Fort Ransom State Park

August 19, 2009

Fort Ransom State Park is nestled in the Sheyenne River Valley and is a beautiful place -- away from the traffic patterns of North Dakota, especially I-29 and I-94. The park has almost 800 acres and consists of two farms which were deeded to the state and some other valley land. The Sheyenne River runs alongside or through the park. Also North Dakota’s first nationally designated scenic drive -- The Sheyenne River Valley Scenic Byway -- goes right by the park.

The photo shows the Visitor Center, known as the Bjone House, built by Nels Olson in 1879 and inhabited by the Bjone Family until 1976. It was also the site of the first Lutheran services (1882) in the area before the Standing Rock Norwegian Evangelical[Lutheran] Church got built.

The second farm was first homesteaded by Andrew Sunne in 1884 and this is the location of the park’s biggest event -- Sodbuster Days -- celebrated in second weekend of July and the weekend after Labor Day in September. This event draws thousands of visitors who want to see how farming was done with horse-drawn equipment. Both houses have rooms of very interesting historical exhibits.

We met with park director John Kwapinski today who has been here almost from the beginning. We are looking forward to working with him. He’ll give us specific duties in a few days. In the meantime, he encouraged us to continue getting acquainted with the area.

The park offers many opportunities for hiking. It also offers canoeing and kayaking on the Sheyenne, where park rangers, for a modest fee, transport upstream by road to various points, depending on how much time one wishes to spend on the water. Then, at the visitor center, your vehicle is waiting as you pull out at a well-built dock.

Village of Fort Ransom

August 19, 2009

The Village of Fort Ransom was established in 1878 with the opening of J.D. Curries’ General Store. Today it’s population is 106 and, at its peak, the population could have been 200 in the 1920’s when business was good.

We think Fort Ransom is a delightful town - very quaint and friendly. The first night here we went into the convenience store for a bag of ice and ended up visiting with the owners, Dave and Linda, for an hour. Last night, we attended “Buck Night” at the bar; all beer and hamburgers are $1 and people pack the place all evening. People say hi even if they do not know you. We had a good time.

The Village of Fort Ransom never had a railroad to help it grow -- no grain elevator either. It did have a bank some years ago. The only gas station is the convenience store with a single pump outside. It is amazing that the village survived at all. It should have been on the list of 1,000 North Dakota ghost towns.

But the Norwegians saved the day. They settled in here like a bunch of bees on a flower blossom. The terrain is hilly in the Sheyenne River valley. There is even a ski lift just outside of town. It must be like Norway.

In the photo above, what you see is pretty much what there is of the village. The building on the right has wifi -- a restaurant called the Roadhouse. The building on the left is the town’s only pub and it also has wifi. Not shown is the convenience store, owned by Dave and Tine who will visit and talk while they sell you something. It’s all very friendly, so what more do you need?

Geology of Ft. Ransom

August 20, 2009

Ft. Ransom and the surrounding area is a huge glacial meltwater trench as the photo above shows. About 25,000 years ago, this part of North Dakota was covered by the vast Wisconsin Glacier which included almost all of Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin as well as eastern North Dakota. According to Elwyn B. Robinson, in History of North Dakota, the retreating glacier left sand dunes in Ransom County as well as cutting trenches or valleys to enable the water to run off.

The Sheyenne River valley was one of those trenches and continues to flow to the south east in this region. After it reaches Lisbon ND, the river turns to the east and then to the northeast where it runs into the Red River of the North near Fargo.

The Sheyenne River drained water from the glacial Lake Souris in Central North Dakota and carried it to the glacial Lake Agassiz which was located a short distance east of here. At that time the water filled the valley, shown above, covering a mile wide and over 300 feet deep. The valley you see in the photo is all Ft. Ransom State Park.

Other evidence of glacial activity in the area is the array of large rocks and boulders when are stewn all over the landscape.

The Writing Rock

August 18, 2009

Across from Fort Ransom in North Dakota, there is this informative interpretative plaque that tells of a big rock which rests over the ridge in the distance. It has script-like markings on it and it is called “The Writing Rock” -- the subject of much speculation and debate.

Geologists believe that water has etched the stone or that receding glaciers ground striations into the rock many centuries ago. Others are convinced that the markings are the work of prehistoric people who lived here between 5,000 and 9,000 years ago. With imaginative interpretation they see animals and other figures in the rock. These marks have never been deciphered.

Native American legends tell about this rock also in imaginative ways:

“Late at night, a water spirit would emerge from the Sheyenne River and write messages on the rock for the Dakota Tribes. If a girl caught a glimpse of the spirit she would have many admirers from the most desireable men of the tribe. If it were a man, he would become and expert hunter and warrior or leader.

The next night, spirits sould erase the old message and write a new one. After white settlers arrived, the spirits did not return.”

Fort Ransom

August 18, 2009

The dry moat, depressions in the ground and flag pole in the middle of a small field is all that is left of Fort Ransom. Ransom was a Union Officer in the Civil War who had no connection to North Dakota. The site was selected because it had good water and the hills nearby offered observation opportunities for miles around. The only advantage of having a fort on this frontier was its deterrent effect. Many times, if the Native Americans were intent on malfeasance, the U. S. Army could observe movements, but never get to the place to do anything about it.

That’s North Dakota. One can see for miles out here, but it takes a long time to get to what you were just looking at, even with modern transportation.

The fort was built at a place called Grizzly Bear Hill, a site chosen by Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry. It was named in honor of Major General Thomas E.G. Ransom of the U.S. Volunteers. Ransom distinguished himself during the Civil War.

On June 17, 1867, a battalion of the 10th U.S. Infantry, commanded by Brevet Major George H. Crosman, arrived from Fort Wadsworth. Soldiers began work on enclosing a breastwork and completed it by August. Oak logs Fort Ransom from the nearby Sheyenne River Valley were used to construct the post. The buildings were arranged within the earthen breastworks in a square, measuring 350 by 400 feet.

Survival and everyday life at this military post, like any frontier settlement, was a constant struggle. Captain Crosman wrote about his experiences at Fort Ransom in a letter written on October 9, 1895.

"We lost no officers or men by Indians. The Indian troubles were then on the Missouri and west of it. No officers died or were killed while I was at Fort Ransom. "During the five years 1867-1872, there were five deaths from natural causes at the fort and the two Indian mail carriers who froze to death on the trail.

Captain Crosman continued: "The character of the weather was, I presume, about as it is now. During the summr the weather was not unpleasantly hot, but the mosquitoes were something terrific. In all my experience in Texas, Louisiana and other places, I never saw anything to compare to the mosquitoes in Dakota; they actually made life a burden. The winters were very severe, the thermometers froze every year. After the snow fell at Fort Ransom, we were actually shut in from the world entirely; our own communication with the outside world was made by Indians in government employ, on snowshoes who carried our mail to and from Abercrombie… ...

“In the fall of 1867 while the command was still in camp, we had a very serious prairie fire. It came from the west and traveled with the speed and noise of several railroad trains. Subsequently I took occasion of visiting Indian chiefs to inquire about the fire. I was told they had no knowledge or tradition of such a terrible fire. Of course I had the whole garrison turned out with their blankets to fight the fire, but that would have been of no avail, if the wind, fortu- nately, had not veered around a little just before the fire approached the camp, and saved us." The fire destroyed their hay and wood supply for the winter.

As a result a small town of 100 two miles north took the name Fort Ransom. A state park one mile further north also took the name. And the county called itself Ransom. It’s a beautiful place.

Meriwether Lewis' Wonder Dog

August 15, 2009

Chip Cartwright has prepared a program based on his research into the Lewis & Clark Corps of discovery from 1804 to 1806. For some unknown reason, Lewis had purchased a Newfoundland puppy for $20 (Newfies would cost over $1,000 today) and decided to bring the dog along on this 2.5 year expedition.

The photo shows a larger-than-life sculpture of the dog which is located at Ft. Mandan, near Washburn ND. Newfoundland dogs are large enough, up to 29 inches high and 150 lbs. in weight. They have been described as the “most majestic of the canine varieties.”

The name of Lewis’ dog has long been a source of confusion. The journals of the Lewis & Clark party are filled with misspellings and poor pensmanship. For over 180 years the dog’s name was thought to be “Scannon.” Finally, in 1987, the dog’s name was proven to be “Seaman.” One thing that has been known for a long time was the fact that Seaman was born in 1802 which means he was two years old when he started out with Lewis & Clark.

Seaman was more than a pet; he proved to be a good hunter on the expedition. Chip took us through a number of journal references which described what Seaman had hunted for the party. On different occasions, he caught squirrel, deer, antelope, beaver and geese, which the men enjoyed for dinner. Incredible as that sounds, it was the method Seaman used that seemed to be effective.

Seaman caught his prey in the Missouri River. In those days the game was sighted swimming in the Missouri River, even squirrels which we do not think of as amphibious types. Seaman was encouraged to jump into the water after the sighted prey. He would drown the game and bring it back to the boat, where the men fished it out of the water.

There was some danger involved. One time a beaver bit Seaman and punctured an artery, causing severe bleeding. There was great concern over Seaman’s ability to pull through. The journals recount other occasions when Seaman encountered a grizzly bear, but he never did more than bark a lot. There was one time that Seaman took off and stayed overnight. Another time Seaman was stolen or lured away with food by Native Americans. Lewis sent a party out to get the dog back.

The last journal of July 15, 1806, stated, “Nobody knows what happened to the dog.”

However, it is an accepted historical fact that Seaman finished the trip, but what finally happened to Seaman is not so clear. In 1814 a dog collar identifying the wearer as Lewis’ dog was found in a museum in Alexandria VA. Another curious fact is that large dog bones were found on top of Meriwether Lewis’ grave where he was buried on the Natchez Trace south of Nashville TN in 1809. It is believed that Seaman was with his master when he died and that Seaman also died of grief on top of his master’s grave.

Marvelous Medora

August 16, 2009

No trip to North Dakota would be complete without a stop at Medora, off I-94 on the western boundary of the state. Lois and I spent a long weekend there in 2006 so we decided to forego another visit there. The photo shows one of the chefs preparing their famous steak fondu on a pitchfork [pitch forks have three tynes and manure forks have five FYI.] We did enjoy that and the Medora show afer dinner.

The town of Medora was founded in April 1883 by a 24-year-old French nobleman, the Marquis de Mores. He named the town for his bride, the former Medora von Hoffman, daughter of a wealthy New York City banker.

The valley of the Little Missouri had been the scene of varied activity long before the arrival of the Marquis. Native Americans had hunted the area for many generations, an example later followed by early white explorers and frontiersmen. General Alfred Sully fought the Sioux in 1864 a few miles south of the present site of Medora, in what became known as "The Battle of the Badlands." Lieutenant-Colonel George Custer passed through in 1876 on his fatal march west to the Little Bighorn.

The Marquis de Mores had financial backing from his father-in-law and he founded the town of Medora east of the river, building a meat packing plant, a hotel, stores, and a large home (Chateau de Mores) overlooking his new town. This house is open for tours. Despite the vision and energy of the Marquis, all of his various enterprises ended in financial failure by the fall of 1886. With their son and daughter, the Marquis and Marquise returned to France, where another son was to be born. The Marquis continued his visionary and adventurous lifestyle around the world until he was killed by native tribesmen on the Sahara Desert in Africa in June 1896. His widow, Medora, never remarried, and died in France in 1921.

Another colorful individual drawn to this area was a young New York politician named Theodore Roosevelt. He first arrived to hunt buffalo in September 1883, immediately fell in love with the land, and invested in cattle raising. He would eventually own two large ranches - the Maltese Cross, about seven miles south of Medora, and the Elkhorn, about 35 miles north of town. In 1901 Roosevelt, at age 42, became the youngest president in U.S. history, serving until 1909. He called his years in the badlands "the romance of my life," and often credited his Dakota experiences with enabling him to become president.

Other notable individuals have also called Medora their home. The three Eaton brothers began entertaining eastern visitors at their Custer Trail Ranch about five miles south of Medora in 1883, and the first "dude ranch" in the United States was soon in full operation. Tom Mix, who became a great western movie star, married Miss Olive Stokes in Medora on January 10, 1909. James W. Foley, Jr., whose father was caretaker of the Chateau de Mores for many years, grew to manhood and taught school at Medora. It was here that he began writing poetry that would make him a nationally acclaimed literary figure and North Dakota's Poet Laureate. By the time of his death in 1939, Jim Foley had published more than a dozen volumes of poetry.

There is lots to see and do in Medora and we nearly did it all. The Medora Musical and Pitchfork Fondue are at the top of the list. Then there is the Theodore Roosevelt Natioal Park, The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame [we spent three hours looking things over here], Chateau de Mores, the Harold Schafer Heritage Center and the Roughrider Hotel.

A Man Called York

August 14, 2009

Story teller Chip Cartwright presented an historical portrayal of the slave who accompanied Lewis & Clark on the Corps of Discovery 1803 - 1806. He was William Clark’s slave and he was called York. On the photo that is Chip in front of a keelboat replica of the Lewis & Clark expedition. He is holding a 1779 .50 caliber flintlock rifle.

York was born on the Clark Plantation in Caroline County, Virginia, in 1770. William Clark was already four years old. The custom in those days was all kids played together, at least until they were 12 years old. Then they found out what the real score was. In 1780, when York was 12 years old, he found out he was to be the personal servant of his former buddy, William Clark, now 16 years of age. He would wake Master Clark up in the morning, make sure he had the right clothes for the day, serve him breakfast and attend to his needs throughout the day. In addition, his job was to protect his master.

Chip explained there were four classes of slaves -- 1) Body servant, 2) House servant, 3) Field hand and 4) Hired out. This last group was for less-than-able-bodied slaves or those who had developed an attitude. The master would hire them out for a year and get paid in advance and that way the master would get some return on this investment, regardless of the results.

So York’s first assignment as a slave was the best available. He got to wear the best clothes, eat the best food, live in the best surroundings and be around cultured and educated people from whom he would learn a great deal, even though he could not read or write. It was illegal to instruct slaves in those skills.

In 1803, when Meriwether Lewis asked William Clark to co-command the Corps of Discovery, York was 25 years old -- over 6’ -4” in height, 220 lbs with a muscular build. York was not given a choice to go or not to go on the expedition. Clark said York would accompany him, even though York was already married. Lewis & Clark had over 100 men from which to choose, with some of the criteria being healthy, able-bodied, special skills and unmarried, in case the group did not make it back. York had frontier skills and was married, but that made little difference in Clark’s decision.

York, along with Sakakawea, was especially helpful in getting the expedition past anxious bands of Native Americans. His blackness made him a curiosity and the Native Americans called him “the black white man.” They followed him around, touched him and tried to rub the blackness from his skin. He took on all comers in the sport of wrestling and won. Indians considered York “big medicine.”

York was the first African American to travel to the Pacific. He was also the first to vote in a democratic decision to locate the second winter quarters at Ft. Clatsop in Oregon -- over 100 years before the right to vote was given to African Americans.
When the expedition returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806, all members of the party were rewarded with money and land -- except York and Sakakawea. York went back to being William Clark’s manservant, despite repeated requests for a grant of freedom. It took several years to get his grant of freedom, but those years were difficult. Clark’s boyhood companion had become sullen and uncooperative and, for that, Clark punished York with lashes and hired him out at times. York’s wife had been sold and moved to Natchez with his children. Clark refused to do anything to reunite York with his wife and children.

The York story has two endings. One is that, when York was granted his freedom in 1816, he bought a wagon and draft horses provided by Clark to go into the drayage business, which failed in a few years because of York’s lack of basic education. He asked William Clark to take him back and Clark refused. He died of cholera in Tennessee in 1832 and was buried in an unmarked grave by the side of the road.

The other ending is provided the journals of mountain man Zenas Leonard who tells of an old black man who was a Crow Chief leading his young Crow warriors up a hill in battle to kill 69 Blackfeet. This Crow Chief was very happy with his life, having enjoyed the adulation and following of younger generations who learned from him. This story is part of the verbal history of the Crow nation. Zenas Leonard never asked the name of that black man, the great Crow Chief. Was it York? Maybe it was.

York’s story stands for freedom -- that which our armed forces fight for and protect even today. President William Clinton recognized this when he posthumusly granted York his reward as Sargeant in the U.S. Army. Others have also recognized York’s passion for freedom with a large statue in downtown Louisville KY and another in Kansas City MO. His loyalty and desire for freedom has not gone unnoticed.

Thanks for this wonderful story, Chip.

Fort Abraham Lincoln Infantry Post

August 5, 2009

The infantry post, shown here, is ona high ridge and predates the cavalry post established in the valley below. The infantry post, cavalry post and On-the-Slant Village are all part of the Abraham Lincoln State Park. The following is the official description given on the plaque at the top of the hill:

“This United States military post was established as Fort McKeen, June 14, 1872, by companies ‘B’ and ‘C’ of the 6th Infantry under the command of Lt. Col. Daniel Huston, Jr. It was named in commemoration of Col. H. Boyd McKeen of the 81st Pennsylvania Volunteers, who lost his life in the Battle of Cold Harbor during the Civil War. The name of this post was changed to Fort Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1872. With the establishment of the cavalry post the next year in the flat below, the name Fort Abraham Lincoln designated both garrisons. The primary purpose of these posts was to protect the surveyors and construction parties of the Northern Pacific Railway.

“Indian raids at or near this site were quite common during 1872 and 1873. On a number of occasions small detachments of troops from the post were attacked by Indians lying in ambush along the trail a short distance from the fort. Favorite spots for these ambuscades were the brushy ravines immediately to the north of the blockhouses. In several instances the Indians forced the soldiers to return to the blockhouses where additional help was summoned to drive the Indians away. When the Fort Lincoln troops were away in the Indian Campaign of 1876, the Indians attacked this site on several occasions.

“During the most active years of Fort Abraham Lincoln, infantry troops were staioned at this site while the cavalry troops were stationed at the cavalry post below. In the latter years of Fort Lincoln, the Government dismantled the buildings on this site and moved the lumber to the cavalry post. After this time, the troops were stationed at the cavalry post only. The present blockhouses were rebuilt in 1935 on the original sites.”

Awesome Arachnid

August 3, 2009

Lois stopped in the clinic today to get some more doxycycline for me because the redness has not gone away after a week of treatment. My pet parasite must have really liked me.

It seems I picked up a few new friends that day when Lyle and I went juneberry picking. At one point, I saw a photo possibility and got down on the ground to shoot it. That was a mistake. I wasn’t thinking. North Dakota has ticks, lots of them waiting in the prairie grass.

Lois looked me over and we found two or three. I thought that was the end of it.
Then, about ten days ago, I started itching and burning above the pecs on my left side. There was a very red and swollen area about four inches in diameter. I didn’t know what it was and asked Lois about it.

“I don’t know what it is, but you’re going to the doctor asap,” Lois said.

“It’s a tick,” the nurse said.

“Are you sure,” I said.

“No doubt about it,” she said. “I am going to give you a shot in the butt and ten days of doxycycline to clear this up; it’s what we do for lyme disease.”

Tick is the common name for the small arachnids. They are external parasites that live on the blood of mammals, birds and sometimes amphibians. They are also carriers of disease -- Lyme disease, Q fever, tularemia, babsiosis, ehrlichiosis, even meningoencephalitis.

Young ticks have six legs, and mature ticks have eight legs, as in the photo above. They vary in size and appearance depending on the species.

Ticks are found in tall grass and shrubs where they will wait to attach to a host. Physical contact is the only way they do it. They do not skip, jump or fly. Sometimes they will drop on some unsuspecting host from above.

How they attach is rather interesting. They insert their cutting mandibles(chelicerea) and feeding tube(hypostome) into the skin. The feeding tube is covered with barbs that serve as an anchor. Then they do what they know best.

Source for this technical stuff: Wikipedia

Chip Cartwright

Our immediate supervisor at Cross Ranch is Chip Cartwright, age 61, who is a seasonal employee of North Dakota Parks with five years of service. For two years before that, he was a guide at Ft. Mandan along the Missouri River. He also is a 30-year retiree of the U.S. Forest Service where he held a number of interesting positions. In his fifth wheel, Chip has been spending summer months in North Dakota and wintering on South Padre Island TX.

A graduate of Virginia Tech in Forestry & Wildlife Management, Chip partially paid his way through college by singing. Today the urge to perform is still alive and Chip has developed three historic characters as a reenactor which he performs at weekend events around North Dakota. He belongs to various organizations here who entertain and educate people on what North Dakota used to be like.

One character is “Troy,” the slave whom William Clark brought along as part of the Corps of Discovery. Native Americans were fascinated by Troy because they had never seen a person with such dark skin. Troy was also over six feet in height with an impressive muscular build. Returning from war skirmishes, the Mandans, for example, used to smear their skin, as well as their horses, with the black ashes from a fire pit as a sign of victory. The darker the better. Troy’s blackness was regarded as powerful medicine.

Another character is “Cookie,” an African-American cowboy who became a chuck-wagon cook in his older years. The third character is a Buffalo Soldier of whom there were many in the late 19th century during the Indian campaigns. For research on each of these characters, Chip has spent hours at the North Dakota Historical Society going over old books and other documents.

“One of the astonishing things I discovered,” Chip said, “is the first recorded death in North Dakota was that of a person of African-American descent.”

In college, Chip was an Air ROTC officer, just like I was. But, unlike me, he served his military obligation as an officer in the USAF. I chose to be army strong as a grunt.

We both have have an interest in history, particularly Civil War history, and from time to time spent enjoyable time discussing a battle here or a general there. The Civil War can be touchy territory, like politics and religion, but our talks have been totally objective and devoid of disagreement. Chip is very knowledgeable on a wide variety of topics.

Chip was married for 22 years and is a devoted father of a boy and a girl. His son, Michael, age 28, is a music graduate from USC and plays music gigs around Los Angeles. Son’s dream is to go 100% professional. His daughter, Shannon, is married, has two children and lives with her husband and family in Ft. Riley KA.

To say Lois and I got along well with Chip would be a huge understatement. We believe we have found a new friend and we hope to see much more of him and to enjoy his company long after we have departed from Cross Ranch State Park.

Sanger -- One of a Thousand

August 7, 2009

North Dakota has about a thousand ghost towns -- the result of a hit-and-miss expansion and settlement of the state from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was a book published in 1988, “No Place,” by Douglas A. Wick who listed these towns, giving a one-paragraph history of each one. Sanger is one of them.

What is left of the Town of Sanger is two miles south of the Cross Ranch State Park entrance. It is possible to see four or five homes nestled in the thickets and trees. The “County House” (pictured above) is the most prominent from the road and is possibly the first frame building ever constructed in Oliver County. It was used as a land office, poor house, temporary housing for weary travelers and a variety of other uses.

CRSP Interpreter Laura Kohn has researched Sanger extensively to learn that this town existed for approximately 80 years from 1879, the year of its establishment by George Sanger, to 1964, the year the Sanger Post Office was closed and moved to Hensler. Sanger was never a “boom town.” The largest recorded population of Sanger was 100 in 1920, and it is fair to conclude that the Sanger population built up to that number for the first 40 years and decreased from 1920 on.

How North Dakota towns got their names often derived from the postal address. George Sanger applied for and got a postal permit, made himself postmaster, and set up the post office in a room of his house. Mail was always directed through a post office, so letters going to Sanger made it a natural for Sanger to become the name of the town. George Sanger’s compensation for being a postmaster was $400 per year, plus he got a town named after him.

Why Sanger was an ideal site for a town was 1) a natural landing spot on the Missouri River, 2) lots of cottonwood trees were available for fueling steamboats and 3) a grain elevator was built to assist farmers in getting their grain to markets downstream. Later, when the railroad came through, Sanger’s grain elevator and trees made it a good stopping off point for refueling steam locomotives with water from the Missouri River and the local cottonwood groves.

At its peak, Sanger was the county seat of Oliver County (1888 - 1902 and had a school (1914), a hotel, community hall and newspaper, “The Sanger Advance,” The Farmer’s Excange Bank, opera house (1917), a ferry and shoe store (1920), Sanger Mercantile Company (1923), Sanger Radio Club (1923), a car dealership (1928), a second periodical, “The Weekly Reminder” (1930), even a baseball team, “The Sanger Larks” (1940’s).

Beyond that, the Town of Sanger never really thrived as various economic recessions and The Great Depression of the 1930’s negatively impacted the area’s development. Whenever crop prices fell, the farmers in this area were not able to pay their crop loans, leaving the bank holding a lot of paper. Were it not for a group of Sanger citizens, the bank would have gone bust in 1924. Eventually the bank failed during The Great Depression.

Laura Kohn’s program with slides and old-time exhibits is called “From Boom to Bust: Sanger.” Plans are to present the program again on September 5th during the Labor Day weekend , inviting the local community out to participate in this interesting bit of history. Free interpretive programs like this are given at Cross Ranch State Park every Friday and Saturday evening with fresh popcorn for all.

Power Plant Plentitude

August 9, 2009

This area of North Dakota has lots of power plants, some of which are along the Missouri River, but many of which, like this one pictured above called “Antelope Valley,” are located out on the prairies where there is a vein of anthracite coal nearby. Anthracite here is found near the surface so that underground mines are not necessary. The top soil is cleared away and the coal is scooped up by a huge drag line which is like a crane five stories high and hundreds of feet long.

The other photo shows me standing by Lyle’s truck which is dwarfed by an old “drag line bucket” which has a capacity to scoop up several hundred yards of coal at one time. Lyle says that when an anthracite vein is exhausted, the power company is required to reclaim the prairie and put everything back just the way it was before mining was started.

North Dakota exports a lot of energy which is created here. Minnesota Power has purchased coal-fired power plants in North Dakota and leased wind farms in order to comply with the new energy laws, according to Lyle, who was a steelworker on some of the plants in this area.

Don Syverson, a retired plant manager who works here at Cross Ranch, says there are presently seven or eight power plants in the immediate area covering three counties.

Liz 'n Lyle

August 7 - 10, 2009

We picked up our motor home in Bismarck on August 5th and our friends, Liz and Lyle, planned a weekend of camping at Cross Ranch SP to visit with us and pick up their fifth wheel RV, which they so kindly lent us to use while ours was being repaired. We are so grateful to Liz and Lyle because, without their help, our summer could have been ruined.

In the photos above, Lyle prepared a smoked brat cookout, much like the kind he used to do at Veteran’s Park in Eveleth MN. Liz and Lois are in the other photo busy with conversation.

We met Liz and Lyle at Cross Ranch when they arrived Friday evening. We went through all the workings of their RV which worked very well. Lois had prepared supper which we enjoyed in our RV. We had a campfire everynight, as Lyle brought plenty of wood.
Saturday morning, Liz went for a walk and I gave Lyle a complete tour of the park, which took a couple of hours.
We had lots of time to visit. For Sunday Lyle had a special trip planned over to Hazen and Buelah ND.

Mandan On-the-Slant Village

August 5, 2009

This is the site where the Mandans lived for over 300 years from 1575 to 1781 and it is believed that over 70 lodges once occupied this site along the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark’s expedition visited this village in 1804 and is mentioned in their journals. Today we saw only six lodges which had been rebuilt by the CCC in the 1930’s.

The interpretive guides here are Native American. Dianne, our interpreter, was very articulate and very knowledgeable about the Mandan life style, although I suspected she was not Mandan, but Sioux. Nevertheless, Dianne was very sharp and informative.

The Mandans were not nomads, but agricultural. They lived in these huge lodges, owned and managed by women. They hunted buffalo, but that only took place once a year. Blood lines were tracked according to the mothers, not the fathers. In this matriarchal society, there was no divorce; men were simply turned out of the lodge if the lady of the house was no longer pleased with him.

The stationery life of the Mandans decimated their numbers when the traders and settlers came along with their European diseases, like smallpox. Nomadic people, like the Sioux, were not as affected. It is believed by some historians that the Mandans were intentionally infected with smallpox in order to get rid of them, making way for the white man.

Ft Abraham Lincoln State Park

August 5, 2009

Today we took Hwy 1806 from Cross Ranch all the way along the Missouri River to Mandan and then continued seven miles south to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park which is also situated on the Missouri River. This is the place from which General George Armstrong Custer led his cavalry of almost 300 men to engage Native Americans in battle at the Little Big Horn in Montana. It took him 45 days to get to his last stand in July of 1876.

The house in the above photo is an exact replica of General Custer’s house which faced the parade field. He lived here for only three years with his wife from 1873 until 1876. He was assigned here in order to protect the Northern Pacific Railway as it was biulding more track west of Bismark.

The Sergeant in the other photo is our interpreter who entertained us during the tour of the Custer home. The piano behind him is a Steinway, built in New York City and shipped via rail to Bismarck. One upstairs room in the house was used as an officers’ club where cavalry officers could play billiards or cards, “properly dressed in uniform, of course.”

We saw cavalry barracks and stables and visited the visitor center which had a variety of historical books for sale. We enjoyed some gourmet coffee with raspberry scones.

Our interpreter was a crusty military character and he stayed in character all the way through. He refused to recognize any question which was post-1873. I forgot and asked a question about Little Big Horn and he said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you are talking about.”