North Roosevelt Regional State Park (_see_ ROOSEVELT REGIONAL STATE
PARKS), and a short hike left of the Little Missouri leads to one of
the largest areas of PETRIFIED FOREST in the Badlands. Great silicified
stumps, weighing many tons, are found perched atop slender pillars of
gray, yellow, and ocher sandstone, and logs, sometimes several feet
long and 12 to 14 inches in diameter, are found here.
Downstream from the Redwing, in a sharp bend of the river, SPERATI
POINT rises to the L. The point is named for Dr. Carlo A. Sperati,
director of the Luther College (Decorah, Iowa) Band at the time it
visited here in 1927. From the summit is an exceptional view of
the GRAND CANYON OF THE LITTLE MISSOURI. The river makes an almost
right-angle turn to the E. here toward its confluence with the
Missouri, and its flood plain again widens and the current is less
swift.
The SQUAW CREEK PICNIC AREA (_see_ NORTH ROOSEVELT REGIONAL STATE PARK)
is the only man-made camping place on the entire trip. It was at a
sheep ranch on Squaw Creek that the "vigilantes" of 1884 dropped in for
one of their raids, and burned 500 tons of hay, the barn, harnesses,
and all machinery, and set fire to the prairie, burning a large area.
The glistening silver steel of the ROOSEVELT BRIDGE spans the Little
Missouri, over which US 85 passes, and just E. of which is the eastern
entrance to the North Roosevelt Park (_see Tour 4_). US 85 is the
eastern boundary of the northern park.
CHARLIE BOB CREEK (R) drains the area N. and W. of the Killdeer
Mountains (_see Side Tour 8D_). Here the buttes R. of the river rise
500 to 600 ft. above the stream bed, and the noonday shadows cast by
the scattered groves of cedar on the northern slopes are cool and
inviting. A climb to the butte tops reveals their precipitous, barren
southern slopes.
The wide valley (L) of CHERRY CREEK (_good overnight camping place
opposite mouth_), together with Tobacco Garden Creek (_see Tour 6_),
which drains N. into the Missouri, in preglacial times was probably the
bed of the Little Missouri, the present valley of which was formed when
the glacier blocked the former course and diverted the waters in an
easterly direction.
At about a half-day's journey below Cherry Creek a climb to the high
river bluffs, through thickets of red birch, aspen, and oak trees,
leads to a superb view. Southward from the butte tops a blue haze
outlines the Killdeer Mountains, from which the Sioux fled after the
Battle of Killdeer Mountains (_see Side Tour 8D_) to take refuge in
this very section of the Badlands, the rough terrain of which prevented
the army from pursuing. It was in this vicinity in 1886 that young
Theodore Roosevelt and two of his ranch hands captured three thieves
who had stolen a boat from his Elkhorn Ranch and had plundered almost
every ranch house along the river. Roosevelt and his men pursued the
three for several days before surrounding their camp and taking them
completely by surprise. He then sent his men home and took the culprits
overland to Dickinson, where he preferred charges against the two
leaders, who were tried and subsequently served their sentences; one
was later hanged for horse stealing in Montana. The third marauder, an
elderly man, Roosevelt said was the "kind of person who was not capable
of doing either much good or harm." When the old man thanked him
profusely for thus befriending him, the future President remarked that
it was the first time he had been thanked for calling a man a fool.
Between ELK and JIM'S CREEKS (R) the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
lies to the L. (_Good camping places bet. Elk and Jim's Creeks._)
[Illustration:
LIGNITE STRIP MINING, VELVA
_Courtesy Truax-Traer Coal Co._]
[Illustration:
ARIKARA
WOMAN
POUNDING
CHERRIES
_Photo by Russell Reid_]
[Illustration:
WRITING
ROCK,
NEAR
GRENORA]
[Illustration:
LAKE UPSILON, TURTLE MOUNTAINS
_Photo by Russell Reid_]
[Illustration:
BUFFALO, SULLY'S HILL NATIONAL GAME PRESERVE]
Below Jim's Creek the river widens, its flood plain covers a large
area on either side of the stream, broadening the valley along which
the hills begin to be more grassy and less rugged and colorful. At the
confluence with HANS CREEK (R) the river makes an abrupt right-angle
turn L., and while the valley still remains wide, the stream itself
narrows and runs more swiftly. (_Good overnight camp sites in the
Indian reservation._)
Below the North Roosevelt Park ranches are fewer, and people are seldom
seen from the river.
The wider, majestic Missouri is soon reached, and forms the route for
the remainder of the voyage. Up this avenue of exploration came Lewis
and Clark, Maximilian, Catlin, Ashley, Lisa, and other adventurous
explorers and traders; first in the round, unwieldy, skin bullboats of
the Indians, and later in the chugging steamboats, plying the river
in search of trade between the tribes and forts established along its
course.
The seasonal rising and lowering of the Missouri's water level
continually changes the channel, leaving shoals, sand bars, and snags,
and these offered a problem to river pilots as long as steamboat
traffic flourished on the river. When a flat-bottomed steamer ran
aground it took hours, and sometimes days, to release it. It was from
the odd device used to work the boats off sand bars that the term
"grasshoppering" came into use. Each steamer carried two long, heavy
spars, similar to telephone poles, near the bow ready for use. Capt.
Grant Marsh, an old river pilot, describes the operation of these spars
in Joseph Mills Hanson's _Conquest of the Missouri_:
"When she became lodged on a bar, the spars were raised and set
in the river bottom, like posts, their tops inclined somewhat
toward the bow. Above the line of the deck each was rigged with
a tackle-block over which a manila cable was passed, one end
being fastened to the gunwale of the boat and the other end wound
around the capstan. As the capstan was turned and the paddlewheel
revolved, the boat was thus lifted and pushed forward. Then the
spars were re-set farther ahead and the process repeated until
the boat was at last literally lifted over the bar. From the
grotesque resemblance to a grasshopper which the craft bore when
her spars were set, and from the fact that she might be said to
move forward in a series of hops, the practice came to be called
'grasshoppering.'"
From the beginning river steamers were dependent on wood for fuel, and
as traffic increased woodyards became more numerous along the stream.
At first they were operated only by the hardiest of white frontiersmen,
but as the agency Indians absorbed the white man's civilization they
too began to cut wood to sell. Steamers usually burned either cedar
or cottonwood, although the latter was suitable for fuel only when
fully dried, while cedar burned readily either green or cured. Boat
captains took all the cedar the Indians could stack, but would not stop
their boats when they saw only green cottonwood corded. The Indians
soon learned a subterfuge to surmount the difficulty of having only
cottonwood on hand. They smeared the freshly hewn ends of cottonwood
cuttings with vermilion so that it resembled cedar, stacked the wood
with the painted ends toward the river, and trusted that when a boat
stopped she would take the camouflaged cottonwood rather than waste
more time.
The Missouri passes beneath the black steel span of FOUR BEARS BRIDGE,
the bridge with 19 Indian names (_see Side Tour 3A_.) Approximately 2
m. below the bridge the river passes within 2 m. of ELBOWOODS (_see
Side Tour 3A_), inland to the L., the first town neared in the more
than 200 m. of drifting since Medora was left behind. (_Good camp site
on the Elbowoods side of the Missouri_.)
On the bluffs opposite Elbowoods is the SITE OF A HIDATSA INDIAN
VILLAGE, which according to tradition was once besieged by the Sioux,
who expected to win an easy victory by curtailing the village water
supply. Hidatsa scouts, however, had learned of the planned attack,
and the people in the village made rock-filled reservoirs and carried
water from the river to fill them. Repulsing the first attack of the
Sioux, the besieged rolled a skin of water down the hill toward their
enemy, which, the legend says, so discouraged the besiegers that they
abandoned their efforts to capture the village and withdrew.
The reservation borders both sides of the river from here to a point a
short distance downstream from Ree.
Below Elbowoods the river passes the sites of GRANDMOTHER'S LODGE, FORT
BERTHOLD, REE, and NISHU (_see Side Tour 3A_). EXPANSION (R) consists
of a post office and store marking the site of a formerly active river
town. (_Good camp site bet. Ree and Expansion._)
Just upstream W. of Expansion is a large, easily detected sandstone
promontory known as MANUEL ROCK (R), used as a landmark by old river
pilots, and named for the fur trader Manuel Lisa.
Below Expansion are (L) the mouth of GARRISON CREEK and the SITE OF
FORT STEVENSON. The site was selected by Gen. Alfred H. Sully in 1864
on his trip down the Missouri during his second campaign, but the fort
was not established until 1867. A two-company post named for Brig. Gen.
Thomas G. Stevenson, the fort was abandoned in 1883 and the military
reservation turned over to the Interior Department. For a short time
the buildings were used as a school for Indian children from the Fort
Berthold Agency. Garrison Creek was originally called Douglas Creek,
but the name was changed when the Stevenson garrison began using it for
bathing purposes.
A few miles below Garrison Creek is SNAKE CREEK (L), called Ma po ksa a
ti a zi (Hidatsa, _snake house river_), where a cave along the banks of
the Missouri near the mouth of the creek, according to legend, swarmed
with snakes at certain seasons.
A short distance downstream from the Fort Stevenson site the course
of the Missouri turns S. and passes MANNHAVEN (R), remnant of a once
thriving river town. Near the present village in 1809 the Missouri Fur
Co., directed by Manuel Lisa, erected a trading post known variously as
Fort Manuel Lisa and Fort Lewis, the latter for Reuben Lewis--brother
of Meriwether Lewis, coleader of the Lewis and Clark expedition--who
operated it until its abandonment in 1812. Under the name of Fort
Vanderburgh, the site was later occupied briefly in 1822 or 1823.
Lisa, born in New Orleans of Spanish parents, is said to have had more
influence over the Indians with whom he dealt than any other trader to
enter the Missouri area, although his activities in the Missouri basin
were of only 13 years duration. He died in St. Louis at the age of 48.
The mouth of the KNIFE RIVER is just upstream from STANTON (_see Side
Tour 8D_). (_Camp can be made on R. river bank._)
In the vicinity of the confluence of the Knife and Missouri are the
sites of many Indian villages, Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara, the
locations of which are easily traceable by the many round, dish-like
depressions marking the sites of earth lodges in the villages. The
Hidatsa had three villages here until 1837 when the smallpox epidemic
reduced their population to only one village. Prior to their occupation
of the Knife River vicinity the tribe lived near the mouth of the Heart
River (_see Tour 8_), and in 1845, for protection from the Sioux, they
moved to Fort Berthold. The Mandans, whose two villages some miles
below the Knife were reduced to little more than 100 persons by the
smallpox epidemic of 1837, moved to a small village near the Hidatsa,
and followed that tribe to Fort Berthold in 1845. Migrating up the
Missouri at a later date, the Arikara built villages near the Knife as
late as 1851, but they too, because of continued Sioux raids, moved to
Fort Berthold.
It was at one of the Knife River villages, that Charbonneau, and his
Shoshone Indian wife, Sakakawea, lived in 1804 when Lewis and Clark
employed Charbonneau as interpreter of the expedition to the Pacific
(_see_ BISMARCK).
Below Stanton is DEAPOLIS (R), marked by a single grain elevator,
all that remains of another of the towns that sprang up along the
Missouri, flourished, and declined with the steamboat trade. The place
was named by its founder, who replaced the first letter in the name of
the ancient city Neapolis with the first letter of his own surname,
Danielson.
Old residents tell the story that in the summer of 1894 the river at
Deapolis was extremely low, exposing a huge boulder in the center
of the stream. An interested group made their way to the stone, and
found it carved with peculiar markings they were unable to decipher.
Before leaving they added the date of their visit to the inscription.
Forty years later the river stage again was low enough to bring the
stone above water, and a second party visited it, and found the same
undecipherable markings as well as the carving of the 1894 party.
Near the Deapolis elevator is the SITE OF BIG WHITE'S MANDAN INDIAN
VILLAGE. Big White was the Mandan chief taken to Washington by Lewis
and Clark on their return from the Pacific, and his village was one
of two Mandan towns visited by the expedition on the journey up the
Missouri in 1804-5. The other, Black Cat's Village, was on the L. bank
of the river farther upstream. Lewis and Clark's Fort Mandan was built
on the L. bank downstream from the Deapolis site, but the changing
river channel has removed all trace of the fort, and Black Cat's
Village has never been definitely located (_see Tour 3_).
South of Deapolis is the SITE OF FORT CLARK TRADING POST (R), for which
the present village of FORT CLARK (1,726 alt., 46 pop.), downstream
=1.5 m.=, is named. The post, a well stockaded fort 132 x 147 ft.,
was built in 1829 by James Kipp for the American Fur Co. and named
for William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Because of its
flourishing trade with the Mandans it was for several years second
only to Fort Union in Missouri importance, but it was closed during
the smallpox epidemic of 1837, and a few years later was abandoned by
the company. The Arikara Indians reoccupied the site in the 1850's in
their migration up the Missouri. Today there are slight excavations and
scars marking the outline of the fort stockade walls, and traces of the
Indian habitation.
Scorched Village, according to Hidatsa legend, had its locale near
the present city of WASHBURN (L) (_see Tour 3_), but the Indians say
that the site of the legendary village has been swallowed by the
ever-shifting channel of the river.
The river passes WILDWOOD LAKE and the PAINTED WOODS (L) (_see Side
Tour 3B_), and the town (R) of SANGER (1,712 alt., 70 pop.), named for
its first settlers, C. H. and George Sanger. (_Camp can be made in
vicinity of town; L. bank more accessible_.)
The route passes (R) the post office of PRICE (1,700 alt., 10 pop.),
named for William Price, the first homesteader in the vicinity. Price
is on the northern slopes of the flat-topped formations known as SQUARE
BUTTES (_see Side Tour 3B_). Below these bold buttes is (L) DOUBLE
DITCH INDIAN VILLAGE STATE PARK (_see Side Tour 3B_), and a short
distance below that the route passes (R) the mouth of SQUARE BUTTE
CREEK (see _Side Tour 8D_).
The resting place of the last physical traces of steamboating on the
upper Missouri, ROCK HAVEN (R), is passed almost in sight of the black
steel link of railroad bridge spanning the river near Bismarck. The
advent of the railroad spelled the decline of river traffic, but before
its coming Rock Haven was a river drydock and boat yard, and today
three old craft which have seen sporadic service in the last decade are
resting on large skids, drawn up from the waters once churned by their
paddle wheels.
On the high bluffs across the river below Rock Haven are the
reconstructed earth lodges of the LOOKING VILLAGE (L) of the Mandans,
below which is the mouth (L) of BURNT CREEK (_see Side Tour 3B_).
Termination of the =350 m.= voyage is made at Bismarck at a boat
landing (L) reached just after passing under the N. P. Ry. Bridge.
Downstream from the landing is the LIBERTY MEMORIAL BRIDGE over which
passes US 10 (_see Tour 8_).
CHRONOLOGY
1682 La Salle, French explorer, by his _Procès Verbal_ claims part
of North Dakota drained by Missouri River for France.
1738 Pierre de la Verendrye, first white man to enter North
Dakota, visits Mandan Indians on Missouri.
1742 Verendrye's sons return to North Dakota while searching
for a western sea near high mountains.
1762 France transfers land claimed by La Salle to Spain.
1763 By Treaty of Paris England obtains title to part of State
drained by Mouse and Red Rivers.
1768 Jonathan Carver explores Northwest through the Red River
Valley for Provincial Government.
1797 David Thompson, English geographer, explores and maps
Mouse and Missouri River basins.
Charles Chaboillez of the North West Company establishes
first trading post in State at Pembina.
1800 Spain cedes American possessions back to France after adjustment
of territorial holdings.
Alexander Henry, Jr., opens fur-trading post at Park River.
1801 Alexander Henry, Jr., moves post to Pembina.
1802 March 12, first non-Indian child in State, a girl, born to
Pierre Bonza and wife, Negroes, at Henry's post at Pembina.
Charles le Raye explores western North Dakota while captive
of Brulé Sioux.
1803 Louisiana Purchase makes southwestern North Dakota part
of United States.
1804-5 Lewis and Clark, accompanied by Sakakawea, cross North
Dakota on journey to Pacific.
1807 In May, Manuel Lisa sets out from St. Louis in search of
suitable sites for trading posts along the Missouri River.
December 29, first white child in State born at Pembina.
1811 John Bradbury and Thomas Nuttall, English botanists, join
Astoria Overland Expedition up Missouri and Yellowstone
Rivers to Oregon.
1812 Selkirk colonists come to Pembina to make first attempt at
permanent white settlement in State.
1818 Father Dumoulin and Father Provencher open first church
in State, a Roman Catholic mission at Pembina.
First school, taught by William Edge, begun in connection
with this mission.
United States acquires eastern North Dakota by treaty with
England.
1820 Grasshopper plague destroys Red River Valley crops.
1822 Gen. W. H. Ashley and other explorers establish fur-trading
posts in Missouri Valley.
1823 Gen. Stephen H. Long survey expedition designates official
boundary between United States and Canada at point north
of Pembina.
Selkirk colonists evacuate Pembina and move to Canadian
soil.
1825 Gen. Henry Atkinson and Gen. Henry Leavenworth come up
Missouri to make treaties with Arikara and other Indians.
1828 American Fur Company builds Fort Union at mouth of
Yellowstone.
1831 Fort Clark built on Missouri by American Fur Company.
1832 _Yellowstone_, first steamboat to navigate Missouri in North
Dakota, makes voyage to Fort Union.
George Catlin, artist and explorer, visits Mandan Indians.
1833 Maximilian, Prince of Wied, conducts scientific expedition up
Missouri River.
1837 Smallpox epidemic nearly annihilates Mandan Indian tribe.
1839 John C. Fremont and Jean N. Nicollet lead first exploration
through central North Dakota.
Father Pierre Jean De Smet begins missionary work among
North Dakota Indians, and persuades Sioux, particularly
Hunkpapas, to participate in peace councils.
1842 Joseph Rolette opens American Fur Company post at Pembina.
1843 Rival post built at Pembina by Norman Kittson.
John James Audubon, naturalist, studies animal life in present
North Dakota.
1845 Bartholomew Berthold, representing American Fur Company,
founds post named for himself on Missouri River.
1848 Father George Belcourt opens mission fields in Pembina, Walhalla,
and Turtle Mountains.
Rev. Alonzo Barnard and James Tanner conduct first Protestant
church service in State at Pembina.
First printing press brought into North Dakota by Barnard.
1851 First North Dakota post office established at Pembina with
Norman Kittson postmaster.
Charles Cavileer brings settlers to Pembina from Minnesota
to form first permanent white agricultural colony in State.
First flour mill in State constructed at Walhalla by Father
Belcourt.
1853 Stevens survey sponsored by Federal Government to find
most advantageous route for railway to Pacific.
1857 Fort Abercrombie, first military post in North Dakota, established
on Red River.
1859 January 5, _Anson Northrup_, first steamboat on Red River,
starts trip from Fort Abercrombie to Winnipeg.
1860 Regular steamboat transportation on upper Missouri begins.
[Illustration:
BARNES COUNTY
COURTHOUSE,
VALLEY CITY
_Photo by R. Kenneth McFarland_]
[Illustration:
CAMP GATHERING, FORT YATES AGENCY
_Photo by Frank Fiske_]
[Illustration:
SIOUX TIPIS
_Photo by Frank Fiske_]
[Illustration:
SIOUX
HOOP DANCE
_Photo by Russell Reid_]
[Illustration:
MAGPIE ROCK, KILLDEER MOUNTAINS
_Photo by Russell Reid_]
1861 Dakota Territory is officially organized.
President Lincoln appoints William Jayne first Governor of
Dakota Territory.
1862 First Territorial legislature meets in Yankton.
Refugees from Minnesota Massacre flee to Fort Abercrombie.
Little Crow and followers seek refuge with Sioux near
Devils Lake.
Capt. James L. Fisk guides parties across North Dakota to
Montana gold fields.
1863 January 1, Dakota Territory opened for homesteading.
Gen. Henry H. Sibley and Gen. Alfred H. Sully, sent out to
punish Sioux who participated in Minnesota Massacre, conduct
extensive campaign through North Dakota.
1864 In July, first North Dakota newspaper, the _Frontier Scout_,
issued at Fort Union.
General Sully supervises building of Fort Rice.
Immigrant party under Capt. James L. Fisk, besieged by
Sioux, builds Fort Dilts.
1866 Fort Buford established opposite mouth of Yellowstone.
1867 Fort Ransom, second of chain of forts for protection of immigrants
crossing the prairies, established on Sheyenne River
by Gen. A. H. Terry.
Forts Stevenson and Totten, and Fort Totten Reservation
established.
Treaty with Sisseton and Wahpeton Sioux cedes United States
rights to build roads and railroads across Indian lands.
1868 Sioux, influenced by Father De Smet, join peace council at
Fort Rice.
Laramie treaty defines reservation boundaries for Sioux, including
Standing Rock Reservation.
Joseph Rolette makes first North Dakota homestead entry,
filing on land in northwest part of Red River Valley.
1870 Fort Berthold Indian Reservation boundaries defined.
Treaty between Chippewa, Sioux, and whites at Fort Abercrombie
brings about permanent peace in eastern area.
1871 Northern Pacific Railway reaches Fargo.
First North Dakota telegraph line put in operation between
Fort Abercrombie and Winnipeg.
Whistler expedition begins survey of railway lines westward
through North Dakota.
1872 Fort Seward replaces Fort Ransom.
Fort McKeen, later named Fort Abraham Lincoln, built on
Missouri.
1873 Fort Abraham Lincoln built.
Bismarck becomes western terminus of Northern Pacific.
July 11, Col. C. A. Lounsberry publishes first issue of Bismarck
_Tribune_, State's oldest newspaper.
1874 United States Weather Bureau established as part of Camp
Hancock at Bismarck.
First newspaper in Red River Valley, the _Express_, printed
at Fargo.
Custer brings back report of gold in Black Hills.
1875 Era of bonanza farming is begun.
War Department permits white settlement on reservations in
violation of Laramie treaty, precipitating uprisings among
Sioux.
1876 May 17, Custer leaves Fort Abraham Lincoln for campaign
of the Little Big Horn.
June 25, Custer's immediate command annihilated by Sioux
at Battle of Little Big Horn.
1878 Fort Yates completed to succeed Fort Rice.
Ranching introduced in western North Dakota.
1880 James J. Hill begins building Great Northern Railway through
State.
Lignite mining opened in western North Dakota.
Military reserves in eastern and central parts of State thrown
open to homestead entry.
1881 Northern Pacific reaches Montana border.
1882 Great Northern completed through Red River Valley to
Canada.
Turtle Mountain Reservation established for Chippewa.
1883 Territorial capital moved from Yankton to Bismarck.
Jamestown Presbyterian College established.
University of North Dakota opens at Grand Forks.
Marquis de Mores opens packing plant at Medora.
Theodore Roosevelt comes to North Dakota for his health
and begins ranching near Medora.
First labor union in State formed at Bismarck.
1885 State hospital for insane opens at Jamestown.