More About Cross Ranch

July 23, 2009

This photo shows we are properly situated in the Campground Host site. The electric truck is our work vehicle and the car is a new Hyundai with only 4,000 miles on it. We rented it at Enterprise in Bismark for $600 for the month. The fifth wheel belongs to Lyle and Liz Hendrickson who generously let us use it while our motor home is being worked on. It is a 1997 Terry, but everything in it works just great. They came with us last Monday to help park and set it up for us. They plan to come down to the park again and spend a few days when we get our motor home, hopefully next week.

This entire park consists of a first growth of cottonwood trees and the trunks appear to be 12 to 18 inches in diameter. Chip told us that cottonwood trees will only grow where there is no flooding. Since the Garrison Dam was completed in 1956, this stand of cottonwoods must be over 50 years old. Coming along behind the cottonwoods are ash and elm trees.

The cottonwood is a large shallow-rooted tree with waxy, heart-shaped leaves that make a unique rustling sound in the wind, similar to the related quaking aspen. For thousands of years the cottony seeds germated in the thin layers of mud left behind when the Missouri River overflowed its banks in the spring. The Oahe and Garrison Dams not only drowned vast stands of cottonwoods, but also made it difficult for the seed to germinate in fresh mud.

Smith Grove a few miles south of here is one of the few remaining old-growth cottonwoods in North Dakota. Some of the trees here have diameters up to seven feet and are estimated to be 275 years old. When Lewis and Clark arrived here 205 years ago, these trees must have looked like the ones we are looking at in Cross Ranch. [Geology of the Lewis and Clark Trail, by Hoganson and Murphy, pp. 90 & 93]

Hoganson and Murphy go on to say that Cross Ranch SP is one of the best places to experience the pristine nature of the Missouri River. When one drives out of the park, he quickly gets into the glaciated, rolling topography of the region.

Today there was a visitor from state headquarters who is a tree expert. Risk management people requested her to visit all the state parks and assess each tree. I asked her how she does that and she said there are ten factors to consider as she examines each tree. Then she rates the tree in general from one to ten and submits a report. The tens get marked for coming down and, depending on the size, maintenance staff does it or they hire it out to contractors who can bring in a cherry picker to take a tree out from the top down. Looking out the window of our RV, we can see a dead cottonwood with a trunk of about 15 inches which we hope our tree lady rated a 10.

As the tree lady goes from park to park, she brings her daughters with and they camp and ride their bikes. What a great way to spend the summer!

We earned our keep today and got our three hours logged. Lois likes to drive that electric vehicle.