Chapter IV: Highways and Trails (1)

TOUR 1 Canadian Line (Winnipeg) to South Dakota Line
(Watertown). US 81 185

1A Mayville to Hatton. ND 7 & 18 200

2 Canadian Line (Brandon) to South Dakota Line
(Aberdeen). ND 4 & US 281 202

3 Canadian Line (Virden) to South Dakota Line
(Pierre). US 83 207

3A Garrison to Stanley. ND 37 & 8, unnumbered roads 211

3B Junction US 83 to Junction US 10. Unnumbered
roads 215

4 Canadian Line (Moosejaw) to South Dakota Line
(Belle Fourche). US 85 218

4A Hanks to Writing Rock State Park. ND 50 and unnumbered
roads 225

4B New England to Flasher. ND 21 228

5 Hamilton to Montana Line (Scobey). ND 5 232

5A Junction ND 5 to Leroy. ND 32 & 55, unnumbered
road 243

6 Minnesota Line (Duluth) to Montana Line (Glasgow).
US 2 247

6A Circular tour from Devils Lake. ND 20 & 27, Indian
Service Roads 263

6B Junction US 2 to Fort Buford State Park. Unnumbered
road 269

7 Carrington to Canadian Line (Estevan). US 52 272

8 Minnesota Line (Minneapolis) to Montana Line
(Glendive). US 10 277

8A Valley City to South Dakota Line (Aberdeen). ND 1 303

8B Dazey to Junction US 2. ND 1 & 7 308

8C Mandan to South Dakota Line (McLaughlin). ND
6, 21, & 24 312

8D Junction US 10 to Junction US 85. ND 25 318

9 South Dakota Line (McIntosh) to Montana Line
(Miles City). US 12 323

10 Medora to Bismarck. Little Missouri and Missouri
Rivers 328

CHRONOLOGY 339

BIBLIOGRAPHY 345

INDEX 361

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

Ring-billed Gulls
Pasques
Flickertail
A Modern Indian
Scaffold Burial, Formerly Used by Some Indian Tribes
_between pages 44 and 45_

Ancient Indian Turtle Effigy
Sioux Sun Dance as Originally Performed
A Modern Sioux Sun Dance Ceremonial
North Dakota In 1879, From an Old Map of Dakota Territory
_between pages 76 and 77_

Gen. George A. Custer
Sitting Bull
Battle of the Badlands
A "Little Old Sod Shanty" of Early Days
State Capitol, Bismarck
Reviving a Norwegian Folkdance, Esmond, N. Dak.
_between pages 108 and 109_

An Early School (Oliver County, 1885)
Administration Building, Agricultural College, Fargo
Threshing
Sakakawea, Bismarck
_between pages 140 and 141_

A Red River Valley Wheatfield
Oats
_between pages 172 and 173_

Law Building, University, Grand Forks
Roosevelt Monument, Minot
_between pages 204 and 205_

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, Blockhouse of Fort McKeen
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, Slant Indian Village Lodge
Marquis de Mores
Badlands
_between pages 236 and 237_

Rabbit's Ears Near Amidon
Grand Canyon of the Little Missouri
_between pages 268 and 269_

Lignite Strip Mining, Velva
Arikara Woman Pounding Cherries
Writing Rock Near Grenora
Lake Upsilon, Turtle Mountains
Buffalo, Sully's Hill National Game Preserve
_between pages 332 and 333_

Barnes County Courthouse, Valley City
Sioux Camp Gathering, Fort Yates Agency
Sioux Tipis
Sioux Hoop Dance
Magpie Rock, Killdeer Mountains
_between pages 340 and 341_

MAPS

North Dakota State Map Inside back cover

North Dakota Key Map to Tours Inside front cover

Bismarck 112

Fargo 127

Grand Forks 146

Minot 159

GENERAL INFORMATION

(See State map for routes of highways, railroads, and air lines.)

=Railroads:= Chicago & North Western Ry. (Northwestern); Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific R. R. (Milwaukee); Farmers' Grain & Shipping Company (Farmers' Line); Great Northern Ry. (G. N.); Midland Continental R. R. (Midland); Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Ry. (Soo); Northern Pacific Ry. (N. P.). Main line of N. P. runs almost directly E. to W. across the State. Main line of G. N. runs N., then W., while cut-off runs in northwesterly direction. Soo line runs SE. to NW.

=Highways:= Eight Federal highways, seven of them transcontinental or with international connections. Inspection at international border. State highway patrol checks violations of State highway laws and enforces regulations. Gasoline tax, 3c.

=Motor Vehicle Laws= (digest): Maximum speed, 50 m.; on curves and at intersections, 20 m.; approaching within 50 ft. of grade crossing where view obstructed, 20 m.; on any highway in business or residence district, 25 m.; passing school during recess or while children are going to or leaving school, 20 m. Time limit for operation of car in State by nonresident, 90 days. Hand signals must be used for a turn or stop. Spotlights permitted. Personal injury or property damage ($50 or over) must be reported to civil authorities.

=Prohibited:= Parking on highways; use of stickers, except those required by law, on windshield or windows.

=Bus Lines:= Northland Greyhound Lines: Fargo via US 10 to Glendive, Mont., Fargo via US 81 to Winnipeg. Minot-Crosby Bus Line: Minot to Crosby via US 52 and ND 5. Checker Greyhound Lines: Noonan via ND 40 to Regina, Saskatchewan. Studebaker Bus Line: Devils Lake to Jamestown via US 281 and ND 19. Swanson Bus Line: Jamestown via US 281 to Aberdeen, S. Dak. Carpenter Bus Line: Williston to Bowman and Hettinger via US 85, ND 25, ND 22, and US 12. Checker Transportation Co.: Fargo to Minot via US 10, ND 18, ND 7, and US 52; also Fargo to Minot via US 10, ND 18, US 81, and US 2. Interstate Transportation Co.: Bismarck to Minot via US 83, Minot to Williston via US 2, Minot to Portal via US 52, Minot to Bismarck via US 52, ND 41, and US 83. Northern Transportation Co.: Minot to Rolla via US 83 and ND 5, Minot to Watford City via US 83 and ND 23. N. T. Co.: Couteau to Northgate via ND 8 and US 52. Jack Rabbit Lines: Fargo to Watertown, S. Dak. Triangle Transportation Co.: Fargo to Grand Forks via US 81. Interstate Transit Co.: Williston to Culbertson, Mont. via US 2.

=Air Lines:= Northwest Airlines: Chicago to Seattle (stop at Fargo and Bismarck); Fargo to Winnipeg (stop at Pembina). Hanford Airlines: Bismarck to Tulsa (stop at Bismarck).

=Airfields:= Forty-six landing fields. Lighted fields: A-1, Fargo and Bismarck; intermediate, Valley City, Jamestown, Dawson, Glen Ullin, Dickinson, Golva, Pembina.

=Customs Regulations:= Persons entering United States must report to U. S. Immigration Office and U. S. Customs Office. Automobiles may be brought into United States for 90 days without formal customs entry, provided proper report is made at port of entry. If cars are to be kept here more than 90 days, bond or deposit must be furnished, together with guarantee of exportation of car within 6 months of importation.

Those entering Canada must report to Canadian immigration and customs officers at point of entry. United States citizens should be prepared to prove citizenship. Persons not citizens should be able to establish that they are legally resident in the United States and that they will be readmitted when returning to this country. Cars may be admitted without charge to Canada for touring purposes and may be operated 60 days under State licenses; on request, period can be extended to 90 days. For period of 90 days to 6 months, bond or cash deposit must be furnished. Cars returning to United States should be checked out by Canadian customs officer at border.

=Accommodations:= Accommodations outside of cities and towns are limited. Nearly every small town has a tourist camp. A few ranches in the Badlands area accommodate tourists and have horses available for riding trips. Accommodations at lake resorts offered only during the summer months. Quarters at lake resorts crowded Fourth of July week.

=Sales and Cigarette Taxes:= Two percent sales tax on all purchases, payable in cash. Tax of 3c per package of 20 cigarettes.

=Climate and Equipment:= Summer travelers should be prepared for extremely warm weather. It is advisable, however, to have topcoats of medium weight as evenings are generally cool. In spring and fall the days are intermittently cool and warm, and topcoats are a necessity. Persons unfamiliar with the Northwest should heed weather reports and bulletins of the State highway department and dress as warmly as possible during winter travel. What appears as a light flurry of snow may in a few moments become a blizzard, blocking highways and making travel impossible. Towns and farms are far apart; temperatures may suddenly drop far below zero.

=Recreational Areas:= Turtle Mountain area (_Tour 5_): swimming, fishing, boating, hiking, hunting. Roosevelt Regional State Parks: riding, motoring, hiking. Sheyenne River Park (_Tour 1_): picnicking, swimming, hiking; suitable in winter for skiing. Killdeer Mountain area (_Side Tour 8D_): hiking, riding, picnicking. Turtle River State Park (_Tour 6_): swimming, camping, picnicking. Large towns have ski and toboggan slides, skating rinks.

=Fish and Game Laws:= Game fish are defined as black bass, wall-eyed pike, northern pike, perch, sunfish, crappie, trout, and landlocked salmon.

=Open Season for Fishing= (dates inclusive): Bass, crappie, and sunfish, June 16-Oct. 31; trout and landlocked salmon, May 2-Sept. 30; pike, any species, and perch, May 16-Oct. 31. Governor has power to shorten or close season.

=Licenses:= Resident, 50c, nonresident, $3. No license required of persons under age of 12. Issued by game and fish commissioner, State capitol, Bismarck, county auditors at county courthouses.

=Limits:= Bass, trout, and landlocked salmon, 5, nor more than 5 of all combined; wall-eyed pike and northern pike, 10, nor more than 10 of both combined; crappie and sunfish, 15, nor more than 15 of both combined; perch, 25. No bass, landlocked salmon, trout, or pike less than 10 in.; no crappie less than 6 in.; no sunfish less than 5 in. These limits daily; no person to have in possession more than 2-day limit.

=Prohibited:= No use of drugs, lime, fish berries, or explosives. Unlawful to take fish in any manner except by angling with hook and line held in hand or attached to rod. (Commercial fishing allowed in certain sections, under commercial license.)

=Open Season for Hunting:= Dates of hunting season for deer and game birds vary from year to year as well as the areas where hunting is allowed. Copy of hunting laws furnished with hunting license.

=Licenses:= Big game: resident, $5, nonresident, $50; hunting: resident, $1.50, nonresident, $25. Aliens not permitted to hunt. Licenses issued by game and fish commissioner, deputies, or county auditors.

=Limits:= Bass, trout, and landlocked salmon, 5, nor more than 5 of breasted grouse, ruffed grouse (partridge), Chinese pheasant, Hungarian partridge; 5 in the aggregate in a day, but number of each species composing aggregate varies in certain counties; 10 ducks, 4 geese including brant, 12 coots, and 10 jacksnipe a day. Not more than 1-day bag of migratory game birds may be possessed at one time. Deer may be possessed until 90 days after close of season.

Nonresident licensee may carry with him from State under license tag a 2-day limit of game, if carried openly and labeled with his name, address, and number of license.

=Camp Fires:= Any person leaving a fire without thoroughly extinguishing it, so that it burns any wood or prairie, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.

=Poisonous Snakes and Plants:= Rattlesnakes are rare, but are sometimes found in the following areas: south of Bismarck in Missouri River vicinity; western Emmons County, along Missouri; in valleys of Heart, Little Missouri, and Cannonball Rivers; and in Badlands.

Anyone bitten by a rattlesnake should cut wound with a sharp knife and suck the blood to remove poison. A tourniquet should be placed above wound, and medical assistance sought at once.

Poison-ivy common in wooded areas. In June it bears loose clusters of dull green-white blossoms, later in season replaced by glossy opaque berries of similar color. Poison-ivy vines often are hidden in long grass and in foliage.

To prevent irritation from contact with poison-ivy, before going into woods bathe hands and face with a 5-percent solution of ferric chloride in a half-and-half mixture of alcohol and water or glycerine and water. If skin should come in contact with the plant, washing with one of above solutions, or with laundry soap and warm water, is an excellent treatment. Avoid spreading poison through scratching or rubbing. Bathing affected areas in hot water will relieve irritation. If there are open sores do not use sugar of lead or zinc oxide.

=Tourist Information Service:= General information about the State furnished on request by the secretary, Greater North Dakota Association, Fargo, N. Dak.

CALENDAR OF ANNUAL EVENTS

Listed here are events of general interest which occur annually in North Dakota. Dates may vary from year to year, and should be verified.

(n f d = no fixed date)

Jan. 1 Fargo Ice Carnival
3rd wk Fargo Farmers and Homemakers Week,
Agricultural College
4th wk Grand Forks All-American Turkey Show
(usually)
n f d Valley City Ski Tournament
n f d Williston Old Fiddlers Contest
n f d Varies State Poultry Show

Feb. 21 Grand Forks Carney Song Contest, University
2nd wk Grand Forks Winter Sports Carnival
2nd wk Grand Forks Hobby Show
4th wk Fort Totten
Indian Agency Midwinter Fair
n f d Devils Lake Lake Region Sports Carnival
n f d Minot Winter Sports Carnival
n f d Varies State Class B High School Basketball
Tournament

Mch. 17 Fessenden Alfalfa Festival
n f d Bismarck State Class A High School Basketball
Tournament
n f d Park River Midwinter Fair
n f d Park River Ski Tournament

Apr. 4th Fri. Grand Forks Engineers' Day, University

May 17 State-wide Norwegian Independence Day
17 Fargo Northwest Norwegian Whist Tournament
30 Nishu (Old
Fort Berthold) Memorial Day Ceremony
1st wk Fargo May Festival, Agricultural College
2nd wk Zap Lignite Festival
4th wk Grand Forks Interfraternity Sing, University
n f d Fargo Lilac Festival, Agricultural College
n f d Grand Forks May Festival and High School Week,
University
mid month Bismarck State Art Exhibit, Capitol

June 24 St. John St. John's Day
29 Strasburg SS. Peter and Paul's Day
1st wk Williston Upper Missouri Band Tournament
n f d Devils Lake Rhythm Pageant, Deaf School
n f d Devils Lake Governor's Day, Camp Grafton
n f d Fargo North Dakota State Fair
n f d Fargo Valleyland Music Festival
n f d Grand Forks North Dakota State Fair
n f d Grand Forks State Peony Show
n f d Hazelton Emmons County Breeders Association Stock
Show
n f d Nishu Fort Berthold Indian Reservation Mother Corn
Ceremonies
n f d Nishu Fort Berthold Indian Reservation Sage Dance
n f d Turtle Mountain
Reservation Chippewa Indian Sun Dance

July last wk Belcourt St. Ann's Day

Aug. 15 Elbowoods Indian Congress
1st wk Peace Garden Rededication and Highlander's Frolic
n f d Varies Golden Grain Festival

Sept. 1st wk Elbowoods Fort Berthold Indian Reservation Fair
1st wk Fort Totten Indian Agency Fair
1st wk Fort Yates Standing Rock Indian Agency Fair
3rd wk Grand Forks Harvest Festival
4th wk Valley City Barnes County Corn and Lamb Show

Oct. last wk Bismarck State Corn Show
n f d Fargo Harvest Festival, Agricultural Extension
Division
n f d Turtle Mountain
Reservation Indian Fair

Dec. n f d Fargo 4-H Boys and Girls Club Achievement
Institute, Agricultural College
n f d Valley City Ice Carnival

SURVEY OF THE STATE

CONTEMPORARY NORTH DAKOTA

Nothing, probably, arouses the indignation of a loyal North Dakotan or South Dakotan more than hearing his State referred to as "Dakota." Just as an earnest Californian would display indignation at being disposed of as merely a "Westerner", so the man from North Dakota resents having his identity fogged over by the blanket term "Dakotan." And rightfully so; for, while he finds no fault with his neighbors, he is quite different from them, and quite within his rights in insisting on the distinct character of his own State.

The person who asks, "What sort of place is North Dakota?" may get a variety of answers, all of them true, and still be far from a complete picture of the State. He may be told vaguely, "It's out West somewhere," or more specifically, "North Dakota is a wheat State," or "Isn't that where the farmers have this Nonpartisan League?" These answers are only partly correct, for they barely touch on the two major problems, economics and politics, in regard to which North Dakota is now coming of age.

This is a young State. Ruts left by the wagon trains of early explorers, military expeditions, and home seekers have not yet been effaced from the prairies. Red men and white men, who hunted buffalo and fought at the Little Big Horn, who saw the railroads push their gleaming paths across the Plains, who recall a puny young man named Theodore Roosevelt hunting in the Badlands with his short-stocked rifle, still survive to tell their tales. In those fledgling days, the land was rich with promise. Bonanza farms unfolded their ample acres of wheat, thousands of cattle roamed unchecked in the gullies and over the plains of the western counties.

The word spread, and from Europe and the eastern States came men and women to break the new soil. Sod houses and barns and frame homes and windmills set their seal on the prairies. Tons of wheat, thousands of cattle and sheep and horses attested to the fertility of North Dakota.

For more than half a century the soil was exploited recklessly. Then suddenly exhaustion and drought drove home the growing realization that this exploitation could not go on. Water conservation, diversified farming, and dams quickly became part of the agricultural scheme, and are repairing the damage of unthinking abuse. Huge mineral resources have been recognized and are being developed commercially, bringing a new aspect to North Dakota's economy.

Marketing of farm products has had reverberations in the economic life of the State, and has made its people alert to changing social trends. Characteristically, in the eastern portion of the State, where soil is richer, and rainfall more plentiful, the people are more conservative; while to the west, where the climate is more arid and the soil less productive, the "isms" flourish, providing a stronghold for the leftist elements of the State's tumultuous political parties. Because of antagonism to control of early agrarian activities by out-of-State business interests, the Nonpartisan League, with its socialistic platform, was formed, and many of its enterprises have been established, some successfully, some otherwise. Cooperative economy is prominent in the social consciousness of agricultural North Dakota, and such groups as the Farmers' Union emphasize the trend toward cooperatives, strengthening their position by supplying members with purely social activities, as well as with hard economic problems into which to get their teeth.

Freely admitted is the rural character of the State, and there is seldom an attempt to cover native crudities with a veneer of eastern culture. The few writers in the State recognize and honor the possibilities of their native material; and each year finds a scattered handful of books, usually verse, telling of the North Dakota known to them and to seven hundred thousand other North Dakotans.

What is the North Dakota they know? A State of unbounded plains and hills and Badlands--elbowroom. Superb sunsets. High winds and tumbleweed. Farms and plows and sweeping fields. Gophers flashing across the road. Little towns crowded on Saturday night, and busy cities shipping out the products of North Dakota and supplying the needs of the producers. Sudden blinding, isolating blizzards, and soft, fragrant spring days with tiny sprouts of grain peering greenly through the topsoil. Pasque flower and cactus, flame lily, and fields of yellow mustard. The sad, slow wail of a coyote on the still prairie. People--Norwegians, Germans, Russians, Poles, Czechs, Icelanders, but all Americans. Square dances in barn lofts, and college "proms" with corsages and grand marches. Teachers building fires with numbed hands in stoves of icy one-room schools. Men in unaccustomed "best clothes" sitting in majestic legislative halls of a skyscraper statehouse. Political fires, sometimes smouldering, sometimes flaring, always burning.

Endless facets are apparent in the temper and tenor of life, thought, and action of the people of this State, still a new people, pioneers--

"_Brave spirits stirred with strange unrest,
They found broad waters and new lands,
And carved the empires of the west._"

NORTH DAKOTA: ITS NATURAL SETTING

North Dakota is a rectangular area of 70,837 square miles, lying in what the United States Geological Survey has designated the center of the North American Continent. It is approximately 1,500 miles from the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic Archipelago of North America. North to south it extends 210 miles, and east to west an average of 335 miles. On the north are the Provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada; on the east, the Red River of the North and the Bois de Sioux form the boundary between this State and Minnesota; on the south is South Dakota and on the west, Montana.

THE SURFACE OF THE LAND

The land surface resembles three broad steps of prairie, rising a half-mile in altitude from the eastern to the western boundary. The first two steps lie in the Central Lowlands of the Interior Plains, the third in the Great Plains area.

The lowest step is the fertile, floor-like Red River Valley, once the bed of glacial Lake Agassiz. Near the Canadian boundary the valley is about 40 miles wide, but it gradually narrows until near the South Dakota line it is only 10 miles in width. With its northward slope of only about one foot to the mile, an even more gradual eastward slope, and few prominent surface features, the land offers no obstacles to a view across miles of level checkerboard fields. Natural woods grow along the Red River and its winding sluggish tributaries, and farmyard groves dot the landscape.

The Pembina Escarpment, a rise of 300 to 400 feet along the western edge of the valley, defines the beginning of the central surface-step, the Drift Prairie, or Drift Plain. At the northern end of the escarpment, which is a continuation of the Manitoba Escarpment in Canada, lie the wooded Pembina Mountains, jutting sharply above the valley floor. South of these hills the rise is less pronounced except at the southern end, where the hills again become prominent to merge with the Coteau des Prairies, an escarpment lying chiefly in South Dakota.

Glacial deposits, or drift, of finely ground rock, sand, and gravel give the Drift Prairie its name. It is a rolling, fertile plain, varying from 70 to 200 miles in width, and broken by low ridges of hills, shallow coulees, and numerous small lakes. To the northwest lies the Souris River Valley, a small glacial lake bed resembling the Red River Valley. Devils Lake, largest in the State, lies in the northern part of the Drift Prairie, and together with Stump Lake forms the basis of the interior drainage system; near its southern end are the headwaters of the James and Sheyenne Rivers, both flowing southward, the James into the Missouri and the Sheyenne into the Red.

The Missouri Escarpment, rising 300 to 400 feet above the Drift Prairie and cutting across the State diagonally in a northwest-southeast direction, marks the rise of the third surface-step, the Missouri Plateau, which extends west to the Rocky Mountains. Lying along the top of the plateau, in some places not far from the escarpment and at other points 50 miles west of it, is the Altamont Moraine, a belt of rough, stony hills, indicating the farthest advance of the Dakota lobe of the Wisconsin ice sheet. In the north this moraine is a part of the Height of Land forming the watershed between the north-and south-flowing streams of the continent.

Between the escarpment and the Missouri River the plateau is known as the Couteau du Missouri. West of the river it is known locally as the Missouri Slope. The surface of the plateau, typical of the Great Plains, is irregular and rolling, dotted with old lake beds--some of which contain large deposits of sodium sulphate--and underlain with vast lignite beds and valuable clay and bentonite deposits.

In the Missouri Slope is the most unusual area in the State--the Badlands of the Little Missouri. Here erosion has formed, and continues to form, a fantastic array of buttes in which layers of brick-red scoria and gray, blue, and yellow clays are vividly exposed. Abrupt buttes and mesas characterize the landscape, increasing in size and number toward the southwest corner of the State. Among them is Black Butte, 3,468 feet above sea level, the highest point in North Dakota.

CLIMATE

Absence of great variation in physiography gives all portions of the State an almost uniform climate. North Dakota is situated in a temperate region of moderate rainfall, and owing to its position in the center of the North American Interior Plains it has a typically continental climate.

One of the characteristics of such a climate is a wide range of temperature, and to this the State can make good claim. North Dakota has a recorded range from 124° F., registered September 3, 1912 at Medora, to -60° F., recorded February 15, 1936 at Parshall. These temperatures are, of course, unusual, but the mercury often reaches 100° F. during the summer, whereas 30° to 40° F. below zero is not uncommon in winter. The mean temperature for the months of June, July, and August is 65.7° F., and for December, January, and February, 9.7° F. Relatively low humidity, averaging 68 percent, makes these extremes less uncomfortable, however, than if the atmosphere contained more moisture.

The sections of the State vary more in the matter of precipitation than in any other climatic phase. The average is about 18 inches annually, ranging from about 22 inches in the southeastern corner to about 14 inches in the southwestern corner. Most of the precipitation occurs in the late spring and summer. During the period of 1925-34, three years had a rainfall in excess of normal, and seven were deficient in precipitation.

Long and severe winters are typical of this region. Nevertheless the summers, though comparatively short, are favorable for agriculture, owing to the long hours of sunshine. At the maximum, about June 21, there are as many as 16 hours of sunlight a day; and this, together with cloudless skies, contributes to the rapid growth and early maturity of crops.

HOW THE LAND WAS FORMED

The surface of North Dakota, comparatively unvaried, is no more simple than the geological pattern that lies beneath it. Deposited by the seas of three geologic ages, horizontal layers of rock top each other in methodical and unintricate succession.

In far-off Paleozoic times, when all creatures of the earth were invertebrates, strange shellfish, unlike any existing today, lived among the rich foliage at the bottom of the shallow sea that covered this region. Hundreds of varieties of fossil plants and shells are embedded in the sandstone, limestone, and shale which the sea deposited on the uneven surface of the then-existent crystalline rocks. These Paleozoic rocks have been encountered in deep wells in eastern North Dakota, although nowhere in the State are they found at the surface.

Toward the close of the Paleozoic era, changing climatic conditions caused the death of many forms of life upon the earth, and the development of new and hardier types. With these, in the Mesozoic era, came the new lords of the earth, the reptiles. Much of the globe from the Arctic Ocean to New Mexico was covered by a great sea on whose swampy shores huge dinosaurs, alligators, and crocodiles made their homes. Largest of these grotesque creatures was the brontosaurus, with his long snakelike neck and face and huge body. Struggling with him for supremacy of the swamps was the armored stegosaurus, whose row of vertical plates along his backbone from head to tip of tail made him a formidable enemy. Among the plant and animal life that throve on the sea bottom were shellfish three feet or more in diameter.

The earliest seas of the Mesozoic era deposited the Dakota sandstone that underlies all of the State except the Red River Valley. It is a soft white or gray stone, containing many marine fossils. Although it does not appear at the surface anywhere in the State, it has been studied from specimens obtained from deep wells here or from outcroppings in other States.

Many rivers flowing into the prehistoric seas brought mud and clay to mix with the soils of the sea bottom, forming the shales that today underlie most of the Great Plains, including North Dakota. The lowest of these, Benton shale, is dark gray, almost jet black in places, and contains bits of pyrite (fool's gold) and gypsum. Over it lies the bluish-gray Niobrara shale, in which natural cement is found. In the Pembina Mountains and the Sheyenne Valley, where these rocks appear at the surface, they have yielded shells of lamellibranchs (ancestors of today's clams and oysters) and bones of great sharklike fish. Over these two strata lies the Pierre shale deposit, dark bluish-gray in color. It is frequently seen in the valleys of streams east of the Missouri Plateau, but outcrops in only two places west of the Missouri Escarpment--where the Missouri leaves the State, and in the valley of the Little Beaver Creek in southwestern North Dakota. In it have been found fossils of the chambered nautilus, the oyster, and other marine animals, the crocodile, and the plesiosaur--that ungainly reptile which had "the body of a turtle strung on a snake."

Once again the sea covered the State and left the rust-colored Fox Hills sandstone, which is particularly conspicuous along the Cannonball River where action of underground water has formed it into the rusty-looking spheres which give the river its name. Similarly formed cylinders of this sandstone in concretionary form are also found along the stream, and large cylinders protrude from the top of Cannon Butte in the Badlands like the barrels of cannon from the turret of a huge battleship.

Near the close of the Mesozoic era, the climate of North Dakota became warmer, almost like that of the South Atlantic States. Through the swamps roamed horned carnivorous dinosaurs, especially triceratops, which had "the largest head with the smallest brain of the reptile race."

Again and again the sea invaded this swampland, depositing the Lance formation, comprising layers of massive sandstone and shale in which the luxuriant plant life of the area created thin beds of lignite coal. The Lance formation underlies most of the Missouri Plateau, and comes to the surface in two places--in the vicinity of Bismarck, and near Marmarth. Reptilian fossils are found in both the lignite and the intervening layers of rock.

At the dawn of the Cenozoic age, as mammalian life began to develop on the globe, another invasion of the sea left behind it a great plateau interspersed with swamps, marshlands, rivers, and lakes. On the plain grew giant sequoia, cypress, juniper, and other semitropical trees. Over the thick mat of mosses, lichens, and liverwort in the swamps crept turtles, alligators, lizards, and other reptiles, monstrous in size. King of this jungle was the titanothere, with its great body, short stocky neck, and columnar legs. Long-jawed shaggy mastodons and gigantic rhinoceroses challenged its supremacy. As these titans of the forest lumbered through the underbrush, herds of _Merycoidodon culbertsoni_ or ruminating hogs, _Leptomeryx evansi_, dainty deerlike creatures no larger than jack rabbits, and little three-toed horses scampered out of their way.

The Fort Union formation, created through successive fresh water deposits of sediment in the swamps, contained vast quantities of rank swamp vegetation. In the intervening millions of years this has been turned into lignite, a very soft coal which has become North Dakota's most valuable mineral resource. The lignite veins in the formation indicate that the sea covered this area at least eleven times during the period when the formation was being deposited. In addition to lignite, the Fort Union clay shales and sandstones contain pure plastic clay beds and some bentonite, a claylike mineral of commercial value.

The recession of the seas left a broad and gently rolling plain cut by sluggish rivers whose wooded valleys were inhabited by the descendants of the great swamp beasts. When the waters again invaded the plain, the bones of these monsters were embedded in the deposits which became the White River formation, youngest bedrock underlying the State. So numerous are the fossil remains in the lower White River beds that these strata are called the titanothere beds. Fossils are found throughout the formation, however, ranging from mammal bones to the remains of fish and turtles. Erosion has worn away much of the White River formation in North Dakota, but it is conspicuously revealed on the summits of White or Chalky Butte, Sentinel Butte, Black Butte, and the Killdeer Mountains, and also in a few other small isolated areas in the Missouri Slope.

Gradually, during the time these formations were being laid down, the winters of this region were becoming more and more severe. Masses of ice moved slowly southward from the Arctic Region, covering much of the land and transforming the nearby forests, meadows, and swamps into a treeless plain of black mucky soil with a permanently frozen subsoil overgrown with moss, lichens, and dwarf shrubs. Fierce wintry storms took their toll of the mammoths, rhinoceroses, and reindeer living upon the tundras.

As the glaciers moved south, the animals were forced to flee to warmer lands. Soon the ice mass had covered all of North Dakota except a very small region in the southwest corner beyond the Killdeer Mountains. When at length it receded, it left in its wake boulders, gravel, and till--a drift soil composed of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders. Much of this now has been worn away; on the west side of the Missouri only a few scattered areas remain, and on the east side the till, though more continuous, is often merely a veneer a few feet in thickness.

The early glacier was followed by the Wisconsin ice sheet, the Dakota lobe of which covered a large part of this State, pushing back the Missouri River, which had previously flowed north into Hudson Bay, into its present channel.

Eventually this glacier, too, melted and receded, leaving a great lake about 650 feet deep, nearly 700 miles long, and 200 miles wide, with an area of not less than 110,000 square miles, including the region now known as the Red River Valley. This lake has been named Lake Agassiz, in honor of Louis Agassiz, first prominent advocate of the theory that drift was formed by land ice. Lake Agassiz existed some 10,000 years ago, lasted for probably 1,000 years, and covered an area greater than the present Great Lakes. Its sole remnants today are Lakes Winnipeg, Winnipegosis, and Manitoba, and Lake of the Woods.

Productive soil and ground water, closely allied resources, are North Dakota's greatest assets. The Wisconsin glacier and Lake Agassiz are largely responsible for the fertile soils that cover three-fifths of the State's surface. Through the Red River Valley the lake left a fine claylike silt 20 to 30 feet deep. The successive shore lines of the lake, showing its gradual recession, can be plainly seen in the ridges of sand and gravel that rise 10 to 25 feet along the western edge of the valley. Also on the west border of the valley are three extensive sand plains, the deltas of the Pembina, Sheyenne, and Elk Rivers, formed by glacial debris mingled with river silt. The Souris glacial lake bed, in the loop of the present Souris River, resembles the Red River Valley in geological history, but covers a much smaller area.

Immediately under the silt of the old lake beds and on the surface of the Drift Prairie is glacial drift or till. In much of the southwestern part of the State, particularly along the western tributaries of the Missouri, there are no glacial deposits; the topsoil is composed largely of shale and sandstone, and, though not so fertile as the old lake beds and glacial plains to the east, provides fine range country.

NATURAL RESOURCES

Especially valuable to those who depend on the land for their livelihood are the numerous artesian wells and natural springs which furnish necessary water supplies. The artesian basin on the southern border of the State and extending into South Dakota has been designated by a Federal authority as the most important in America and probably in the world.

People of the State have been awakened in recent years to a consciousness of the need for water conservation. Long abuse of seemingly unlimited artesian supplies resulted in lessening pressure in the wells. Simultaneously, drought, high winds, and the broken unwooded plains conspired to deplete the surface waters left by rains and winter snows. Within 20 years one-third of the lakes in North Dakota became extinct.

To counteract these disastrous effects, a program of Federal, State, and private water and soil conservation has begun. Trees are being planted to hold the soil and conserve the moisture of rain and snow. A program of dam construction is under way in every county in the State. Dry-land farming and supplemental irrigation have been adopted to conserve the soil and return to it the elements which it has lost through constant cultivation.

North Dakota is indebted to the ancient seas and glaciers not only for the fertility of its soil but also for many of its most important mineral resources. Almost inexhaustible is the vast supply of lignite, estimated at 600 billion tons, which underlies the western half of the State. The veins, once the luxuriant plant life of a far distant age, vary from a fraction of an inch to 40 feet in thickness.

The southwestern corner of the State contains excellent beds of clay, deposited by the seas and now used for building materials and pottery. Two beds in the Dickinson vicinity, each containing approximately 29 million cubic yards, yield the finest clays in the State. A layer of yellow sand clay overlies the whitish plastic variety here; the two combine to form a number of colors, and have the added advantage of being free from iron. Plastic clay beds of importance, although not so valuable commercially as the Dickinson deposits, are found throughout the southwestern corner of the State. They yield one of the rarest and most valuable types of clay for pottery and other specialized purposes. Shales found near the western clay beds are used in the manufacture of cheaper building materials.

The discovery of two large bentonite fields in southwestern North Dakota in 1930 opened up a new mineral resource. This claylike mineral is used as a binding agent and filler in many commercial processes, such as the manufacture of soaps, paints, and cosmetics. The larger deposit--in the Little Badlands--covers 25 square miles and contains about 100 million tons of the mineral, while the Chalky Butte deposit near Amidon contains about 60 million tons. The beds are easily accessible, being uncovered in many places.

Extensive sodium sulphate deposits have been formed in old lake beds in the northwestern corner of the State, where the mineral-bearing waters have evaporated, leaving a deposit of sodium sulphate crystals. North of the town of Grenora, 1,150 acres are covered with sodium sulphate beds ranging from a few inches to more than 30 feet in depth. Miller, North, and McKone Lakes, near Alkabo, contain more than 20 million tons. Sodium sulphate, also known as Glauber's salt, is commercially valuable, especially in the pulp and paper industries. Owing to lack of knowledge of its existence in this country, it has been imported largely from Canada.

Although geologists have doubted that oil exists in commercial quantities in North Dakota, considerable interest has been shown in the wells near Marmarth in the southwestern corner of the State. Their proximity to the Montana oil fields increases the possibility of the success of these wells. Much interest has also been shown in the development of a potential oil field south of Ray in northwestern North Dakota.

Hidden beneath the earth's surface are other minerals deposited during the geologic formation of the various strata. These include fuller's earth, sandstone, granite, gneiss, and gold; but because of their limited quantity and inaccessibility, they are commercially unimportant. The glacial deposits are important because they include the sand and gravel used extensively for road surfacing. Some of the eastern lake beds contain marl, a clay from which Portland cement is made. The extent and purity of the deposits are not definitely known. (For discussion of industrial development of mineral resources see INDUSTRY AND LABOR.)

PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE

North Dakota falls into three distinct zones of plant and animal life: the Turtle Mountain region and a few scattered areas in the Canadian, or cold, zone; the Missouri and Little Missouri Valleys in the upper austral, or warmer, zone; and the remainder of the State in the transition zone.

Because of its semiarid climate, the State has only 600 square miles of wooded area. Native forests are found chiefly along streams and lakes, and in the Turtle and Killdeer Mountains. Despite the limited forested area, a surprising variety of trees is found. Throughout the Red River Valley, Turtle Mountains, and Devils Lake region plant life is similar to the Minnesota type, while such trees as the elm, green ash, box elder, poplar, and cottonwood are also common.

Although the cottonwood's ability to withstand drought makes it one of the most desirable species of trees in North Dakota, efforts are being made in many towns to eradicate the tree because of the ubiquitous soft white "cotton" which floats from its branches like summer flurries of snow.

During the fall and early winter, the thickets of the northern Red River Valley are aflame with the highbush cranberry, which lent its Indian name to Pembina, first permanent white settlement in the State. Other berries grow profusely along all the eastern streams, and many families assure themselves of a winter supply of jams and jellies by picking the June berries, chokecherries, wild plums, and wild grapes. In the woods along the Missouri and Little Missouri grow trees of the Missouri type--the broadleaf cottonwoods, willows, ash, elm, buffalo berry, and flowering currant. A trace of the Rocky Mountain type of forest is found in the Badlands and on the buttes of the Little Missouri, where the yellow pine and red cedar grow.

Not only trees but other forms of vegetation differ widely from the eastern to the western sections of the State. The long Indian-grass and blue grass typical of the east is replaced on the western ranges by short buffalo grass and grama grass, the two forming a dense mat over the ground. Due to differences in rainfall, the western grasses are much duller and more grayish in color than those of the eastern section.

From early spring to the first frosts of autumn, thousands of wild flowers brighten the prairies. Many species are general throughout the State, while others are typical only of certain sections. Before the last patches of snow are gone, the blue-gray pasque flower, so like the crocus that it is often called by that name, appears on the rolling prairies and the northern slopes of hills. It is soon followed by the wild parsley, Nuttall's or yellow violet, and the vivid plumes of the purple avens. Most of the spring flowers are of soft, delicate hues, such as the white meadow rue, parsley, false-Solomon's-seal, silverberry, squaw-weeds, meadow parsnip, blue-eyed-grass, and harebell.

With the coming of midsummer, the colors become more brilliant. The fragrant prairie rose, the State flower, blossoms profusely in fields and along roadsides. The showy oxeye or false-sunflower, the flaming prairie mallow, wild blue and yellow flax, the vivid flame lily, the purple coneflower, and the black-eyed Susan emblazon the summer fields. Along the Pembina and Sheyenne Rivers, and in Sully's Hill National Game Preserve, grow the wintergreen and ladyslipper. Water lilies float on pools and shallow streams in the western part of the State. In the Badlands grow the rabbit brush, butte primrose, false-lupine, and prickly pear, and the scoria lily which resembles a thistle during the day and opens its fragile, waxy petals only after the sun has gone down.

Yellow is the color of the prairies in autumn, as amid the fading foliage the goldenrod, sunflower, aster, and blazing star dominate the scene.

Some wild flowers, such as the wild morning-glory, are so common that they are regarded as weeds. These are not so obnoxious to the farmer, however, as the Russian-thistle, pigeon grass, quack grass, pigweed, mustard, burdock, and sow thistle which often invade the grainfields. The seeds of most of these plants were brought in with seed grain from European countries, and their eradication is a difficult process. Another obnoxious plant, against which a strong campaign has been conducted by farmers, is the common barberry, on which thrive the parasitic fungi that cause wheat rust. Many weeds, however, are considered a valuable asset to the fields and pasture lands where they grow. These include the American vetch or wild sweet pea, which forms an important addition to hay, and the white and violet prairie clovers, which, although too tough to be used for fodder, serve to enrich the soil.

When the first settlers came to this section of the country, they described the land as being covered with innumerable varieties of wild flowers. Since that time, cultivation and drought have changed the picture. Efforts to preserve the native plant life in its natural setting have met with cooperation from Federal and State agencies alike. The reserves that have been established are also sanctuaries for bird and animal life, upon which recent drought and severe winters have had a disastrous effect.

Under the auspices of the State game and fish commission, 2,700 acres of land have been set aside as five game and fish farms, while 240,000 acres of privately owned land have been designated as game refuges. The Federal Government has established some 60 sanctuaries on 225,000 acres, of which about 90,000 acres are privately owned.

Animal life zones in the State are more marked than are plant life zones. The woods of the Turtle Mountains, at the meeting point of the Canadian and transition zones, abound with wild life of both regions. More than 300 varieties of game and song birds live here, including the Dakota song sparrow, the black-billed cuckoo, the oriole, and the blue jay. In the deserted holes of badgers, foxes, and gophers live those queer prairie birds, the burrowing owls. Grebe, ducks, geese, heron, and occasionally swan inhabit the lakes of the region. Deer, red fox, rabbits, red squirrels and northern chipmunks are common; and at night the bright-eyed, mousy Richardson shrew and the silver-haired bat can be seen. Lynx are occasionally reported.

In the Red River Valley and the central prairies of the State, once the scene of buffalo hunts, very little large game is found today. A few buffalo remain in Sully's Hill National Game Preserve, and in the Sheyenne Valley and the Pembina Mountains deer are still found. Game birds abound in this region, however, and with the restoration of their breeding places they are now being propagated in huge numbers on the many reserves.

Early travelers in the western part of the State were astonished by the prairie-dog villages which dotted the country. Some of these villages still exist, in the extreme western sections. Their inhabitants are typical of the upper austral zone, as are also the coyotes whose long melancholy wail can be heard across the prairie at twilight or daybreak. Chipmunks, squirrels, gophers and ferrets also make their homes here. Along the Missouri and in the forested areas of the Badlands are both white-tailed and mule deer. The one bird peculiar to the austral zone is the sage-hen; and the American magpie, commonly seen here, is rare in other parts of the State.

Birds such as the robin, sparrow, blackbird, swallow, horned lark, and meadow lark are common to the entire State. The lark is one of the early spring comers, and its clear sweet whistle can be heard when the prairies are just beginning to turn green.

One of the most common animals in the State is Richardson's ground squirrel, otherwise known as the gopher or "flickertail." It is from this tiny, agile, yellow creature that North Dakota gets its name of "the Flickertail State." Another familiar prairie animal is the jack rabbit.

Fish life, like that of plants and animals, has been adversely affected by recent droughts, but efforts are being made to propagate fish and to provide sufficient water for their existence. In the larger lakes and rivers, perch, black and rock bass, pickerel, pike, sunfish, and catfish are found. Some landlocked salmon have been introduced, but they are not adapted to North Dakota lakes and streams. Suckers and carp are common but they are not considered desirable game fish.

INDIANS AND THEIR PREDECESSORS

PREHISTORIC MAN IN NORTH DAKOTA

Just when and where in the shadowy, endless past the Indians of North Dakota, or even of the two Americas, began to break away from the parent stem is not known. Weapons and tools shaped from stone and found in strata that settled into place near the end of the Pleistocene, or glacial, period indicate that as much as 15,000 to 20,000 years ago men wandered along the rivers and through the swamps of those areas that later became New Mexico, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Very probably, in long hunts after game, parties of these men penetrated what is now North Dakota. Stone tools and weapons found in the vicinity of Bismarck suggest an early occupation of the area, how long ago no one knows.

A great many years nearer the present day, but still possibly a thousand or more years ago, men were digging busily in the flint quarries 19 miles north of Hebron and 12 miles northwest of Dodge and at other points on the Knife River. With the flint obtained here they fashioned arrowheads and spear points to kill buffalo or to protect their homes against enemy tribesmen. One of these heavily sodded sites on the Knife River contains more than 300 pits, most of which are from 8 to 10 feet across, and from 3 to 5 feet deep.

The extensive mounds and earthworks found in the eastern half of North Dakota have been only imperfectly investigated so far, partly because archeologists have but recently recognized the possibilities of the area. The skeletons and the bone and stone manufactured articles lately discovered, however, as well as the general finds of the region, suggest the probability of outlining tribal movements of importance. There is an increasing suggestion that before the time of the historic tribes the prairies of the eastern half of the State supported large populations. It is thought that, just as the Cheyenne are known to have done in the historic period, in prehistoric time the Assiniboin and the Blackfeet, and preceding them still other tribes, carried on a settled agricultural life before they became nomadic. Of course the movements of these tribes were not confined entirely to what is now North Dakota.

Perhaps hundreds of years after the construction of the mounds in the eastern half of the State--possibly from one to four hundred years ago--some tribe or tribes, probably the Sioux or certain of the village-building Indians, were putting together the turtle effigies frequently encountered on the hills west of the Missouri, and constructing the more widespread and better-known boulder-ring effigies. The purpose of these crude outlines on the prairie is not definitely known. Because the turtle plays a prominent part in medicine ceremonies of the Mandan Indians, some think the turtle effigies were made to win the favor of certain spirits. Others claim they were made to point the weary Indian to good water--a theory which may also apply to a number of the cairns occasionally seen piled on the tops of high hills. Other cairns are ceremonial or commemorative.

Boulder rings, which sometimes appear in large numbers but more often present only one or two specimens in a given location, were once thought to be tipi rings. The fact that many of them appear on the sides and tops of hills has discredited this assumption, however.

Veneration of the so-called sacred stones of the State probably began in the effigy-building period, but the origin of the very interesting writing rocks (_see Side Tours 3B, 4A, 8A, and 8C_) is undoubtedly far more ancient. The significance of the markings on these rocks has not yet been determined.

THE COMING OF THE NORTH DAKOTA INDIAN TRIBES

About the time the earlier turtle effigies were made--perhaps 200 years ago--in permanent villages of earth lodges in the valley of the Missouri dwelt a most interesting group of people, raising many cultivated plants, building fortified towns, and in general living a rather ordered existence. These were the Mandan, as far as is definitely known the first of the historic tribes to enter the State. Their exact origin is not clear. Certain of their traditions claim that they long ago lived in the East near a great body of water--most authorities suggest the East Coast or Gulf of Mexico.

At any rate, many generations before the coming of the whites, the Mandan--probably crowded by other tribes--began to wander westward. Apparently their long trek finally brought them and their wives and children to the junction of the White River with the Missouri in what is now South Dakota. Grass-grown sites of their old villages along the benchland of the river show how these people, in quest of a new and more satisfactory home, moved northward in successive migrations until in time they arrived at the mouth of the Heart River in the neighborhood of present Mandan and Bismarck. Here they probably remained for generations, carrying on a settled agricultural life. They were visited by the Verendryes in 1738 (_see Tour 8_), at which time they had six large, well-fortified villages. Estimates of their number at this time have ranged from 2,500 to 15,000.