Chapter IV: Highways and Trails (9)

For the soldiers, life consisted chiefly of maintaining order among the Indians and the incoming white population. At one time the guardhouse at the fort had a distinguished occupant, Rain-in-the-Face, the Sioux warrior. He had been heard boasting of "counting coup" on the bodies of two white men killed on the Stanley expedition in 1873, and Tom Custer, brother of General Custer, was sent to take him into custody at Standing Rock Agency (_see Side Tour 8C_). Rain-in-the-Face was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Abraham Lincoln, but escaped in a jailbreak engineered by friends of some of the other prisoners, and joined Sitting Bull.

Life at the post often grew monotonous for the troopers, who in winter found their activities hampered by the severe cold, and in the summer suffered from the torments of the heat and the mosquitoes.

When the routine of military life palled too greatly on the soldiers, they took refuge in the activities of the Point, a little settlement of dance halls, saloons, and similar places of entertainment, that flourished on the opposite bank of the river directly across from the fort. Since there was no bridge across the Missouri the Point could be reached only by ferry or on the ice. At the time of the spring break-up, however, even the ferry could not be used, and many of the soldiers missed the customary recreational and liquid facilities afforded by the Point. One spring, as the ice was going out, a young man, whose fine physique was equalled only by his foolhardy daring, offered to cross the river for some liquor. Crossing a river on breaking ice has been known as a daring feat since even before the days of Eliza and the bloodhounds, but crossing the Missouri is a particularly hazardous exploit, for this river, always maliciously menacing, is even more so in the spring, with great ice blocks eddying and whirling, crunching violently together, then flung apart by the swift current. The slightest misstep or miscalculation meant death to the young, thirsty soldier, but with the greatest nonchalance he made the crossing and the return, bringing his precious burden back with him, and great and twofold was the rejoicing when he safely reached the home shore.

Three years of existence left Fort Abraham Lincoln in comparative quiet, with only an occasional Indian skirmish. Then events on the frontier conspired to bring the Indian troubles to an end. The campaign of the Little Big Horn was planned (_see_ HISTORY). One day in 1876 the Seventh, with bands playing and colors flying, marched away along the Heart in pursuit of the Sioux. On a stifling night early in July the residents of Bismarck were awakened from their sleep by loud sounds of shouting, of wagons and horses moving, at the river. Capt. Grant Marsh had arrived from the Little Big Horn with his steamer, the _Far West_, loaded with the wounded of Major Reno's command, survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. But more than the wounded, he bore news--news of the death of 267 men, of the annihilation of Custer and his immediate command. Twenty-six of the waiting wives at Fort Abraham Lincoln were widows.

The only living thing left of Custer's command was Comanche, Capt. Myles Keogh's horse. Through the rough country filled with hostile, victorious Sioux, Reno's wounded men had been carried to the _Far West_, and Captain Marsh had made his epic 54-hour run to Bismarck and the fort 700 miles away.

A RED
RIVER VALLEY
WHEATFIELD]

OATS]

Captain Marsh's story of how he learned of the Custer tragedy is strange, and almost unreal. He related later that, as he waited on the river for word from the military commanders, a Crow Indian peered from the brush along the shore and signed that he wished to board the boat. On deck the Indian, unable to speak a word of English, squatted and began to make signs. He drew a group of dots, designated them with the Crow word for "white men." Then he showed a circle of dots around the white men, and for them spoke the word for "Sioux." And then, with a sweep of his hand, he wiped out the inner group of dots. In this simple, abrupt manner, Marsh related, the tragedy was first told to the world.

The story of Custer's annihilation was put on the telegraph wires by Col. C. A. Lounsberry. James W. Foley, North Dakota poet laureate, has commented: "It was, for stark tragedy, horror and surprise, perhaps the greatest news story ever flashed over a telegraph wire to a stunned and stricken country, in the history of the United States."

The Little Big Horn disaster was the beginning of the end of the era of Indian fighting in this region, and troops were withdrawn from Fort Abraham Lincoln in 1891, after which the buildings were carried off piecemeal by the settlers in the vicinity. A new infantry post, known as Fort Lincoln, was later established across the river (_see Tour 8_).

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is being developed for recreational and historical purposes by the Federal Government in cooperation with the State historical society. The grounds are being landscaped, foot trails laid out, and picnic shelters built. Under construction between the Indian village and the Fort Lincoln site is a museum which will house some archeological material being unearthed on the sites of the old earth lodges and historical material dealing with Fort McKeen and Fort Abraham Lincoln.

ROOSEVELT REGIONAL STATE PARKS

=Season:= Open year round. June to September most favorable period.

=Tourist Information:= State Historical Society of North Dakota,
Liberty Memorial Building, Bismarck, N. Dak.

=Admission:= Free.

=Transportation:=

_North Park._ Entrances: E. entrance, US 85 (_see Tour 4_); N.
entrance--less desirable--dirt road from Arnegard (_see Tour 4_).
Branch of Great Northern Ry., Fairview, Mont., to Watford City;
Carpenter Bus Line from Williston.

Roads: 14 m. gravel and scoria highway; 10 m. horse or hike trail.
No guide service.

_South Park._ Entrances: E. entrance, W. entrance, US 10 (_see Tour
8_). Main line Northern Pacific Ry. and Northland Greyhound Bus
Line to Medora (_see Tour 8_).

Roads: 10 m. gravel and scoria highway; 10 m. graveled truck trail;
5 m. horse or hike trail.

Guide service: Buddy Ranch, 1.5 m. E. of Medora on US 10.

=Accommodations:=

_North Park._ Hotel accommodations at Watford City (_see Tour 4_);
camping and trailer facilities at Squaw Creek Picnic Area (_see
North Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour below_).

_South Park._ Hotel accommodations at Medora (_see Tour 8_).

Camping and trailer facilities at camping area in park (_see South
Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour below_).

Meals, cabins, and horses at Buddy Ranch, 1.5 m. E. of Medora.
Horse rates for resident guest, $1.50 per day, guide provided with
party of 5; for nonresident guest, $1.50 for one-half day, $2.50
per day, guide provided with party of 5.

=Climate, clothing, and equipment:= Summer tourists should prepare
for hot days and cool evenings and for sudden rain or dust storms.
Those who expect to tramp in the Badlands should dress for walking
through brush and soft, clayey soil. Breeches and high-top boots
are in order, the latter serving the additional purpose of
protection against snake bite.

=Medical service:=

_North Park._ Watford City (_see Tour 4_).

_South Park._ Belfield (_see Tour 8_).

=Special regulations:= No hunting allowed. Camping permitted at
points where facilities are provided. Fires allowed only at points
designated.

=Warnings:= Avoid low places during heavy rainstorms. Horse trails
should not be attempted after rains until trail makers have had an
opportunity to repair. Use only native horses. Rattlesnakes are
encountered only infrequently (_see_ GENERAL INFORMATION).

=Summary of attractions:= Badlands views, petrified forests,
horseback riding, camping.

Theodore Roosevelt's biographer, Herman Hagedorn, writes:

"Between the prairie lands of North Dakota and the prairie lands
of Montana there is a narrow strip of broken country so wild and
fantastic in its beauty that it seems as though some unholy demon
had carved it to mock the loveliness of God. On both sides of a
sinuous river rise ten thousand buttes cut into bizarre shapes by
the waters of countless centuries. The hand of man never dared to
paint anything as those hills are painted. Olive and lavender,
buff, brown, and dazzling white mingle with emerald and flaming
scarlet to make a piece of savage splendor that is not without an
element of the terrible. The buttes are stark and bare. Only in
the clefts are ancient cedars, starved and deformed. In spring
there are patches of green grass, an acre here, a hundred acres
there, reaching up the slopes from the level bottom-land; but there
are regions where for miles and miles no green thing grows, and
all creation seems a witch's caldron of gray bubbles tongued with
flame, held by some bit of black art forever in suspension."

Here in this broken country, known as the Badlands of the Little Missouri, the Roosevelt Regional State Parks are being developed to preserve parts of the strange area as scenic and recreational centers, and at the same time to establish a memorial to the former President, who as a young man spent part of each year from 1883 to 1886 ranching here. (_See Tours 8 and 10._) To view the freakish, tumbled, unearthly valley is to appreciate and at the same time be amused by Gen. Alfred Sully's oft-quoted characterization of the region as "hell with the fires out." It must be remembered that the general received his impressions as he jolted along in a wagon, sick, while his troops fought Sioux through the confused, uncertain terrain all one hot day in August 1864. Others visiting it under more favorable circumstances, especially during the freshness of spring, concede the unparalleled fantasy of the landscape, and agree on its strange, wild, potent beauty. Twenty years after Sully fought the Sioux here Roosevelt wrote, "I grow very fond of this place ... it ... has a desolate, grim beauty, that has a curious fascination for me." Since then many noted travelers and writers have marveled at its beauties and deplored the fact that its attractions have not been made more widely known.

The traveler approaching the Badlands from the rolling prairies on either side suddenly finds himself overlooking a valley cut abruptly into the heart of the plain, a valley filled with a strange welter of bare ridges and hillocks, buttes and domes, pyramids and cones, forming one of the most extraordinary topographies on the surface of the earth. In broad horizontal stripes across the varied shapes of the buttes are the browns, reds, grays, and yellows of the sand and clay laid down centuries ago when during successive ages arms of the sea covered large parts of the North American Continent. Where today the visitor stands and looks out over the naked buttes once lay a mighty sea in which swam monsters whose fossilized skeletons are embedded in the strata laid down by the primordial waters.

Here and there, standing out against the lighter coloring of the sands and clays, are black veins of lignite. Ages ago dense forests, rivaling those of the tropics of today, rose over the swamps of the receding seas. The motorcar speeds through a region where the giant hog, the three-toed horse, and the saber-toothed tiger roamed among lofty trees. The cast-off growth of the forest fell into the swamps below, where, shut away from the air by water and mud, it turned into peat. Centuries later the seas returned to crush it with heavy layers of shale and clay, until pressure and heat drove out most of the volatile oils of the wood, leaving carbon or coal. It is not surprising to find that lignite coal has the same cellular formation as wood, and that it at times bears the imprint of leaves or of whole trunks of trees. The forms of stumps 15 feet in diameter have been found in the coal beds of the State.

Lighting up the dull strata of the buttes are the ever present pinks and reds of scoria--clay burnt into a brick-like shale by the centuries-old fires of burning coal veins. Some of these burning veins still exist in the Badlands, being more easily discoverable in the wintertime, when the heat from combustion causes steam to rise. This burning has been one of the major factors in the production of the present Badlands topography, for as the fires have eaten into the coal veins in the cliffs, the earth has crumbled and been carried away by the rains and streams. These fires were an awesome sight to the Indians, who believed the hills were on fire.

The chief agent, however, in the formation of the Badlands has been the Little Missouri River, which centuries ago began to carve its way down through the soft shales and sandstones with which the early seas had covered the area. Aided by the eroding action of wind, frost, and rain, by huge landslides, and by burning coal veins, the once swift, always silt-laden river and its tributaries have floated away all the age-old clays of the region except these buttes and domes piled in indescribable confusion along the valley floor. The Indians, called the valley "The-place-where-the-hills-look-at-each-other," and the first white explorers, impeded in their travel, named it "bad lands to travel through," a phrase inevitably shortened to Badlands.

Adding to the bizarre coloring of this unusual valley are the blue-gray and silver of the sage, so often remarked by Roosevelt, the light green of the sparse grasses of butte top and valley, and the darker green of the cedars which cling to the shady sides of buttes. Cottonwood, ash, box elder, elm, bull pine, dogwood, and flowering currant grow along the Little Missouri, while gooseberries, buffalo berries, and chokecherries ripen in the gullies. In June the large, white, open flowers of the low-growing gumbo lily, also known as the cowboy lily and the butte primrose, appear in the otherwise barren soil at the foot of the buttes, to be followed shortly by the purple-centered white and lavender Mariposa and creamy white yucca lilies. In midsummer the small, wine-colored flowers of the ball cactus and the large, waxy, lemon-yellow and brown blossoms of the prickly pear cactus show on the drier soil of the buttes, and the scoria lily, with its thistle-like foliage, opens its large, white flower only after sundown. In addition to these striking, gaudy blooms, a great variety of more common North Dakota flowers also appear in the valley of the Little Missouri, especially in the springtime.

When white men first visited the region, it was rich in wild life. Beaver and otter swam the streams, flocks of game birds hid in the breaks, droves of elk, deer, and antelope fed along the Little Missouri, and huge herds of buffalo often darkened the prairie above the valley. In Roosevelt's ranching days game was still abundant, and grizzlies and mountain lions were encountered occasionally. Rocky Mountain, or bighorn, sheep were killed as late as 1906. Bobcats and coyotes are found occasionally even today. The valley harbors more than 300 species of birds, including many game birds and the golden eagle.

On patches of dry grassland here and there, down in the bottoms or up on the buttes, there are prairie-dog towns--areas sometimes as much as a hundred acres in extent, thickly dotted with the small mounds of their cunning inhabitants. Prairie dogs, somewhat larger than good-sized rats, are burrowing rodents allied to the marmot. In digging their burrows they throw the earth up into little mounds, upon which, whenever anything has aroused their curiosity or fear, they sit to chatter, barking like very small dogs, or perhaps more like gray squirrels.

Interesting in connection with any description of the origin of the Badlands is the Sioux legend of their formation. Unknown centuries ago, it is said, the Badlands were a fertile plain, covered with rich grasses and abounding with game. Every autumn the plains tribes came here to get meat for winter and to hold friendly councils beneath the trees which grew along the rivers. Tribes, hostile at other times and in other places, while here greeted each other in peace.

This happy arrangement continued for many years, but one season a fierce tribe came from the mountains to the west and drove the plains tribes from their hunting grounds. Being unsuccessful in their attempts to dislodge the invaders, the plains people finally called a great council and fasted and prayed. Many days passed, however, and no answer came from the Great Spirit, and they began to despair.

Then suddenly a great shudder convulsed the earth, the sky grew black as midnight, and lightning burned jagged through the gloom. Fires hissed from the earth and the once pleasant land rolled and tossed like the waves of the sea, while into its flaming, pitching surface sank the invading tribe, the streams, the trees, and all living things. Then just as suddenly as it had begun, the upheaval and the conflagration ceased, leaving the plain fixed in grotesque waves.

In this way the Great Spirit destroyed the prize that had stirred up strife among his children, and the Badlands were created.

NORTH ROOSEVELT REGIONAL STATE PARK TOUR

East entrance (_see Tour 4_)--Sperati Point (_see Tour 10_), 14 m.

The North Roosevelt Regional State Park, which has an area of approximately 40 square miles, presents many of the best Badlands features, including a petrified forest and the remarkable views of the Grand Canyon of the Little Missouri River from Sperati Point.

From the eastern entrance the winding graveled and scoria park highway proceeds in a general westerly direction along the northern side of the LITTLE MISSOURI.

Just inside the entrance are the blue-gray buildings of the permanent CCC CAMP (L), which houses the 200 men assigned to putting trails through the area and building rustic equipment at the picnic and camping areas in the park.

At =1.5 m.= is the CHALONER CREEK HORSE TRAIL.

Right on this trail which affords an opportunity for a ride of =5 m.= among the buttes and along the edge of the higher land above the brush-filled gullies or breaks. Some parts of the trail are cut through groves of aspen, ash, elm, and cedar on the north side of buttes, while other parts move over the face of the cliffs or on high and narrow ridges with precipitous canyon walls 300 ft. or more in depth dropping on either side. Petrified stumps are along the trail.

The highway, continuing W. more directly than the river, which here makes a deep bend to the S., skirts patches of woodland along the bottoms to reach SQUAW CREEK PICNIC AREA, =5 m.=, the best-developed camping center in the two parks. This picnic area on the banks of the Little Missouri has excellent grass and shade. Its one-way road leads among aspen, aromatic sumac, oak, poplar, and cottonwood to a number of individual camp sites. In addition to a stone and log shelter and numerous fireplaces, the area has 4 wells and 45 tables. At the east edge of the area a rustic footbridge leads over a little ravine, to clean, grassy picnic grounds.

Northwest of Squaw Creek Picnic Area the road passes along the edge of the breaks overlooking the river to a junction with CEDAR CANYON HORSE TRAIL at =5.8 m.=

Left on this 5-mile trail, which is very similar in character to the Chaloner Creek Horse Trail, are lookout points affording excellent views. In spring portions of the trail show a profusion of wild flowers.

The highway proceeds NW. to the junction with a graded road.

Right at this junction on a road disclosing very good views; it leads NW. along the west side of dry SQUAW CREEK to the northern boundary of the park, =6 m.= Beyond lies ARNEGARD, =20 m.= (_see Tour 4_), by which the Badlands and the park can be entered from the N.

At =7 m.= is CEDAR CANYON LOOKOUT, which commands an exceptionally good view to the S. across the Little Missouri River and beyond, where as far as the eye can reach stretch the tumbled outlines of the buttes.

Northwest of Cedar Canyon the road moves out upon the plateau above the 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.

Right on this road is REYNOLDS, =2 m.= (915 alt., 351 pop.), named for 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.