The Dakotas- Monday, July 3, 2017

      We were pretty happy with our hotel in Bismarck and let everyone sleep in a little this morning.  

       Our big stop in North Dakota is the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, a little ways north of Bismarck in Washburn.  Capt. Merriweather Lewis and William Clark and the rest of Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery stopped here on their way to the Pacific Ocean during the winter of 1804-1805.   They made their winter camp near three villages of Mandan Indians.  They spent 8 weeks completing a small fortification, which they named Fort Mandan, and the rest of the winter trying to endure cold that got down to  - 40 F.   It was at this encampment that the met a French-Canadian trader whose name was Toussaint Charbonneau, and his young 15-year old wife, a Native girl named Sacagewea, whose translation skills would prove to be invaluable.  In the spring, part of the corps returned to report what they had found to Jefferson, and part of the corps continued west into what was basically unknown territory.  The group that returned brought maps, written reports, items from the Native Americans that they had encountered, and scientific samples including a live prairie dog.  The group that continued on, still under Lewis and Clark, would cross the Rockies to the Pacific.

     The interpretive center has a museum dedicated to the time that the expedition spent here.  A short film starts the exhibits and helps explain the purpose of the expedition.  The center has exhibits that show the types of equipment, both scientific and otherwise, that the corps came equipped with, including a rare “air rifle” that was like Lewis’s personal weapon.  It also showed samples of what they were sending back to Jefferson.  The museum had a lot of hands-on aspects to it.  It also had exhibits on the natives that were here before Lewis and Clark, and the people that came after them, including the traders that established themselves at “Fort Clark” in the 1830s.  Scott bought a DVD of Ken Burns’s program on Lewis and Clark, and continued to read the copy of Undaunted Courage that he brought with him after we left.

      After our time at the Interpretive Center, we got into the car and drove to the near-by replica of Fort Mandan.  The location of the actual Fort Mandan is still unknown, but this one was built according to the descriptions that we have.  Historian Stephen Ambrose wrote, “The fort consisted of two rows of huts, set at an angle, with a palisade on the river side, a gate and a sentry post, plus the swivel gun mounted,” and that’s pretty much what we saw, plus a flag pole for the 15-star, 15-striped flag in the center of the triangular parade ground.  Yep… so… yes… the guide, he… yep… he had… a… you know… yep… a very poor way of speaking… yep.   Anna later referred to him as “the Yep Guy.”   It was hard to listen to him for long, and he didn’t seem as well versed in the details of the history of the place.  We had to stick with him though because the fort was pretty well equipped with reproduction items, and people weren’t allowed into the rooms on their own as a result.  Each room had an interpretive theme.  As the officers, Lewis and Clark shared a room.  Charbonneau and Sacagewea had their room, which was probably where her son was born that winter.  There were rooms for the enlisted men, and storage rooms, and a blacksmith’s forge.  We know that the Mandans and the men of the corps interacted a lot that winter with music, food and other festivities.

     From the Fort Mandan replica, you could see the Missouri River, and we went for a closer look.  There was a large statue of Lewis’s dog, a black Newfoundland named “Seaman.”   Scott wanted to go back to the visitor’s center for a last look around, and then it was time for lunch.   Julie had found a family restaurant named Dakota Farms, which ended up being a good choice.  Scott got a German dish called Fleischkeuchle- a "fried seasoned ground beef encased within a pastry-style bread."

       After lunch, we started our trip out of North Dakota.  We “crossed the wide Missouri.”  The land seems strangely empty.  It is generally flat, but we are starting to see lots of odd shaped hills.  They aren’t very tall, but they have very steep sides.  One of these hills had a giant cow statue on it, which we later learned was named “Salem Sue.” Occassionally, we’ll pass large clusters of windmills.  At about 2:15 Central Time, we crossed into the Mountain Time Zone, somewhat unexpectedly as we were driving west on I-94.  That made it about 1:15 Central Time, and gained us an hour.

       Heading out of North Dakota, Scott took us to a route called the Enchanted Highway which he had read about.  It is a little back road between the small towns of Gladstone and Regent, ND.  It is about 35 miles long, and on it are seven very large metal sculptures.  The first we saw is called “Geese in Flight,” followed by “Deer Crossing,” “Grasshoppers in the Field,” “Fisherman’s Dream,” “Pheasants on the Prairie,” “Teddy Rides Again,” and “The World’s Largest Tin Family.”  There was even a gift shop at the end of the road in the town of Regent.  We had fun looking at them, and it was certainly better than the rather bland North Dakota countryside.

       The temperature had gotten hot—into the low 90s, but otherwise the weather was nice and there was a constant breeze.   Julie saw a pheasant on the side of the road, and perhaps a prairie chicken too.  The roads were so straight and barren that Julie might have decided to let Emma have a chance at driving.  Emma’s first thought seemed to be that she didn’t want Dad to put it in the blog, so maybe it happened.  Maybe it didn’t.  But you didn’t read it here, and she didn’t end up going that far anyway.

      The odd shaped hills of North Dakota eventually morphed into full-blown buttes in South Dakota.  One of these, Bear Butte, was visible at the end of a very straight stretch of road.  It was actually about 30 miles away when we first saw it ahead of us.  It didn’t look like it was that far, but that’s how flat everything else is.   The land in South Dakota was a lot more interesting to look at than North Dakota’s, but there seemed to be even fewer people around. 

     As we finally pulled into a decent sized town, we noticed that there were a lot of motorcycle places.  There were many huge biker bars with Jack Daniels signs all over them.   It was then that we finally recognized the name of the place—we were in Sturgis, South Dakota, home of the infamous biker rally each summer.  Luckily, this isn’t the time for that, but there were a lot of bikes in town.  We stopped at Pizza Hut for dinner, and then went to a biker gift shop before heading on.

     The road between Rapid City, South Dakota, and Mount Rushmore is like one continuous line of tourist traps.  Once we got to our hotel, we could see three of the four presidents’ heads on Mount Rushmore (Lincoln was blocked from this view.)  Scott and Anna joked that we were done here and we were ready to go on to the next stop, but Julie checked in here anyway.  All of us strolled back through the town of Keystone, which is basically Mt. Rushmore's version of Clifton Hill at Niagara Falls.  Even though it was after 9:00, many of the gift shops were still open, so we started to look through those.   We eventually made it back to the hotel and settled in for the night.