military posts that have been established in North Dakota since
earliest settlement. The post, which covers an area of 900 acres, has
brick buildings of modified Colonial design. It was first occupied in
1903, although established as a military reservation in 1895. In 1913
its garrison was removed, but in 1917 it was used as a concentration
camp for midwestern troops headed for France. After the World War
it was not garrisoned until 1927, when Companies I, K, L, and M of
the Third Battalion, Fourth Infantry were ordered here. Including
detachments of Headquarters, Quartermasters and Service Corps, Medical
Corps, and Signal and Finance Corps, the post numbers 426 enlisted men
and 20 officers (1937). Since 1928 it has been designated a C. M. T. C.
camp for a four-week period each summer, with a quota of 200 men.
At =4 m.= is a junction with a dirt road; R. here to another junction,
=4.8 m.=; L. to SIBLEY ISLAND PARK (_shelters_, _tables_, _and
benches_), =7 m.= Sibley Island was actually an island when General
Sibley fought the Sioux here in 1863, but now, because of the changing
river channel, is a part of the river lowlands. The Indians, fleeing
before the advancing column, were here forced to abandon large
quantities of supplies and equipment, and to hurry across the Missouri.
Two Sibley men, carrying orders to detachments in the woods, were
ambushed and killed, and the Masonic burial given one is believed to
have been the first instance of the use of this funeral rite within the
borders of the State. The bodies were removed later, but the position
of one grave is still indicated by a marker. Prior to the Sibley
encounter the island was known as Assiniboine Island, from the fact
that the _Assiniboine_, a river steamer carrying Prince Maximilian's
exploring party, was destroyed by fire near here (1834).
BISMARCK, =198.5 m.= (1,672 alt., 11,090 pop.) (_see_ BISMARCK).
_Points of Interest_: State Capitol, Liberty Memorial Building,
Roosevelt Cabin, State historical society museum.
At Main Ave. and 6th St. is the junction with US 83 (_see Tour 3_).
At =199.5 m.= US 10 crosses the MISSOURI RIVER on the $1,358,000
LIBERTY MEMORIAL BRIDGE, erected in 1922, first highway span across the
river in North Dakota. At each end are large natural boulders bearing
bronze plaques dedicating the bridge to men and women who served in the
World War.
Natural gas from the fields at Baker, Mont., is piped to Bismarck
through a line crossing the Missouri on this bridge.
At the Bismarck end of the bridge is the junction with a county
graveled highway (_see Side Tour 3B_).
Thoroughfare of early exploration of western North Dakota and Montana,
the Missouri is still known to the Sioux Indians native to this region
as Wakpa Hehanka (_elk river_). According to Sioux legend, once, during
the great spring break-up, a large herd of elk were crossing the stream
when the ice broke beneath them, precipitating them into quicksand.
They perished, and when the ice had floated down the river the antlers
of the elk were left protruding like branches from the sand bar.
The time changes from central to mountain standard W. of the river;
watches and clocks of west-bound travelers should be turned back one
hour, those of east-bound travelers should be set an hour ahead.
Along the highway on the flat lowlands between Bismarck and Mandan are
several tourist camps and night clubs.
MANDAN, =203.4 m.= (1,642 alt., 5,037 pop.), its business section
stretched along one side of its long main street, lies crowded between
the N. P. railroad yards and the hills bordering the Heart River valley
near the confluence of the Heart and the Missouri.
Named for the agricultural Mandan Indian tribe, this western, overgrown
small town is in the area they once occupied, and near two of their
ancient village sites. One, Crying Hill Village, is on the bluffs along
the Missouri, NE. of the city; the other, known as the Motsiff Site,
2 m. S. on the banks of the Heart. The town itself is so young that
many of the original false-front frame or ornate red-brick buildings
are still standing. A village grew up here quickly when the railroad
crossed the Missouri in 1881, and incorporation as a city followed in
1883. With the settling of the adjoining territory, which began within
two years after the founding of the town, development was rapid. Early
ranching in the region has given way to grain raising, dairying, and
diversified dry farming, and the city has become a wholesale and retail
distribution center serving a large agricultural area.
One of the chief economic supports of the city is the N. P. Ry., which
maintains a division point here. The RAILWAY DEPOT is a red brick
copy of Washington's Mount Vernon home, and the flagpole in the park
surrounding it was used at Fort Abraham Lincoln when Gen. George A.
Custer was in command (_see_ FORT LINCOLN STATE PARK). In the railroad
park, in an ellipse formed by the driveway, stands a small bronze
STATUE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT as a Rough Rider, a reproduction of a
large monument in a Minot park (_see_ MINOT). On the depot platform,
during the summer months, Yanktonai Sioux perform bits of native dances
for the benefit of tourists on the fast trains. On this platform Nov.
1, 1926, Queen Marie of Rumania, making a transcontinental tour, was
adopted by the Sioux.
The RAILROAD YARDS are unusual in that their accommodations facilitate
handling and housing of the large Pacific type locomotives known as
Five Thousands, so called because they are numbered above 5,000.
Because of their great length, 125 ft., and their weight, 550 tons,
they cannot be used on the sharp curves of the Rocky Mountains; they
are therefore employed exclusively on the steep Mandan-Billings,
Mont., run. Five Thousands are used only for heavy freight traffic.
The largest turntable on the N. P. system, 126 ft. long, handles these
giants of the rails.
At 1st St. and 2nd Ave. NW. is the MEMORIAL BUILDING, which has the
largest indoor swimming pool in the State. The building was constructed
under a Federal project.
The J. D. ALLEN TAXIDERMIST SHOP, 302 5th Ave. NW., contains a rare
collection of Indian relics, original paintings, and a variety of
mounted specimens of animals, birds, and fish found in the State. In
the hodgepodge of his workshop, Allen, who came to Mandan as a youth
in 1881, has mounted thousands of specimens, and has done work for
Theodore Roosevelt and for members of European nobility. His hobby
has been painting, and, although self-taught in his avocation, he has
captured the spirit of early North Dakota scenes as have few trained
artists. Several of his canvases hang in the museum of the State
historical society (_see_ BISMARCK).
KGCU, with studios and transmitter in the Kennelly building, is at 205
1st St. NW.
CHAUTAUQUA PARK (_picnic grounds_, _tourist camp_, _golf course_,
_clubhouse_, _tennis and horseshoe courts_) in the southwestern part of
the city is on ND 6.
Left from Mandan =1.3 m.= on a graveled road to the STATE TRAINING
SCHOOL, to which modern buildings and well-landscaped grounds give
the appearance of an up-to-date preparatory school rather than an
institution for delinquent juveniles. The school, which is one of four
in the United States housing both boys and girls, and the only one
offering a four-year high school course, teaches farming, carpentry,
cooking, laundering, and sewing.
On the high bluffs on the south edge of the city is the U. S. NORTHERN
GREAT PLAINS FIELD STATION (_see Side Tour 8C_).
At Mandan is the junction with ND 6, a graveled highway (_see Side Tour
8C_).
Left from Mandan on 6th Ave. SE. which becomes a county graveled road
and crosses the HEART RIVER, =1 m.=, which in Sioux translation is
called Tacanta Wakpa Tanka.
FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN STATE PARK, =4.5 m.= (_see_ FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
STATE PARK).
The graveled road proceeds S. over the benchland of the Missouri to
SCHMIDT, =11 m.=, an elevator and railroad siding. Here the route
becomes a graded dirt road, and continues S.
At =18 m.= the road cuts through an extending clay ridge which
protrudes like an eagle's beak from the Badlands-like formation to the
R. To the W. here rises a flat-topped steep cliff jutting away from the
other hills and connected with them only by a narrow neck. On this mesa
once stood the Eagle's Nose Village of the Mandans, believed by some
to have been built by the great Mandan tribal hero Good Furred Robe,
although this origin has also been attributed to the Huff Site (_see
below_). To reach the old village site one must ascend the SW. side of
the hill. From the top there is a far-reaching view of the beautiful
Missouri valley, stretching S. from the gray outlines of the capitol at
Bismarck and the blockhouses on the hill at Fort McKeen.
At =20 m.= is HUFF, a store and railroad station. At =20.5 m.= (L) is
the HUFF INDIAN VILLAGE STATE PARK, site of a Mandan village. According
to legend the Mandan people at one time lived underground, but under
the leadership of four chiefs, headed by Good Furred Robe, they climbed
a vine to enter this world through an opening in the ground to the
surface. Good Furred Robe then laid out their first village, placing
the houses in rows like corn. This legend is believed by some Indians
to refer to the Huff Site, whose heavily sodded lodge rings suggest
great age. The reason for the somewhat rectangular shape of some of the
depressions has not yet been determined.
South of Huff to FORT RICE STATE PARK, =29 m.=, the site of a fort
established by Gen. Alfred H. Sully on his Indian expedition in 1864.
It served as a military post until 1877, when it was succeeded by
Fort Yates down the river. In 1868 Fort Rice was the scene of a peace
council with the Sioux. Sitting Bull and some five thousand followers,
resentful of the appropriation of their lands by the white settlers,
had refused to go on reservations and had moved to the Powder River in
present Wyoming, where they lived the free, open life to which they
were accustomed. They harbored a bitter hatred for the white people,
but there was one white man whom Sitting Bull trusted. He was Father
Pierre Jean De Smet, a Jesuit missionary who had spent years among
the Indians of the western plains, and was sincerely interested in
their welfare. He was known to the Sioux as "Black Robe." The War
Department and the Indian Bureau, eager to negotiate with the Sioux,
sent Father De Smet to lead a delegation to Sitting Bull's camp. Many
of the hostile Indians had vowed to kill any white man on sight, but
their leader learned that it was "Black Robe" who was approaching,
and welcomed him heartily. During the council which followed Father
De Smet gave Sitting Bull a brass and wood crucifix, which the Sioux
leader, although he never professed Catholicism, prized highly all his
life. At the instigation of the priest, Sitting Bull, while refusing to
attend a peace council himself, sent two representatives, Chief Gall
and Bull Owl, whom he instructed to say, "Move out the soldiers and
stop the steamboats and we shall have peace." The peace council was
held at Fort Rice, and led to the Laramie Treaty later that year, which
unfortunately was violated in 1875 by the Indian Bureau and the War
Department, precipitating the hostilities that ended in the disastrous
Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876 (_see_ HISTORY).
West of Mandan US 10 enters that part of the Missouri Plateau known
locally as the Missouri Slope, and proceeds over the rolling grasslands
typical of this area. As the route progresses through the Slope
region, buttes jutting up from the prairie become more numerous. Many
are crowned with brick-red scoria (clay baked in the earth by the
heat of burning lignite beds lying adjacent), and others have scoria
formations protruding from their sides.
At =209.5 m.= is the junction with ND 25, a graveled highway (_see Side
Tour 8D_).
At =231 m.= (L) is the WRONG SIDE UP MONUMENT, a four-foot natural
boulder bearing a bronze plate, commemorating an incident to which
the New Salem Holstein Breeders' Circuit, nationally known dairy
organization, credits its success. As one of the early settlers was
breaking land preparatory to seeding it for the first time, a Sioux
Indian and his son approached. The father, turning a piece of the sod
back into its natural position, remarked, "Wrong side up." His son
explained that the father believed the soil should not be plowed.
The farmer, heeding his advice, grazed cattle on his land instead.
Neighbors followed his example, and today NEW SALEM, =232 m.= (2,163
alt., 804 pop.), is the center of an extensive dairying area. The
town was named by members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church for the
Biblical city of Salem.
GLEN ULLIN, =251.5 m.= (2,065 alt., 950 pop.), a Russo-German
community, has a name suggested to a railroad official by the Scottish
ballad _Lord Ullin's Daughter_. An intermediate lighted airport is
maintained here by the Department of Commerce. Levon West, the etcher,
once attended Glen Ullin high school.
HEBRON, =267 m.= (2,155 alt., 1,348 pop.), is in a small valley just W.
of the divide between the Heart and Knife Rivers. Like New Salem, its
name is of Biblical origin. The town has more brick-faced buildings in
its business district than most towns of similar size because of the
proximity of the $250,000 Hebron BRICK PLANT (_for directions inquire
at post office_; _open weekdays 9-5_). Clay deposits suitable for
brick manufacture, discovered here in 1904, led to the development of
the field. The plant, on the eastern outskirts of the town, ships its
products to all parts of the Northwest, the Pacific Coast States, and
Canada.
Emil Krauth, son of one of Hebron's early settlers, is an authority
on butterflies, and received recognition of his work in 1935 when
entomologists named a small yellow butterfly, _Colias christina
krauthii_, for him. At his residence he has a BUTTERFLY COLLECTION
(_open; for directions inquire at post office_), 100 cases displaying
specimens gathered from many parts of the world.
Just NW. of the town, where a cemetery now lies, FORT SAUERKRAUT was
built at the time of a false Indian scare in 1892. There is no record
of why it was given its odd name.
Right from Hebron on a country trail to CROWLEY FLINT QUARRY STATE
PARK, =22 m.= Here the Indians obtained flint from which to make arrow
and spear heads. The process of making an arrowhead or spear point
was tedious, the only tool being a piece of bone or horn that had
been buried two weeks in wood ashes to remove grease and temper the
material. On the palm of one hand was placed a buckskin covering, and
on this was laid the flint, held in place by the fingers of the same
hand. Using the bone tool in the other hand, the worker began flaking
chips from the flint, first up one side and then the other, until the
stone assumed the shape wanted. Today unfinished or broken arrowheads
and spear points are occasionally found in the quarry.
West of ANTELOPE (L), =275 m.= (2,410 alt., 20 pop.), the route follows
closely the trail made by Custer's Seventh Cavalry in June 1876, on
their way from Fort Abraham Lincoln to the Little Big Horn country in
Montana, to meet death at the hands of the Sioux they pursued (_see_
HISTORY). The deep ruts cut in the prairie by the military wagons of
the expedition, and later by those traveling over the same trail to
Fort Keogh, Mont., are visible R. and parallel to the highway where it
passes S. of YOUNG MEN'S BUTTE, =277.5 m.= According to legend, when
the Arikara Indians were still living on the Grand River, in what is
now South Dakota, a group separated from the tribe and set out toward
the northwest to seek a new home. Two young men in the party, however,
grew lonesome for the sweethearts they had left behind, and when they
reached this butte they decided to return to their old home. The
remainder of the party continued on the journey, and was never heard
from again.
Left from Antelope an unimproved dirt road leads to the Heart River, =8
m.=, and the SITE OF GENERAL SULLY'S TEMPORARY BASE CAMP for the Battle
of Killdeer Mountains. On his march to the Yellowstone River, in 1864,
Sully corraled his wagon train at this camp, and, traveling light,
moved quickly N. to the Killdeer Mountains to make a surprise attack on
a camp of 5,000 Sioux (_see Side Tour 8D_).
RICHARDTON, =278 m.= (2,465 alt., 710 pop.), is the home of ASSUMPTION
ABBEY of the Benedictine order. The buildings, of Gothic and Romanesque
styles, give the impression of having been transplanted from ancient
Europe to the North Dakota prairie. Twin red-roofed steeples raise
burnished crosses above the buildings, which are constructed in a
square around a garden court. The abbey, completed in 1910, includes
St. Mary's Monastery, St. Mary's Church, and a high school and junior
college for boys. The library contains 14,000 volumes, among which are
several books dated 1720 and bound in pigskin. The town is named for C.
B. Richardton, official of a steamship company that sought homes for
German immigrants, and is predominantly Russo-German.
At =284 m.= is TAYLOR (2,487 alt., 263 pop.). South of here along the
Heart River are large deposits of bentonite; a clay used for commercial
manufacture of paints, cleaners, linoleum, cosmetics, and other
products (_see_ INDUSTRY AND LABOR).
At =299.5 m.= is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road is LEHIGH, =2 m.= (2,347 alt., 203 pop.), named for
Lehigh, Pa., because both are mining towns. Here is a BRIQUETTING PLANT
(_open to large parties and school or college groups; guides_). This
is the only plant in the United States producing lignite briquets with
a B. t. u. (_British thermal unit: 778 foot-pounds energy_) rating of
15,000. Raw lignite has a B. t. u. rating of about 6,500. Eighteen
thousand tons of briquets are produced annually by the million dollar
plant. The work of the late E. J. Babcock of the State university has
been of great importance in adapting the lignite briquetting process
to North Dakota coal. The chief byproduct of the plant is creosote, of
which about 70,000 gallons are shipped to eastern markets each year.
Research conducted on activated carbon, a lignite product used in the
manufacture of tires and for filtration purposes, points to commercial
development of this byproduct (_see_ INDUSTRY AND LABOR).
DICKINSON, =302.5 m.= (2,305 alt., 5,025 pop.), principal stock and
wheat shipping point in the central Missouri Slope area, and Stark
County seat, is on the slope of a hill overlooking the Heart River,
which cuts through the prairie S. of the city. The town is still young
enough to retain much of the friendly atmosphere of the early West.
When the railroad reached this point in 1880, the site was known as
Pleasant Valley Siding, but in 1883 the name was changed by H. L.
Dickinson, the town's first merchant, to honor his cousin Wells S.
Dickinson, a New York State senator.
The town defeated Gladstone and Belfield for county seat in 1884, and
the same year saw its development as a forwarding point for freight
to the booming Black Hills gold fields. On April 15 alone, more than
220,000 lbs. of freight destined for the Hills were received at
Dickinson.
In 1886 the Dickinson _Press_ reported: "The first Fourth of July
celebration attempted in Dickinson took place last Monday. It exceeded
the anticipation of all and proved to be a grand success--a day that
will long be remembered. The day dawned bright and cool. Early in the
morning people began to arrive and by ten o'clock the largest crowd
ever assembled in Stark County lined the principal streets. The train
from the west brought a number of Medora people. Amongst them was Hon.
Theodore Roosevelt, the orator of the day. The celebration consisted
of: A Parade, Addresses by Hon. Theodore Roosevelt and Hon. John A.
Rae, Races, Fire Works, and a dance in the evening."
Russo-German immigrants seeking homes in this country were early
attracted to Dickinson by the Catholic mission established there
by Bishop Martin Marty of St. Paul, and today the southern part of
the city is a Russo-German settlement, almost a town within a town.
Although the younger generation is Americanized, the older women still
wear old-fashioned, long, dark dresses, and cover their heads with dark
scarfs or _tuecher_. There are halls for social functions, and for the
gala wedding dances which often last several days.
The $2,000,000 plant of the DICKINSON FIRE AND PRESSED BRICK CO.
(_open_) adjoins the city on the S. The plant, which has a capacity of
20,000 bricks daily, utilizes the various clays found in the company's
200 acres along the Heart River. Fine pottery is also manufactured.
Among the clays used is a rare plastic clay which is worked into sewer
pipe and fire brick, and produces a fine buff shade for facing bricks.
In addition there are clays, semi-shales, and red clays that are worked
into old red sandstone, red, and terra cotta shades for facing.
In the northern part of the city are the DICKINSON COUNTRY CLUB
(_golf_), WHITNEY SWIMMING POOL (_open June-Sept._; _nominal fee_), and
ATHLETIC FIELD (_gridiron_, _baseball diamond_, _running track_, _and
tennis courts_), and ROCKY BUTTE PARK (_picnicking_).
Atop a knoll on 10th Ave. W. is the campus of the DICKINSON STATE
NORMAL SCHOOL. Its buildings, in English Tudor style, constructed of
Hebron brick with white sandstone trim, were not occupied until 1924,
although classes were held in the Dickinson Elks building as early as
1918. On the top floor of May Hall is a natural history museum.
Left (S) from Dickinson on ND 22 to a U. S. Department of Commerce
intermediate AIRPORT, =6 m.=
At =303.5 m=, is a junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road to the DICKINSON SUBSTATION AND NORTH DAKOTA
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, =2 m.= Here, under State and Federal
supervision, experiments are conducted in fruit production, dry land
farming, and the raising of forage and cereal crops.
At =320 m.= is the junction with a graveled spur.
Left on this spur is SOUTH HEART, =1 m.= (2,474 alt., 150 pop.) so
named because of its position on the southern bank of the Heart River.
One mile W. of the town the trail made in 1864 by Gen. Alfred Sully
and his troops on their return from the Battle of Killdeer Mountain is
plainly visible. South of the town on a country trail is CUSTER HILL,
=7 m.=, where Custer made camp on his way to the Big Horn country
in Montana in 1876. Breastworks thrown up as a protection are still
visible.
BELFIELD, =322 m.= (2,578 alt., 653 pop.), is in a small valley along
a tributary of the Heart River. The Dakota Colloidal Corp., which
operates the only BENTONITE PLANT (_open weekdays 9-4_) in the State,
procures the mineral from a clay found N. of town, and uses it in the
manufacture of soaps and washing powders. Here is a junction with US 85
(_see Tour 4_).
At =330 m.= the route comes dramatically upon the BADLANDS, cut into
the heart of the plateau. In every direction stretches a confusion of
bare, grotesque, garish buttes, their tops level with the surrounding
prairies. Down their sides broad earth strata--brown, ash gray,
sulphur yellow, and salmon--deposited through geological ages, have
been exposed by years of erosion. French explorers named this region
_mauvaises terres a traverser_, or bad lands to travel through.
Right at =332 m.= is PAINTED CANYON with its jumble of gorges and
superb buttes. Spread as far as one can see toward the northern horizon
is a magnificent display of buttes, showing in varying light and shadow
the great charm of this never-monotonous country. A drive lined with a
wall of brick-red scoria (_see_ NATURAL SETTING), mottled with green,
like weathered bronze, parallels the highway, providing a good point
from which to take photographs.
As the highway descends into the Badlands, it twists through ravines
and valleys. At =335 m.= is the eastern entrance to the SOUTH ROOSEVELT
REGIONAL STATE PARK (_see_ ROOSEVELT REGIONAL STATE PARKS).