, in our nice town of Wahpeton."
The RICHLAND COUNTY COURTHOUSE here, built in a modified Classic style
with a cupola, is considered a good example of the official buildings
in this State. The first floor exterior is of Kettle River sandstone,
with upper stories and dome of Bedford limestone. Across the street
from the courthouse is the LEACH PUBLIC LIBRARY, a light-colored brick
and sandstone building presented to the city in 1923 by Mr. and Mrs. O.
A. Leach, Wahpeton residents since 1896. The library contains 14,000
volumes.
In the northern part of Wahpeton are the STATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE and
the U. S. INDIAN SCHOOL. The science school is a vocational institution
and junior college with a trades educational program that has received
recognition outside the State. Near the entrance to the landscaped
campus is a cast bronze life-size bust of the Norwegian poet-dramatist
Henrik Ibsen, the work of Jacob Fjelde, distinguished Norwegian
sculptor who made his home in Minneapolis from 1877 until his death in
1896. Another portrait of Ibsen in Como Park in St. Paul, Minn., is
also the work of Fjelde; these are said to be the only statues of Ibsen
in the U. S. The bust at Wahpeton was a gift to the city and Richland
County from the Norwegian people of the county, and was unveiled at
ceremonies held on Norwegian Independence Day, May 17, 1912. The figure
stands on a tapering rough-hewn 8-foot granite pedestal.
The Indian school consists of 40 red-brick buildings housing 300
students, mainly Sioux and Chippewa from reservations in North and
South Dakota and Minnesota. In addition to academic work through the
ninth grade, vocational training in farm methods is taught the boys,
while the girls receive instruction in home economics and sanitation.
CHAHINKAPA PARK, in the northeastern part of Wahpeton, lies between the
high banks of the old bed of the Red River and the present channel,
its inviting woods cut off from the mainland by meandering lagoons.
Improvements and recreational facilities (_swimming pool, playgrounds,
athletic field_) by Federal agencies were completed under the Works
Progress Administration (1937).
Wahpeton was the home of the late U. S. Senator Porter J. McCumber, who
gained national recognition for his work on the Fordney-McCumber Tariff
Bill.
The route leaves Wahpeton by way of 2nd St., and for 5 m. follows a
winding course parallel to the Bois de Sioux. This portion of the
highway runs over a trail used in 1823 by the military expedition of
Maj. Stephen H. Long sent to establish the Canadian boundary, and still
later as a freight route between St. Cloud, Minn., Fort Abercrombie,
and Pembina in the 1860's and 1870's.
FAIRMOUNT, =247.5 m.= (985 alt., 611 pop.), named for Fairmount Park in
Philadelphia, Pa., was platted in 1887 until which time it was known as
Michigan Settlement because many of its settlers came from that State.
Of interest in the town is the widely known SERMON IN STONE, an obelisk
erected in St. Anthony's Roman Catholic churchyard by Rev. G. C.
Bierens. Stones and ores, some semiprecious, have come from all parts
of the world to be patterned into this bright-colored shrine. The Ten
Commandments, Faith, Hope, and Charity, the Trinity, the Sacraments,
and many other abstractions are symbolized in stone.
Father Bierens is an authority on bird life in the Red River Valley,
and operates a U. S. Biological Survey BIRD BANDING STATION (1937), one
of the few in the State. Since he began the work in 1928 he has banded
more than 10,000 birds, never less than 1,000 a year, and as many as 70
species in one season, not including field and shore or water birds. In
April 1935 he banded the first European starling caught in North Dakota.
At the F. P. Nelson store in Fairmount is a COLLECTION (_open by
arrangement_) of Indian artifacts and of firearms, including a Chinese
gun made in 1526.
Right from Fairmount on ND 11, a graveled road, is HANKINSON, =11
m.= (1,068 alt., 1,400 pop.), named for R. H. Hankinson, town site
owner. Here are the CONVENT AND ACADEMY OF THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS,
the mother house of the order in the United States. This order was
established in Germany in 1241. The convent and academy, founded in
1927-29, are housed in a three-story Renaissance-style building of
tapestry brick trimmed in Indiana limestone. In a niche over the
entrance is a statue of St. Francis, carved in Danube limestone by the
Joseph Mueller Art Institute of Munich, Germany, and donated to the
order.
South of Fairmount the distant Coteau des Prairies is visible (R).
Back in these hills, which form part of the watershed between the
Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay, live the Sioux Indians of the Sisseton
Reservation, a triangular section of which juts into the State from
South Dakota.
At =256.5 m.= US 81 crosses the North Dakota Line, 106 m. N. of
Watertown, S. Dak. (_see S. Dak. Tour 10_).
SIDE TOUR 1A
Junction US 81--Mayville--Portland--Hatton. ND 7 & 18.
Junction with US 81 to Hatton, 27 m.
G. N. Ry. branch line parallels route between Mayville and Hatton.
Graveled roadbed entire route.
Accommodations in principal towns.