~ wander.essence ~

the north dakota heritage center in bismarck: adaptation gallery

wanderessence1025 October 6, 2020

During breakfast at the Ramada Wyndham, I got irritated that the hotel was playing Fox News, Trump’s propaganda network, on TV. I decided I would make a negative comment about that on Booking.com.

I returned to the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum by 8:15. This time, I went to the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time, which was fabulous. I learned about prehistoric times and the Ice Age, including dinosaurs.

The museum’s website explained the gallery thus:

From the monstrous sea creatures living in primordial oceans to the rise and extinction of dinosaurs, from tropical swamplands with crocodiles and palm trees to the appearance of elephant-like mammals during the ice age, this is the fascinating story of geology and life in North Dakota. This gallery introduces you to North Dakota as it was at different times in the geologic past, from 600 million years ago to the appearance of humans about 13,000 years ago.

Underwater World

Some 80 million years ago, North Dakota was completely underwater. A much warmer climate meant no polar ice caps and higher sea levels. The warm shallow oceans were part of the Western Interior Seaway that periodically connected the Arctic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico, splitting the North American continent in two.

Xiphactinus was a 16-foot-long tarpon-like fish.

Xiphactinus

Archelon (“Ruler Turtle”) is a sea turtle fossil, which is rare in North Dakota. Some of the Cretaceous sea turtles grew as long as 15 feet. These turtles laid their eggs on land, where they were vulnerable to attacks by predators.

Archelon (“Ruler Turtle”)

Around 65 million years ago (during the Mesozoic Cretaceous Period 68 – 65,000,000 years ago), North Dakota was as warm as south Florida. Instead of plains, valleys and badlands, western North Dakota was covered with woodlands, ponds and swamps. Many exotic plants and animals lived here, including dinosaurs. Unusual animals such as mosasaurs (40-foot-long sea marine lizards), also lived in the ocean that still covered eastern North Dakota.

Tyrannosaurus rex (“tyrant lizard king”) was one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs. It was bigger than Triceratops, growing to 40 feet long and weighing about eight tons. A keen sense of smell and the ability to travel at high speeds for short distances made them fearsome hunters. While no complete skeletons of T. rex have been found in North Dakota, its teeth and bones have been recovered from several fossil sites in the state.

Tyrannosaurus rex

Tyrannosaurus rex

Triceratops (“three-horned face”) was one of the largest and heaviest of the herbivorous, or plant-eating, horned dinosaurs. Growing to 30 feet long and weighing as much as 5 tons, this dinosaur would be larger than the biggest African elephants today.

Triceratops

Dromaeosaurus (“Swift running lizard”) was part of the family of small, ferocious predators often called raptors. A large claw on each hind food was used to slash through flesh. It had a large brain and may have hunted in packs like wolves.

Dromaeosaurus

About 65 million years ago, half of all living things, including three-quarters of marine life, died out. This mass extinction is one of the greatest biological catastrophes ever recorded. Its cause is still debated by scientists today, but most evidence points to a devastating asteroid impact.

Once the dinosaurs died out, in the Cenozoic Tertiary period (65-55,000,000 years ago), other species flourished in North Dakota’s forested swamplands. Across the globe, climates were warm and humid, creating a welcoming environment for plants and animals to recover. New predators gained dominance, and other species evolved. In this new era, crocodiles, alligators and champsosaurs (crocodile-like reptiles) became top predators, preying on all types of fish, birds and even mammals. Mammals started to become the dominant life forms during this time.

crocodile

By the end of the Oligocene Epoch, the number and diversity of mammal species in North Dakota had increased dramatically. Cooler temperatures and open scrublands and grasslands were perfect habitats for large groups of grazing mammals, while small woodlands around lakes and rivers supported smaller animals like rodents.

Fossil evidence shows that North Dakota was once the home of huge rhinoceros and giant pig-like animals, as well as saber-toothed, cat-like mammals called nimravids. Although these species became extinct, many of the ancient mammals were members of groups that still exist today, including ancestral dogs, camels, deer and mice.

mammals

other creatures

prehistoric creatures

Nearly all large mammals during this time, including mammoths and mastodons, became extinct in North America between 11,000 and 9,000 years ago. Only the medium-sized (bison, deer, pronghorns) and smaller mammals survived.

The large and agile creatures known as Bison antiquus were the ancestors of modern bison. Larger than bison we know today, Bison antiquus lived in herds and fed on the grasses and low-growing shrubs of the North Dakota landscape. They became extinct about 10,000 years ago.

Bison antiquus

The possible causes of the extinction of the large mammals has been debated for decades. One of the most controversial theories, termed the “overkill hypothesis,” suggests that mammals were hunted to extinction by humans. Others argue that the large mammals became extinct because they could not adapt to rapid climate warming and habitat changes. Possibly these and other factors all played a role in the extinction of 32 species of mammals.

backside of prehistoric creature

more prehistoric creatures

Mastodons were large mammals that looked and acted much like today’s elephants. Thick, long hair covered their bodies. They were browsing animals like today’s moose. They lived in coniferous forests and ate tree twigs, leaves, and marsh vegetation. Mastodons lived in North America at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. They lived millions of years after dinosaurs had become extinct. People followed herds of large animals, such as mastodons, across vast distances. The animals were hunted for their meat, hides and bones.

In 1890, workmen excavated this mastodon skeleton near Highgate, Ontario, Canada. For the next eight years, the bones were on tour in Canada, North Dakota, and Minnesota.

The owner donated the bones to the University of North Dakota in 1902. The university donated the skeleton to the State Historical Society of North Dakota in 1947.

Mastodon

prehistoric creatures

I left this fabulous museum and went directly to Bismarck’s Art Alley.

leaving the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum

All information about the Geologic Time Gallery are from signs at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum.

*Friday, September 13, 2019*

on returning home from italy in 2019

wanderessence1025 October 5, 2020

We took a shuttle to the Fiumicino airport at 6:30 to get there by 6:45 a.m. The United gates didn’t open until 7:00, so we got there early for no good reason. Check-in went quickly, as did security and passport control. We enjoyed coffee and croissants in the airport and then waited until our 9:45 departure, with a 1:35 p.m. arrival time at Dulles International Airport near our home in Northern Virginia. Before boarding, I finished the book I’d been reading in Morocco and Rome, The Forgiven.

During the flight, I watched Crazy Rich Asians, On the Basis of Sex (about Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and I started the TV show My Brilliant Friend, but I didn’t have time to finish it.

We had a lunch of spinach and ricotta manicotti and bread. I took a Valium after lunch and managed to sleep for a couple of hours, but it was so freezing on the plane, it was hard to get comfortable. I had on my black knit flowy pants, a t-shirt, my gray knit zipper jacket and my jean jacket all buttoned up, plus a very thin blanket provided by the airline, but I was freezing the entire flight.

Lots of seats on the flight were empty. We paid for Economy Plus, so we had a little more leg room than others. Mike had the window seat and I had the aisle, 23K and L.

It was 12:01 p.m. Washington time (and 6:02 p.m. Italy time), and we were to arrive at 1:35. I could see were were flying toward Boston on the flight path screen. We were over the Atlantic most of the flight, soon after flying over Ireland and Great Britain.

I hoped we’d get one more snack, but none seemed to be coming. I couldn’t wait to get off the plane and to get warm in our cozy home. By that time, we’d traveled 4,728 miles and we were at 34,009 feet in altitude. The outside temperature was -50°C, or -58°F.

Everyone had the window shades closed through the entire flight, so it had been dark in the cabin. It seemed it would warm up if they opened the “blinds” and let the light in.

Neither of us was excited about having our youngest son move back home as life had always been stressful with him in our house. He had agreed to the conditions we had laid out our last night in Rome, but neither of us were convinced he would actually meet them. He had agreed to get therapy, go to AA, work on his drinking, and gain a skill. I didn’t think he would make much money as a massage therapist, so I didn’t see that as a long-term solution, but it was a step in at least some direction. We would be seeing him back in our house soon after we arrived home. I was decidedly not looking forward to our homecoming.

My older son had already arranged to come home that week upon our return, as he would be the best man in his friend’s wedding. As my older and younger sons had several months earlier had a huge falling out over their shared living situation in Colorado, this would create additional stress. When we informed my older son that the younger would be home when he came home, he was very upset, as we figured he would be. I could perfectly understand his feelings.

We came home to a very stressful situation, although it was wonderful to see my older son and to have a tenuous glimmer of hope, once again, that our youngest son might actually follow through on his commitments.

Once we settled back in at home, we watched a couple of movies set in Italy that we hadn’t had time to watch before our trip: Three Coins in the Fountain and To Rome with Love. We also began the fabulous TV series, My Brilliant Friend, which we are still watching.

Eventually, I wrote a number of posts about our travels in Italy:

view from our Airbnb at Castello di Fulignano

Monteriggioni

il Campo

View of Siena from the Panorama del Facciatone

Duomo di Siena

Castellina in Chianti

wisteria arbo

Giardino delle Rose

the Duomo’s famous dome

Ponte Vecchio – again

Florence’s Duomo

Venus of Urbino – Titian, 1538

We enjoyed our travels in Italy. We especially loved most of the Cinque Terre (despite the crowds) and Portovenere, Florence, Lucca, San Gimignano and Volterra, the Tuscan countryside, Assisi and Orvieto. The major drawback was the weather, which, once we got to Tuscany and Umbria, was fickle: rainy, cold, windy, with bouts of sunshine too few and far between.

*April 23 to May 10, 2019*

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“ON RETURNING HOME” INVITATION: I invite you to write a post on your own blog about returning home from one particular destination or, alternately, from a long journey encompassing many stops. How do you linger over your wanderings and create something from them? How have you changed? Did the place live up to its hype, or was it disappointing? Feel free to address any aspect of your journey and how it influences you upon your return. If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments.

For some ideas on this, you can check out the original post about this subject: on returning home.

Include the link in the comments below by Sunday, November 1 at 1:00 p.m. EST. When I write my post in response to this challenge on Monday, November 2, I’ll include your links in that post.

This will be an ongoing invitation on the first Monday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time.

the north dakota heritage center {the horse, native peoples & north dakota history}

wanderessence1025 October 4, 2020

I left Washburn and Fort Mandan at 3:20, crossed Painted Woods Creek, and hightailed it 38 miles to Bismarck, the state capital of North Dakota and the second largest city in North Dakota with only 67,034 people. The town was named for the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck in hopes of encouraging the chancellor’s investment in the railroad.

I finally arrived at 4:00 at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum, with only an hour to spare before closing. Here, I found exhibits in four museum galleries which traced North Dakota history from 600 millions years ago to current events.

North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum

The Horse in North Dakota

I first saw an exhibit about “The Horse in North Dakota.”

The Horse in North Dakota

Millions of years ago, many species of horses – some as small as a dog – roamed the Great Plains of North America. About 55 million years ago, global temperatures abruptly rose, turning North America into an environment similar to the Amazon rain forest. The first members of the horse family, the dog-sized Hyracotherium, lived in these forests. For more than half their history, most horses remained small, multi-toed forest browsers, thriving on leaves, bark, and green plant stems.

Then about 35 million years ago, global temperatures dropped, creating a climate similar to today’s. Dry grasslands replaced much of the North American forest, leading to rapid evolution among horses. Horses became larger, their toes reduced from three to one, and they adopted a grazing diet. By about nine million years ago, most forest browsers had disappeared, leaving primarily the grazers alive today.

artistic horse

About three million years ago, the first species of Equus, the ancestor of living horses, spread to several continents including South America.

Then about 10,000 years ago, horses became extinct in North America and South America. The prime causes of their extinction were changes in the environment, disease, and overhunting by humans.

Equids survived only in Eurasia and Africa; they thrived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Prehistoric people in Eurasia valued ancient horses as a food source, which is likely the reason they first domesticated them, around 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.

By about 1500 BC, people had harnessed the power of horses, using them for transportation and as beasts of burden.

The Spanish reintroduced horses to the Americas over 500 years ago. Recognizing that horses were an advantage in war, the Spanish tried to keep horses out of Native American hands. Gradually, however, Native peoples created their own herds from horses captured in raids and collected as strays.

The horse changed the nature of hunting to allow large groups of hunters to harvest more animals, especially bison. Hunting from horses increased a group’s hunting range and made hunting more efficient.

In 1680, when the Pueblos rebelled against colonial rulers in Santa Fe (now in New Mexico), the hundreds of horses left behind passed into Native American hands and became the ancestors of many tribal herds. Horses were then dispersed across North America via established trade routes. By 1740, nearly every tribal group on the Great Plains possessed horses.

Long before horses were domesticated, people tried to capture their wild beauty and majestic strength through images, poetry and song. Art records and celebrates the role the horse had played in human history – from the mundane plowing of crops or a glorious charge into battle to bravely carrying us to new destinations or offering quiet companionship.

Greet the Dawn, 2012 by S.D. Nelson, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Member (Lakota)

The horse family today is quite small. All domesticated horse breeds, from tiny ponies and plow horses to thoroughbred racehorses, belong to a single species, Equus ferus caballus. Domestic horses are thought to have been bred from the European wild horse, or tarpan (Equus ferus ferus), which went extinct in 1909.

Wild Horses, 1936, was one of a six-panel series painted by American artist Frank Mechau (1904-1946).

Wild Horses, by Frank Mechau

Tribes came to value horses and guns for how they improved their ability to hunt, defend their resources, and expand their territories. Power gradually began to shift from the settled agricultural tribes to nomadic equestrian tribes such as the Lakota and Crow. A good horse could make a great hunter or warrior, and possessing many horses could make a family wealthy. Horse adornment was one way to show a family’s wealth.

Before the arrival of horses, Native peoples traveled by waterways or on foot. With horses, people could travel farther and faster. Greater hauling power meant tribes could acquire more food (primarily bison) and transport it, which supported larger populations.

A horse’s speed, agility and power gave tribes with horses an advantage during warfare. Tribes with horses could expand their hunting territories, putting them in conflict with other groups over resources. Horses also enabled Native peoples to better defend their lands against encroaching Euro-American settlers and U.S. soldiers.

Native people had to learn to care for the horses, especially during harsh northern winters. Among the Mandan and Hidatsa, prized horses had a place in the earthlodge during the winter, and were fed the tender bark and branches of cottonwood trees. Native plants such as cow parsnip, curlycup gumweed, and pineapple weed were given to horses for medical ailments. The Hidatsa regularly fed hunting horses small amounts of corn to make them swift runners.

Settlers pushing west sought land for their crops and livestock, but it was the same land Native Americans called home. Responding to the sometimes violent culture clashes, the US Army moved soldiers and ammunition westward in horse-drawn wagons. Draft horses hauled settlers’ wagons and pulled plows that broke sod for crops. Cowboys drove cattle through the grasslands of western North Dakota on well-trained quarter horses. Later, horses became integral parts of firefighting teams.

The cowboys of North America favored the American quarter horse, bred to run short-distance races. The men led grueling lives, toiling in the sun and spending most of their days on the back of a horse. In today’s remote and often rugged grazing lands of North Dakota, horses remain integral to ranching operations.

Rodeos had their roots in a time when cowhands would gather to compete for fun after cattle roundups. Events tested cowhands in accurate roping, and fast and agile riding. Bronc riding, where a bucking bronco tries to throw the rider off, is based on an old method of taming horses.

Horses are herd animals without fixed territories. They naturally form groups for safety, develop social bonds with other herd members, and look to a leader. People utilize this instinct when training horses by taking on the authority of a herd leader. The horse instinctively submits to a more dominant individual. Humans also provide companionship that horses seek.

horse skulls

horse accouterments

Tipi bags, circa 1890

Doll with horses, Lakota, circa 1895

Horsetooth necklace, circa 1890

Dox Quixote, 1964

fancy dress and horse adornment, circa 1915

Horse-drawn fire engine, circa 1914

Grain binder model and horses

horse and buggies

saddles

horse toys

cowboy/girl clothing

I saw a small exhibit about birds of the wetlands, including grebes and whooping cranes, and birds of the prairie, including horned larks.

birds of the wetlands

Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today

Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today had an exhibit about North Dakota history from the mid 1800s to contemporary times. It covered farming, pioneer days, and technology.

According to the website, the gallery tells the story of North Dakota and its people through six themes that continue to shape the state’s history:

Agricultural Innovation
Industry and Energy
Newcomers and Settlement
Conflict and War
Our Lives, Our Communities
Cultural Expressions

According to the exhibit, one hundred years ago, North Dakota was one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse states in the country. More than three-quarters of its people were immigrants or the children of immigrants. They lived alongside Native Americans of many different nations. In the state can be found Norwegian Lutheran churches, lutefisk suppers, Knoephla soup, Ukrainian pysanky eggs, or Lakota beadwork.

As different groups settled in North Dakota, they brought the traditional dress, designs and techniques from their homelands. Immigrants from across Europe brought tools like spinning wheels and the knowledge and skills to knit, weave, and stitch intricately patterned pieces.

Musical traditions from many cultures melded in the state.

Musical traditions

Those who grew up in North Dakota in the 1950s and 1960s saw a world in transition. The end of World War II brought an era of prosperity and change. North Dakota’s economy was thriving. More women entered the workforce. North Dakotans became connected thanks to rural telephone systems, interstate highways, and eventually, television. For the first time, young people enjoyed new freedoms that came with cars, spending money, and leisure time. The rise of television and the portable transistor radio helped popularize rock and roll. Soda shops became popular hangout spots of young North Dakotans.

Soda shop

soda shop

Louis and Cyril Keller from Minnesota designed a maneuverable, self-propelled loader for poultry farmers. The design was refined and renamed “Bobcat” in 1962.

Melroe M200 Self-Propelled Loader

This oil rig model was built at 1/48 scale and reflects what an oil drilling rig would have looked like in the 1990s.

Oil rig model

Superior Storage bin

harvester?

Oscar H. Will is the best known North Dakota commercial seed developer. His success was tied to the horticultural knowledge he gained from the Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras. After establishing the first North Dakota plant nursery in Bismarck, Will began experimenting with native corn varieties. From a bag of beans given to him by a Hidatsa man, he developed the Great Northern Bean, which is still grown today.

Oscar H. Will & Company continued to grow and prosper. The mail-order seed catalog, first published in 1884, had international circulation and offered a wide range of seeds, vegetables, flowers, trees and more, all adapted to flourish in northern climates. The company closed in 1959.

Will’s Pioneer Brand

Oscar H. Will & Company

radish seed packet

phlox seed packet

Plants grown in North Dakota include flax, hard red spring wheat, sunflowers, honey, barley, lentils and peas.

farm equipment

Water is crucial to raising crops and livestock. Beginning in the 1850s, windmills were used to pump water from deep underground. Once electricity arrived, other sources of power were used to pump water. Today, windmills are still used to pump water for livestock in remote areas.

windmill used to pump water

Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples

The Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples was devoted to the Native peoples of North Dakota. It includes artifacts from prehistoric cultures, the international story of the fur trade, oral histories, and collections from prehistoric tribal life to the 1860s.

The story of the Early Peoples begins more than 13,000 years ago when people first began to migrate into North Dakota, beginning with the Paleoindians, the first hunters.

I saw exhibits about Native Peoples, bison, tipis, lodgings, clothing and artifacts.

A single bison drive by Native Americans could easily kill hundreds of animals, which created the immediate problem of how to process this large quantity of meat without waste and spoilage. Most members of the tribe participated, using guns as well as bows and arrows. After removing the hide, women quickly sliced meat into strips and hung them on racks to dry.

At one time tens of millions of bison roamed across North America. By 1900, fewer than 100 wild bison were living on the Great Plains. Professional hunters armed with large-caliber guns killed hundreds of bison a day in the late 19th century for their hides and tongues. The completion of the railroad made shipping hides cheaper and more profitable for bison hunters. Settlers and their cattle moved west, competing with the bison for grasslands and contributing to the animals’ decline. It was not until 1894 that the first federal legislation protecting these animals was enacted.

Today, more than 500,000 bison live in North America under both public and private ownership. Many Plains tribes have established their own herds in order to maintain a spiritual relationship with them. In North Dakota, hundreds of bison are protected in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Bison

One way Plains Indians recorded details about the past was by drawing symbolic pictures, or pictographs, on hide or cloth, called a winter count. Keepers of winter counts added one event to the count each year, the time between one winter and the next.

Indian symbols to record and remember the past

People on the Northern Great Plains have used tipis for thousands of years. A tipi is a moveable dwelling made of long wooden poles covered with a material. Stones, earth or wooden pegs held the covers down. People controlled air and vented smoke from cooking and heating fires by moving flaps located at the top. Tipis could weigh up to 450 pounds.

Tipi

The remains of the earliest house found to date in North Dakota were discovered on land along the James River. It was occupied during the autumn and winter and was destroyed by fire between 550 and 410 BC. It was made of wooden posts covered in bark or hide. This house is a reproduction of that house.

This painting was in Sitting Bull’s home when he was killed. One of the Indian policemen ripped the hole in it with his carbine. Colonel Mathew F. Steele stopped the officer from destroying the painting.

Painting of Sitting Bull by Catherine Weldon, 1890

North Dakota’s earliest villages were spread out and relatively small, with each housing about 300 individuals. By the 1400s some village populations grew to an estimated 1,000 people. These settlements were fortified and well-planned cities.

Around the 1500s, the Mandans started building circular earthlodges. The fortification system consisted of a dry moat and a wall of wooden posts that formed a palisade around the village. The Mandan people occupied some of these bustling trade centers for nearly 300 years, from 1490 to 1785.

One of the largest of these villages was located on the east side of the Missouri River. Known to the Mandans as Yellow Earth, today it is called Double Ditch State Historic Site.

Double Ditch, AD 1550

My visit was entirely too rushed! I decided I would go back the next morning as the museum opened at 8:00 a.m.

I drove by the North Dakota State Capitol building, also known as the “Skyscraper on the Prairie.” It is a monument to North Dakota’s development.

North Dakota State Capitol

I then checked into my hotel, the Ramada Wyndham.

I tried to go to the recommended Pirouge Cafe for corn and bison soup, but the police had all roads around the cafe closed off. I didn’t know if it was a crime scene or what, so I sought out another place instead.

I had dinner at Shogun: a Sapporo beer and a Super Girl Roll: Tempura shrimp avocado and jalapeño with chili sauce on top. It was delicious! 🙂

Shogun

Buddha at Shogun

Super Girl Roll at Shogun

Here was my journal page for today, Thursday, ,September 12, from Bottineau to Bismarck, North Dakota:

journal pages from Bottineau to Bismarck, North Dakota, Thursday, September 12, 2019

All information is from signs at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum.

*Drove 240.6 miles; Steps: 10,049, or 4.26 miles*

*Thursday, September 12, 2019*

poetic journeys: kentucky victims

wanderessence1025 October 2, 2020

Kentucky victims

Kentucky Victims

This poem was taken from headlines from the Herald-Leader of Lexington, Kentucky on March 2, 2019 and March 6, 2019.

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“POETRY” Invitation: I invite you to write a poem of any poetic form on your own blog about a particular travel destination. Or you can write about travel in general. Concentrate on any intention you set for your poetry.

One of my intentions for my trip to Kentucky in 2019 was as follows:

Write two Headline Poems. Write two poems taken from headlines of the city papers in Louisville and Lexington.
- To write a Headline Poem, cut out 50+ words and phrases from a city newspaper. The words should most often be individual words cut from larger headlines.
- Spread the words on a large table or the floor and move them around; play with them.
- Read aloud the word combinations you make.
- Glue them to a piece of paper when you decide what form your poem should take. Give it a title.
- At the bottom of the poem, put where the words came from and the date. (from Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises)

I already composed one Headline poem each for Illinois and Louisville, which I also visited on my Midwestern Triangle Road Trip:

You can either set your own poetic intentions, or use one of the prompts I’ve listed on this page: writing prompts: poetry. (This page is a work in process). You can also include photos, of course.

Include the link in the comments below by Thursday, November 5 at 1:00 p.m. EST. When I write my post in response to this challenge on Friday, November 6, I’ll include your links in that post.

This will be an ongoing invitation, on the first Friday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

washburn, north dakota: the lewis & clark interpretive center and fort mandan

wanderessence1025 October 1, 2020

In Washburn, I paid a visit to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. It was a fabulous museum, but I was feeling rushed because I was determined to see Fort Mandan and get to Bismarck to visit the North Dakota Heritage Center before it closed.

In 1804, a team of young men led by Captains Lewis and Clark set off from the Missouri area on a voyage into the unknown. Their journey west – up the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean – made them the first Americans to document overland travel to the Pacific. They provided a first-hand account of their personal challenges, doubts, and triumphs.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was a military operation from start to finish. President Thomas Jefferson purposefully chose the army, knowing that only soldiers possessed the teamwork, discipline, and training appropriate for this challenging mission.

As part of a military expedition, the soldiers of the Corps of Discovery for North Western Exploration were expected to wear military uniforms.

Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Washburn, North Dakota

With their Hidatsa neighbors, the Mandan lay at the center of trade along the Upper Missouri River, in modern central North Dakota. At the time of Lewis and Clark’s arrival, they lived in two villages, Mitutanka and Ruptáre. The village was the center of political, economic and ceremonial activity in Mandan culture. The tribe grew crops of corn, beans, squash, sunflower, and tobacco in fields surrounding the villages.

When autumn arrived, numerous Indian tribes and Europeans descended on Mandan villages with the intention to trade.

Hidatsa villages were similar to the Mandan villages. Unlike the Mandan, the Hidatsa regularly sent war parties westward against the Shoshone and Blackfeet. They did this not only for wealth, protection, and revenge, but for ritual reasons as well. The Hidatsa provided the Corps with key information about the route ahead. They also indirectly introduced Lewis and Clark to the French trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife Sacagawea.

Mandan culture

The Lewis & Clark Expedition, the Corps of Discovery, began making its way up the Missouri River aboard a 55-foot-long keelboat and two smaller pirogues on May 21, 1804. Clark spent most of his time on the keelboat, charting the course and making maps. Lewis was often ashore, studying rock formations, animals and plants.

By July’s end, they had traveled more than 600 miles upriver, never once meeting an American Indian (May 21 – July 31, 1804).

The start of the journey

The expedition wintered in a small fort, Fort Mandan, they built near the five Mandan and Hidatsa villages at the mouth of the Knife River (Winter of 1804-1805). These villages had a population of over 5,000 people and were the hub of a well-known trade network.

After departing Fort Mandan, the Corps had to make its way further up the Missouri River until they had to cross the mountains overland. If this part of the journey was covered here, I missed it completely. 🙂

On departing Fort Mandan

Lewis and Clark made camp south of the Columbia River near the Pacific Ocean from December 8-30, 1805. On a slight rise along the bank of the small river, they cleared the site and built Fort Clatsop, named after the local Clatsop Indians. It rained constantly and their time at the fort was monotonous, spent making moccasins and buckskin clothing, hunting, producing salt for preserving food, and working on journals and maps. Even Christmas Day was gloomy; the men’s dinner consisted of elk meat and roots.

Winter on the Pacific

The members of the expedition were ready to return home. The timing of the return journey was critical to avoid snow or an iced-over Missouri River. By the third week in March, the expedition was ready to retrace its steps (December 31-March 22, 1806).

On March 23, the Corps of Discovery left Fort Clatsop and began to travel up the Columbia River. During this leg of the journey, Chinookan Indians were a source of stress; their repeated attempts to steal supplies nearly provoked open hostilities.

Getting around the falls proved a great challenge. Less than a month after leaving Fort Clatsop, the expedition abandoned its canoes, striking out overland with horses acquired from the Walla Walla tribe (March 23 – April 28, 1806).

The expedition arrived back in Nez Perce territory almost out of food. They had to wait until the weather improved before trying to cross the snow-covered Bitterroots.

During the wait with the Nez Perce, Lewis studied the American Indians and nature, while Clark treated sick tribe members. By early June, the expedition was ready to continue east, against the wisdom of the Nez Perce, who believed they should wait until July to cross the Bitterroots. Lewis and Clark left Camp Choppunish and set out for the mountains in June (April 29 – June 9, 1806).

Five days after leaving the Nez Perce, the expedition started up into the mountains. Though it was spring on the Plains, it was still winter in the Bitterroots. The men got lost in the deep snow and returned to the Nez Perce for help.

On June 30, they reached Traveler’s Rest in present-day Montana. Lewis and Clark decided that Lewis and nine men would explore the Marías River, while Clark and the others would head for the Yellowstone River (June 10 – July 2, 1806).

Soon the expedition was back at the Mandan villages, where they bade farewell to some of their members, including Sacagawea. On August 17, the expedition departed.

On August 30th, nearly a hundred armed and mounted Sioux warriors lined the banks of the Missouri. The Corps kept to the middle of the river, however, and the encounter was one of threats and taunts only (August 13 – September 9, 1806).

Now on the home stretch of the journey, the expedition was traveling up to 800 miles per day. Lewis and Clark began to meet traders who informed them they had been given up for dead (September 10-23, 1806).

The challenges faced by the expedition on the route home were serious. They reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806 – two years, four months, and ten days after they had left. Many people had given up hope of seeing them again, and they greeted the Corps with gunfire salutes and enthusiastic welcomes.

Thomas Jefferson charged the expedition with numerous goals, and these goals were carried out faithfully. Lewis and Clark were certain they carried out the number one objective of the expedition – to find the most direct route across the continent. They brought back a great deal of scientific information. They introduced new approaches to exploration and established a model of systematically recording data.

President Jefferson did not order anyone other than the captains to keep journals, but seven of the sergeants also kept journals. Writing was one of the principal tasks of the captains, one that they generally fulfilled. Historian and editor Donald Jackson once observed that Lewis and Clark were “the writingest explorers of their time. They wrote constantly and abundantly, afloat and ashore, legibly and illegibly, and always with an urgent sense of purpose.”

journals of Lewis & Clark

a map of journal entries

The documents and objects sent to President Jefferson are now known as the Fort Mandan Miscellany. The Miscellany is an important expression of the Enlightenment purposes of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

mineral artifacts and biological specimens from Lewis & Clark

I loved seeing the famous watercolors from Swiss painter Karl Bodmer and Maximilian of Wied’s expedition from 1832-1834.

Winter Village of the Minatarres by Karl Bodmer

Aquatints by Karl Bodmer

Aquatints by Karl Bodmer

Encampment of the Travelers by Karl Bodmer

Another section of the museum had portraits of Native Americans by Karl Bodmer. I showed them in the post: native american portraits.

There was also a special exhibit at the museum, “Creating Sacagawea,” with paintings or depictions of Sacagawea.

Sacagawea was an American Indian mother who accompanied Lewis and Clark from Fort Mandan to the Pacific Ocean, and back to the Knife River villages. She was one of Toussaint Charbonneau’s two wives. She was industrious, courageous, and endured much to travel with the Corps carrying baby “Pomp” on her back. There are many legends about her from speculative sources. She was not a guide, but an interpreter. Though she provided secondary assurances about the peaceful nature of the expedition to Indians they encountered, she did so only after the Nez Perce softened the blow of the sudden arrival of the white strangers. Finally, though Sacagawea and William Clark were fond of each other, there was no evidence of a romantic relationship.

Hidatsa women were expert farmers who owned the fields they worked. After being kidnapped at a young age from her Shoshone people, Sacagawea would have adapted to her new Hidatsa way of life. Women brought their infant children while they worked in the field; Pomp is seen resting in his cradleboard.

Sacagawea (2001) by Michael Haynes

Haynes depicts Sacagawea as she and her son Jean Baptiste may have looked shortly after the Expedition. Although no one knows exactly what she looked like, images from artists George Catlin and Karl Bodmer’s paintings of Hidatsa women in the 1830s provide insight into the style and clothing of the day.

Starting the Fire (2001) by Michael Haynes

On February 11, 1805, Sacagawea gave birth to Jean Baptiste Charbonneau after a painful and arduous labor. Many paintings depict her with her child, highlighting her motherhood.

Birth of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (1999) by Vern Erickson

Sacagawea’s death is a mystery. Two stories emerge: she made it back to her Shoshone people and died an old woman, or she died around age 24 from a putrid fever in 1812. The latter, and more likely scenario, is depicted here showing Sacagawea shrouded and placed on a scaffold.

Death of Sakakawea (Sacagawea) (2000) by Vern Erickson

This is a smaller version of 21-foot-tall heroic group Bob Scriver made for Fort Benton, Montana in 1976. It’s a classic 20th century depiction of the expedition. The figures wear fringed leather clothing and Lewis wears a tricorn hat. Importantly, the figures are gazing at the trail ahead.

Captain Lewis, Captain Clark and Sacajawea (1974) by Bob Scriver

Here, Sacagawea is depicted wearing a fringed dress, baby in tow, looking off into the distance.

Square Buttes on the Missouri (1950) by Henry Lorentzen

Walter Piehl shows Sacagawea on horseback like a mounted warrior and she and Jean Baptiste have halos like a Madonna portrait.

Mother and Child (2004) by Walter Piehl

Standing stoically in the foreground, Sacagawea’s gaze follows the outstretched hand pointing to the distance, perhaps watching the bison and pronghorn antelope, or maybe gazing at the miles still to travel.

Sakakawea (Sacagawea) (2003) by Vern Erickson

One of the women bringing gifts to the Expedition may have been Sacagawea. Some gifts were tangible, like the food or beaded belt she gave to help Lewis purchase a sea otter pelt. Others were intangible, like her friendship, her knowledge of the land, her connections to its people, her fluency in Shoshone, and the uplifting presence of her baby, Jean Baptiste.

Sacagawea’s First Gift (2001) by Michael Haynes

In 1972, Vern Erickson was commissioned to paint this mural for the new North Dakota Department of Transportation building.

Big White (Sheheke) Greets the Corps of Discovery (1972) by Vern Erickson

I went quickly to Fort Mandan, where I ran out and looked briefly at the fort and the soldiers’ quarters behind heavy log doors.

Five months into the journey, in the winter of 1804, the Lewis & Clark Expedition broke for winter near this spot. They built Fort Mandan, named after the local Mandan Indians. In the company of the Mandan and Hidatsa, the men rested, socialized, and studied their Indian hosts.

The fully-furnished quarters bring to life what it was like for the brave men in the Corps of Discovery during that North Dakota winter over 200 years ago.

By the time Lewis and Clark passed through on their return journey in 1806, Fort Mandan had burned down. Since then, the exact location of the fort has been lost. The replica here today was completed by the McLean County Historical Society in 1972, using the same dimensions and primary materials as the original.

Fort Mandan

The Mandan supplied the Americans with food throughout the winter at their newly constructed home, Fort Mandan. In exchange, they received a steady stream of trade goods.

Fort Mandan

Fort Mandan

The swivel gun in the courtyard could be loaded with a dozen or more musket balls (called grapeshot) and fired as a last defense in case of attack. Fortunately, they never had to fire it.

Fort Mandan

soldiers’ quarters at Fort Mandan

soldiers’quarters at Fort Mandan

quarters at Fort Mandan

dining at Fort Mandan

quarters at Fort Mandan

dining table at the Fort Mandan Visitors Center

tent, Keelboat and Seaman at the Fort Mandan Visitors Center

Fort Mandan Visitors Center

I left Washburn at 3:20 and hightailed it 38 miles to Bismarck, crossing Painted Woods Creek. I finally arrived at 4:00 at the North Dakota Heritage Center, with only an hour to spare before closing.

All information is from plaques and brochures from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

*Thursday, September 12, 2019*

north dakota: the scandinavian heritage center & the knife river indian villages

wanderessence1025 September 27, 2020

I had a dream last night in Bottineau, North Dakota. I dreamed that my friend Ed, who I used to work for in the State Department, hired me for some job. I was excited and was acting like I would be a great benefit to him. I was acting like I would make myself indispensable. I had some license (maybe Real Estate?) that I gave Ed cause to believe was still valid, although I suspected it might have expired. I remember organizing spiral notebooks quite matter-of-factly.

I wonder if I got this matter-of-fact attitude of being indispensable from Mary Adare in The Beet Queen (by Louise Erdrich) which I was reading before I went to sleep. 🙂

I left Bottineau at 8:20. The drive to Minot, North Dakota was an hour and 20 minutes. It was a gloomy 49°F, but no rain yet. Cornfields surrounded me, as they did through much of the Dakotas.

I wrote down questions in my notebook, looking up the answers later online:

What kinds of trees are used in windbreaks? (Eastern red cedar, Northern white cedar, Lombardy poplar, red pine, many other pine trees including including eastern white pine, ponderosa pine, and loblolly pine).
What are all those golden crops I see in North Dakota? (spring wheat, canola, barley, soybeans, dry beans, corn, as well as durum wheat, lentils, oats, and flaxseed)
What was the golden stubble that showed a crop already harvested? (spring wheat: 52% of the crop was harvested by Sept. 2 according to AgWeek)

The land was flat in all directions. I passed the Mouse River, and wetlands. This was a land of horizontals; the only verticals were telephone poles, the tree windbreaks, and silos.

As I drove, the temperature dropped, and I rolled along 83S for 37 miles. Moby sang “In this darkness, light my way” as heavy clouds hunched overhead. The roads in North Dakota were straight and flat, and a pretty red barn and white farmhouse nestled in a copse of trees. Blackened hay bales hunkered down against the coming rain in a green field.

I finally arrived in Minot, pronounced My’-not, and drove by the Minot Air Force base, a Boot Barn, and the Minot Gun Club. A sign said DNT TXT N DRV. By this time, the clouds had unleashed and were dumping a deluge over the town.

My first stop of the day was the Scandinavian Heritage Center in Minot. It is the world’s only outdoor living museum dedicated to preserving the ethnic heritage of all five Scandinavian countries. The buildings include a visitor center; a stabbur (storage house) from Telemark, Norway; a Finnish sauna; a Danish windmill; a Dala horse; a Stave Church Museum; an eternal flame brought to North Dakota from Norway; and a 230-year-old house from Sigdal, Norway.

A bit of trivia: Norwegians accounted for a large number or immigrants who came to North Dakota. As 75% of the soil in their homeland was unsuitable for agriculture, they sought the fertile farmland here. Only Ireland lost as great a percentage of its people to America.

According to a flyer put out by the State Historical Society of North Dakota:

For North Dakota, Scandinavians mean Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Icelanders, and Finns, descending in percentage of population. In the Old World, they fought each other for economic and political power for over 600 years. They share common language roots and the Lutheran religion. With six years of compulsory education and literacy requirements in their countries, most of the immigrants from Scandinavia were literate before their migration to North Dakota.

By 1914, roughly 20% of all farmland in North Dakota was owned by Norwegians. They farmed extensively in the eastern quarter, northwestern quarter, and north-central region of the state. Some came to North Dakota “fresh off the boat,” but the vast majority had lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Iowa before moving west.

By the time I arrived, a drenching rain had engulfed the land; it was blustery and cold. Friendly folks greeted me in the Edward T. and Leona B Larson Visitors Center, especially one welcoming woman and Thorvold the troll.

Thorvold the troll and me

Trolls have been popularized in Nordic mythology and Scandinavian folklore. Norse trolls dwell in mountains, caves, and under the occasional bridge and are rarely helpful to human beings. Thorvold, who was very friendly, and his bench were hand carved and lived on the main floor of the Visitors Center.

I sloshed around the park, soaking my shoes and socks despite clenching an umbrella overhead.

The Hans Christian Andersen statue celebrates the author famous for his fairy tales, even though he wrote novels, plays, and travel articles. One of the things his works taught was that beauty comes from within.

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen statue

In 1928, the Danish windmill was built by Carl Olson in Powers Lake, North Dakota and was used to supply water and grind wheat for the family. It was donated to Roosevelt Park in the 1960s by Olson’s family.

Danish windmill

The 7’4″ bronze statue of Leif Eiríkssen was dedicated in honor of the Icelandic ancestors who came to America. According to the Vinlanda Saga of Iceland, “Leif the Lucky” was the first man of European stock to step ashore in America in about the year 1000.

Leif Eiríkssen is a fitting symbol for all North Americans whose heritage lies in Nordic countries. According to Saga tradition, his father, Erik the Red, was Norwegian. Leif was born in Eiriksstadir, Iceland, lived and farmed at Brattahlid, Greenland, and served one winter under the Norwegian king in Trondheim.

Leif Eiríkssen statue

Scandinavian Heritage Center

The hillside waterfall and the surrounding area of the park commemorate the heritage of the mountains, streams, islands and lakes of Scandinavian homelands. About 600 gallons per minute of water flow over the waterfall in summer. It was dedicated in 2000.

waterfall and ponds

The Stave Church Museum is a full-size, authentic replica of one of the finest-designed stave churches constructed in Norway. It was dedicated in 2000, and the inaugural service was held on October 9, 2001. It serves as a memorial to the pioneer immigrants who uprooted themselves from Scandinavia to make new homes in North America.

The Gol (Hallingdal) Norway Stavkirke was originally built in the mid-1200s and in 1882, by order of King Oscar II. This old and venerable “house of God,” which had risen over the Gol community for 700 years was dismantled and shipped to Oslo. In 1884, King Oscar II laid the cornerstone for the reconstructed church at Bygdøy Park in Oslo where today it forms part of the Norwegian Folk Museum.

Gol Stave Church Museum

Gol Stave Church Museum

Gol Stave Church Museum

Gol Stave Church Museum

A large 30-foot-tall Dala horse, which is the most recognized Swedish symbol in the world, was dedicated by the Swedish Heritage Association on October 10, 2000.

These brightly colored horses have been carved in various sizes by Swedish craftsmen since the early 1800s. The first Dala horses were plain wood, created as toys for children. A hundred years later, they took on their familiar bright colors and kurbit (flower-patterned) saddle and harness designs.

Dala horse

Dala horse

The Sigdal House is the oldest in North Dakota. Built about 1771, from the Vatnãs area of Sigdal, Norway, it was selected to be representative of a typical house from old-time Norway. It was restored according to museum standards, then dismantled and shipped to Minot. It was dedicated in October of 1991.

Sigdal House

The Stabbur is a storehouse used in Scandinavian countries to provide safe, dry storage for food and other commodities. The one in Minot is a replica of the “Torvtjønnlofter” built about 1775 in Rauland in Telemark, Norway. Ottar Romtveit of Rauland built the stabbur, disassembled it for shipping to Minot, and then came over with his crew to construct it. It was dedicated during the Norsk Høstfest on October 9, 1990.

Stabbur

According to a brochure distributed by the Scandinavian Heritage Park, “immigrants from Scandinavia were unable to bring much with them to this land, however, they had an inherited strength of character and perseverance that enabled them to complete the difficult tasks of life in the New World.

“While these new citizens loved their adopted land, they still remembered with great fondness the friends, relatives, and familiar places they left behind in the “old country.” They often longed to see the majestic fjords and walk through the meadow beside a cool, clear stream that rippled down from the old stave church on the hill.”

Information about the Center comes from “Your Personal Guidebook for Visiting the Scandinavian Heritage Center, Minot, ND, USA”

•••••••••

When I left Minot at 10:35, it was still pouring rain and my feet were soaked through. I drove a 4-lane highway from Minot south, through wetlands and a wind farm with turbines twirling in the rain. The temperature had dropped to 47°F. A wall of grain elevators loomed on the horizon. I noted that Case Farm equipment seemed to be red, while John Deere was green and gold. I recognized the old dinosaur symbol on a Sinclair station and crossed Lake Sakakawea, which was like an ocean.

On 200W, I drove 21 miles on the Lewis & Clark Trail, part of which crossed the Garrison Dam. I saw a white-tailed deer, or maybe an antelope. On Road 37, I drove 10 miles, some through fields of sunflowers, used for seeds and oil.

Just after noon, I arrived at the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site. A fourth grade school group from Bismarck, North Dakota was there and I kept having to reroute to avoid them. It was still blustery and pouring rain.

The Knife River region has been home to people for perhaps 11,000 years. Early written records and cultural materials document that the Hidatsa and Mandan had lived on these river terraces for 500 years when they first made contact with Europeans.

French-Canadian trader Pierre de la Verendrye was the first European to record contact with the Mandan of the upper Missouri in 1738. When explorer David Thompson reached the area in 1797, Hidatsa culture was still healthy. After Lewis & Clark’s visit in 1804, the pace of change quickened. An influx of fur traders undermined the tribes’ key role as middlemen in the economy.

Village people grew dependent on European horses, weapons, cloth, and iron pots. Disease and overhunting of the bison weakened an evolving culture.

Explorer Prince Maximilian of Wied and artists Karl Bodmer and George Catlin portrayed a society in transition. The federal government removed the tribes to reservations, gave members allotted lands, and forced them to grow wheat. It banned Hidatsa societies and rituals. The changes eroded ancient relationships with the land and ended a way of life within one generation.

I first ducked into the earthlodge to get out of the rain. Native American tribes living in the Upper Missouri River Valley, which included the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people, developed the unique earth and wooden home to fit their sedentary agricultural lifestyle.

In the Hidatsa society, women owned and maintained the earthlodge or “awahte.” The women cut four cottonwood posts and beams and, with the help of the men, erected a central support structure. The women then erected an outer circle of posts and cross beams, leaned split logs to form a wall, and lifted the rafters into place. On top of this framework, the women laid bunches of willow branches, dried prairie grass, and thick sod. It took them about 7-10 days to complete the lodge, which would be between 30-60 feet in diameter and 10-15 feet high; they were rebuilt every ten years or so.

earthlodge at Knife River Indian Villages

An earthlodge housed between ten and twenty people, usually sisters and their families. Beds were situated around the perimeter. Personal items were kept under the beds while general use items were kept on raised platforms similar to bed frames. A typical earthlodge also contained a corral for prized war and hunting ponies on one side of the door.

The main focus in the earthlodge was the central fire pit with smoke escaping through a hole in the roof. In the event of heavy rain or snow, an old bullboat could be turned over the hole and propped up to allow smoke to escape. Earthlodge occupants sat around the central fire on reed mats including the atuka, a high-sided seat reserved for the oldest man of the household. The atuka was also offered to visitors as a sign of respect.

beds around the perimeter

fire pit

artifacts

buffalo skin

bed

the earthlodge

The transitional time between summer and winter was used to store food. The cache pit was a large bell-shaped hole in the floor lined with willow and dry grass and filled with dried corn, beans, squash, and sunflower. The women built several cache pits both inside and outside the earthlodge and covered them over to hide their location. Parfleches were rawhide containers hung from the ceiling used to store a variety of items such as clothes, dried foods, trade items, craft materials, and hides.

cache pit

I tried to walk to the Awatixa Village, also known as Sakakawea Village; it was a one mile round trip, but I never made it. I only saw Awatixa Xi’e Village, also known as the Lower Hidatsa Village, because it was so windy and wet that I was getting soaked even under my umbrella; this village was established as early as 1525 CE and continuously occupied until about 1780-1785.

Before coming into the visitor center, I’d put on my Tevas because my tennis shoes were soaked; while I walked, my feet were freezing and the hood of my jacket kept getting blown off my head. My pants were soaked. I walked about halfway and turned around.

I came upon a Hidatsa Garden. In mid-spring, women planted sunflowers using simple tools. In late May or early June, they planted corn. Squash and beans were planted between every 8-10 rows of corn. Annual flooding of the river terraces brought fresh soil to the gardens. Gardening the terraces was necessary because the prairie sod was almost impossible to break with a bison scapula (shoulder blade) hoe.

Hidatsa Garden

path to Awatixa Village

I stood at the edge of a large village of earthlodges, Awatixa Xi’e Village. When the dwellings collapsed, they left circular mounds of earth around hardened, saucer-like floors. From that pattern, one can envision the extent of the village and guess the number of inhabitants.

The bowl-shaped earthlodge depressions are surprisingly close together, leaving barely enough room for corn-drying scaffolds between dwellings. This suggests a close-knit social structure and the need for protection against marauding tribes. From the air, 51 earthlodge depressions are visible. According to archeological evidence, people occupied the site for centuries before the Awatixa built this village. They abandoned it after the smallpox epidemic in 1780, but later returned and built a new village at the river’s edge.

Awatixa Xi’e Village

Awatixa Xi’e Village

Awatixa Xi’e Village

Molehill-like mounds two to four feet high near the village edge are middens or garbage heaps packed with broken pottery, bone tools and flaked stone. Shattered buffalo bones are the most frequently unearthed objects found here.

Awatixa Xi’e Village

Back in the warmth of the Visitor Center, I looked at some of the displays.

decorated buffalo hide

Mandan Village (1830s) by George Catlin

The permanent Knife River villages became centers of trade between widespread Indian people of the Plains. The peak trade period from mid- to late-summer brought goods to these villages from every coast.

Knife River flint, from quarries 60 miles to the west, was the region’s first known trade item. With the flint, they made points, blades, knives, and tools with many uses. Surplus food was also used for trade. They also traded goods that other tribes brought into the villages – obsidian from Wyoming, copper from the Great Lakes, and dentalium shell from the West Coast. These experienced traders were ready to deal in European goods, such as glass beads, guns, horses and metal items, when they arrived.

Trade with the Hidatsa & Mandan

Summer was a time of intense gardening. A Green Corn Ceremony celebrated summer’s first green corn. Berries roots and fish supplemented their diet. Upland hunting yielded bison, deer, and small game for meat, hides, bones, and sinew.

Green Corn Dance of the Hidatsa, by George Catlin

Skill on horseback became crucial to hunting the buffalo. In early summer, hunters left the village to follow buffalo on the plains. Women sometimes accompanied their husbands to help butcher meat and dress hides. Meat would be smoked or dried in the hunting camp.

Winter Village of the Minatarres, by Karl Bodmer

The explorer Maximillian described women playing with a game ball in 1833. “They toss it on the foot and then keep it in the air by kicking it.”

Porcupine quills were used for decoration in early times. Much work was needed in removing spines, dyeing, sorting, softening, flattening, and sewing them into place on clothing and other personal items.

Winter was a time of storytelling, game-playing, and the passing on of traditional knowledge. Buckskin dolls kept children company during the long winter months.

game balls

moccasins

sashes

Buckskin dolls

cancellation stamp for Knife River Indian Villages

After watching a video about a Native American Indian’s life in the village, I was on my way to Washburn, North Dakota.

Information comes from the Knife River Villages pamphlet and museum and park signs posted by the National Park Service.

*Thursday, September 12, 2019*

a september cocktail hour during coronavirus: venturing to chicago & mourning rbg

wanderessence1025 September 26, 2020

Here we are, continuing to expand our horizons on this 4th Saturday in September. Welcome to my 13th and final cocktail hour, during a time where we venture a bit further from home and enjoy a beverage. I offer you Cheers! À votre santé! 乾杯/ Kanpai! Saúde! Salud! May we all remain healthy, safe, financially afloat, and hopeful.

scene around Lake Newport

dragonfly found along Lake Anne

On August 25, we drove to Macedonia, Ohio, halfway to Chicago, where we visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park the next morning, taking two hikes in a light rain.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Brandywine Falls at Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Mike at Brandywine Falls

Ledges Trail at Cuyahoga Valley National Park

We spent four days in Chicago, the Windy City, going on a public art walk and an architecture walk in the Loop and through Millennium Park, seeing “The Bean,” which was blocked off, and Crown Fountain, which wasn’t operating because of coronavirus. I flipped off Trump Tower along the Chicago River. We enjoyed the Impressionist paintings at the Art Institute.

Crown Fountain at Millennium Park

Cloud Gate, aka “The Bean” at Millennium Park

Jay Prtizker Pavilion at Millennium Park

Cloud Gate, aka “The Bean” from the Michigan Avenue side

Rush More

Chicago Theatre

Chicago River

me at the Chicago River

Monument with Standing Beast

Picasso’s unnamed sculpture

painting at the Art Institute

El Greco at the Art Institute

American Gothic at the Art Institute

Georgia O’Keeffe at the Art Institute

painting at the Art Institute

modern wing of the Art Institute

The Art Institute

mural in West Town

We took a bike ride along the lakefront of Lake Michigan in the 90°+ weather. We enjoyed great views of Chicago at 360° Chicago and strolled around the 9-sided Bahá’i Temple of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.

me on our bikeride

marina along the lakefront

view of the city from the lakefront

Museum Campus

Field Museum

marina

Chicago River

mural in Chicago

our humble Airbnb in West Town

view of Chicago from 360 Chicago

Mike at 360 Chicago

360 Chicago

Chicago Water Tower

Bahá’i Temple of Worship

me at the Bahá’i Temple of Worship

Bahá’i Temple of Worship

Mike at Bahá’i Temple of Worship

pizza at Coalfire

tomato cans at Coalfire

We walked among the headless armless iron sculptures, called Agora, at Grant Park. We learned all about company towns and labor strikes at Pullman National Monument. We were serenaded by bagpipes at University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel as the university welcomed the Class of 2024. We saw a number of Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses, including Robie House and the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. We enjoyed colorful street murals at Pilsen and visited Ukrainian Village, where we had potato pancakes and vodka at Tryzub.

Agora

donuts and social justice

murals in Chicago

mural in Chicago

Museum of Science and Industry

Rockefeller Chapel at University of Chicago

Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright

quad at University of Chicago

Pullman National Monument

mural in Pilsen

Pilsen

mural in Pilsen

Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Home

Oak Park

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio

Oak Park

me in Oak Park

Oak Park

Ukrainian Village

mural in Ukrainian Village

Tryzub Ukrainian Kitchen

Mike at Tryzub Ukrainian Kitchen

potato latkes

Tryzub Ukrainian Kitchen

Our last morning, we drove through the colorful Boystown and strolled through Wrigleyville, where we admired the classic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. That afternoon, we enjoyed the amazing Chicago River Boat Architecture Tour and learned all about the famous architecture along the Chicago River. We took a short stroll along Chicago Riverwalk.

Boystown

Wrigley Field

Chicago River Boat Architecture Tour

Chicago Riverwalk

We drove back the long haul of 12+ hours in one day to get back home again on August 31.

After returning home, we enjoyed a dinner out at Kalypso at Lake Anne. We celebrated my sister-in-law’s 69th birthday on our screened porch (socially distanced) with take-out Thai food. This was the first time we’d seen her since the pandemic began. We dined in at Ariake; this was the first time they’d opened inside dining since the pandemic.

Mike at Kalypso

red flower at Lake Anne

me at Lake Anne

me with Mike at Lake Anne

dinner at Ariake

Mike at Ariake

remote powered sailboats at Lake Anne

butterfly around Lake Anne

Lake Newport

mushrooms around Lake Newport

Kalypso at Lake Anne

Lake Newport

At the end of August, just before our trip to Chicago, I saw the GI doctor for a Stretta consultation, and found that after I do that procedure, which should help toughen and thicken the muscle around my lower esophageal sphincter (LES), I will likely have to have another treatment to help the function of my esophagus.

I took the COVID-19 test once again in preparation for my Stretta procedure on the 17th, and had to self-quarantine until the procedure. The test came back negative.

On September 17, I actually had the Stretta procedure, after waiting an agonizing 2 1/2 hours past my scheduled time, not having had anything to eat or drink since midnight the night before. “The Stretta is a non-surgical outpatient procedure that takes 60 minutes or less. A Stretta device travels through the mouth, down to the LES (muscle between the stomach and esophagus). Once in place, it delivers radiofrequency (RF) energy to the muscle. This regenerates the tissue, resulting in improved barrier function that may prevent reflux and reduce GERD symptoms,” according to the pamphlet for Stretta.

The effect of Stretta works over time; patients usually begin to see improvement after about two months. Some patients improve more quickly than others. Studies show that some symptoms may continue to improve for 6 months or longer. This requires much patience on my part, not a strong suit of mine!

Since the procedure, I had to be on a liquid diet for 24 hours, then a very soft food diet for two weeks; this is extremely limited: water, milk, yogurt, soft drinks, fruit drinks, soup broths, pudding, ice cream, applesauce and cream soups. I’ve been on the very soft diet for 9 days. It’s so boring!! As of today, I’ve lost over 20 pounds since my highest weight on May 7. This includes the two months I was on an “acid watcher diet” and cutting many foods out of my diet. I’ve lost 5.6 lbs. since I had the procedure.

After two weeks on the very soft diet, I can move to a soft diet, which includes more foods, but is still very limited, for two more weeks. I hope it will all be worthwhile in the end. So far I see a slight improvement in my symptoms, and I’m hoping for more in the coming weeks.

On Friday, September 18, our beloved Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, passed away after battling various cancers and trying like hell to hang on through the presidential election. On Sunday, we went downtown to the Supreme Court to pay our respects and to read the tributes written by mourners. I won’t even get into the political ramifications of this loss; let’s just say it has created a firestorm, as the corrupt and amoral Republicans in the Senate will go ahead and nominate an ultra-conservative judge to fill the vacancy left by Ginsburg, despite being so close to an election where many of us (anyone with a shred of decency) hope like hell that Trump will be removed.

Tributes to Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court

Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

We also stopped by to see the new Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in D.C.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial

I stood in line for an hour and 40 minutes on Wednesday, September 16 to vote early in Fairfax County. I wanted to get my voting done before we take our Canyon & Cactus Road Trip in later October. I’ve done my civic duty, and now we just have to see how it all unfolds with our dictator-wannabe POS president, as he tries to steal the election and even pretend the results are falsified. And we’ll see what the spineless Republicans do to enable him to destroy our democracy. I will be protesting in the streets if there is any chance it looks like he has not been legally elected and he tries to hold on to power.

***********

We still have the highest number of COVID cases in the world, over 7,059,200 as of September 26, 2020, and the highest number of deaths at 203,575. Worldwide, there are nearly 32,590,000 cases and 989,128 deaths. The U.S. has 21.6% of worldwide cases and 20.6% of deaths, despite having only 4.2% of the population. Isn’t America really GREAT?

Here in Virginia, we are holding steady, but not doing as well as we did early on, with 144,433 cases and 3,136 deaths. Our governor has eased restrictions and has made rules about mask-wearing inside public places, and for the most part, at least in Northern Virginia, people seem to be following the guidelines. However, since the state has begun to reopen college campuses, cases have increased, especially in college towns throughout the Commonwealth. We are just going about our business, with much reduced activity, wearing masks anytime we are indoors or in contact with other people.

*********

I have been writing a monthly cocktail hour/diary about this challenging time; this will be my last one. I invite you to share your own experiences with what we’re going through right now, either in the comments below, or in your own blog post, which I invite you to link below. I hope that we will get through it unscathed, sooner rather than later.

Peace and love be with you all!

anticipation & preparation: the canyon & cactus road trip

wanderessence1025 September 25, 2020

My Canyon & Cactus Road Trip will be a huge undertaking. I hope to drive to Denver, Colorado (three days of 8+ hour drives) and pick up Mike as he flies in. We’ll visit our son in Denver and have he and his girlfriend accompany us to Utah. In Utah, I want to visit Goblin Valley State Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome Basin State Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Zion National Park and St. George. At some point, Alex and his girlfriend will return to Denver, and Mike will fly home from Las Vegas.

Canyonlands in Utah

Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

Once everyone departs, I hope to continue my way into Arizona. I will probably have to save the Grand Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs National Monument for another trip. I plan to head to Sedona, Turzigoot National Monument, and Red Rock State Park. Then I’ll head south to Agua Fria National Monument and then to the Phoenix area.

In the Phoenix area, I’d like to visit various sites around the city of Phoenix. I’ll keep heading south, to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, and then to Tucson. From Tucson, I’ll visit Ironwood Forest National Monument, Saguaro National Park, Tumacácori National Historical Park, Tombstone, Chiricahua National Monument and Ft. Bowie National Historic Site.

Coal Mine Canyon in Utah

After all of this, I’ll have a very long drive home, four days of 8+ hour drives, hopefully stopping in Deming, New Mexico; Abilene, Texas; Forrest City, Arkansas; Kingsport, Tennessee; and back to Northern Virginia.

A lot must come together for me to go on this trip. As I just had my Stretta procedure on my lower esophageal sphincter on September 17, I must see how my healing goes and I must see my doctor on October 15.

Luckily I managed to vote early in Fairfax County. I had to stand in line for an hour and 40 minutes, but the deed is done!

If all goes well, my hope is to leave on Saturday or Sunday, October 17 or 18. I imagine the trip will be less than a month in duration.

All this year, I’ve been reading books set in New Mexico and Texas, as I hoped I’d be going there. All that reading will prepare me when I eventually go either in 2021 or 2022. I’ve been to Arizona and Utah before and here are some of the books on my reading list.

Arizona
1. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver ****
2. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
3. The Woman Lit by Fireflies by Jim Harrison *****
4. Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
5. The Song of the Lark (Great Plains Trilogy #2) by Willa Cather
6. Arizona: Kicks on Route 66. Text by Roger Naylor, Photographs by Larry Lindahl
7. Inland by Téa Obreht (currently reading)
8. Crossers by Philip Caputo
9. The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir by Leslie Marmon Silko
10. Gallatin Canyon by Thomas McGuane
11. Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral (Doc Holliday #2) by Mary Doria Russell
12. These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner (Arizona Territory)

Utah
1. The Never Open Desert Diner by James Anderson ****
2. Lullaby Road by James Anderson
3. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka *****
4. Junction, Utah by Rebecca Lawton
5. The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber
6. Basin and Range by John McPhee (non-fiction)
7. Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
8. Mormon Country by Wallace Stegner
9. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey
10. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

There are also a number of movies set in Arizona and Utah.

Arizona

1. Raising Arizona (1987) ****
2. Thelma and Louise (1991) ****
3. Grand Canyon (1991)
4. Tombstone (1993)
5. How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (2005) ****
6. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
7. Lucky (2017) ****

Utah

1. The Electric Horseman (1979)
2. Footloose (1984) *****
3. Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade (1989)
4. 127 Hours (2010) ****

I haven’t had time to prepare my journal yet, but I have a couple of weeks left. I have however picked out the journals I will use.

journals for my Canyon & Cactus Road Trip

The orange highlights on the Utah map below show my route during my Four Corners Road Trip in 2018. The places I plan to go this time are circled in the southwestern part of the state.

Utah planning

The orange highlights on the Arizona map below show my route during my Four Corners Road Trip in 2018. The places I plan to go this time are circled in the southern part of the state. I plan to skip the Grand Canyon and Vermilion Cliffs on this trip.

Arizona planning

Here are a few pages from my travel journal, still in progress.

Canyon & Cactus Road Trip Journal

call to place: the canyon & cactus road trip

wanderessence1025 September 24, 2020

I’m called to spectacular canyons, blooming deserts, Saguaro cacti, colored bands of limestone and hoodoos, hanging gardens, wrinkles in the earth’s crust, and raging rivers. I’m called to get into the great outdoors and hike. I’m called to get far from civilization and out into the wilderness, far away from the daily news cycle and the plague of COVID-19.

Arches National Park – Utah

My heart was set on going to west Texas and New Mexico this year, but as fall approached, I could see it wasn’t going to work out. New Mexico has a lot of restrictions for travelers, notably a required two-week quarantine. Though they recently updated their travel restrictions, my home state of Virginia is still on their list of states required to quarantine. Many of the state’s state parks and museums are not open.

In west Texas, the main place I wanted to visit was Big Bend National Park, but the park is only partially open, and the recommended place to stay, Chisos Basin Lodge & Restaurant, is closed. Thus my reason for going to West Texas went down the drain. Though there were other places I wanted to visit, Big Bend was the biggest draw, and if New Mexico was out, I knew I needed to rethink my road trip.

A long-time destination on my list has been Arizona and the southwest corner of Utah. We did the Four Corners area, including southeast Utah, in May of 2018. Mike and I have always wanted to visit what is known as The Grand Circle, which includes the parks: Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, ~~Arches and Canyonlands National Parks~~, Grand Canyon National Park, and Capitol Reef National Park. We visited Arches and Canyonlands in 2018, so, skipping those, we would like to do a larger area than the Grand Circle, extending a little north into Utah and south down into Arizona. We’ve decided to skip the Grand Canyon this time around.

Arches Nataional Park, Utah

Natural Bridges, Utah

Canyonlands, Utah

As I only recently decided to do this trip, I am going to be doing it by the seat of my pants. Mike plans to fly out to meet me in Denver, and he will do the Grand Circle parks with me. Our son Alex and his girlfriend hopefully will drive along with us from Colorado and do the parks too.

After they all leave, I hope to head south into Arizona. I will drive out to Colorado (three 8+ hour days) and back (four 8+ hour days) by myself.

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon once in my life, on my road trip with with my first husband in 1979. At that time, we only stopped briefly into the park, and, as our camera had been stolen in San Diego, we didn’t take any pictures.

Canyon de Chelly in Arizona

I hope to leave in mid-October, but many things need to fall into place. 🙂

north dakota’s big skies & the international peace garden

wanderessence1025 September 22, 2020

When I left Jamestown, North Dakota, I made my way north toward the Canadian border, en route to the International Peace Garden. I originally planned to go to Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge but decided against it as it was raining and it would have been 16 miles each way on a dirt road.

I fell in love with the flat plains, fields of sunflowers and corn, and the gray dramatic skies. It was a chilly 55°F. Dirt roads disappeared off the highway into nowhere. Alternately, the sky spit sporadic sprinkles or misted over completely. I passed many homesteads engulfed by huge tracts of farmland, dotted with barns and silos.

map of U.S. license plates

Sykeston welcomed me amidst endless lines of telephone poles and vast golden fields punctuated with squat pointy silver silos. Soon fog draped itself over the land. Pretty delicate trees stood in a dainty line. It felt wonderful not to be hemmed in by trees, people or traffic.

When I was at the Nicollet place, the docent there said “we” tend to get claustrophobic when we can’t see great distances, like when there are trees, or tall mountains, or fog hemming us in. I wondered who he meant by “we” – South Dakotans (of which he was one) or all humans. I’ve always loved wide open spaces and big skies and sweeping views. I never see the point of walking in a forest. I wonder if I might have some Dakota blood in me.

All around me were gold fields and green fields, black cows, lakes, wetlands and tall dancing grasses. I had read in My Ántonia of farmers planting rows of trees as windbreaks, as protection from the wind, and I saw them everywhere. Low hanging clouds moved swiftly across the dark skies, and corn in the fields shimmied in winds that carried flocks of birds into a scatter dance. The clouds were like a low ceiling pressing down on the landscape, two great plains facing off, like warriors wielding shields.

I was welcomed to Harvey: “Not just a place…it’s an experience!” Near the Sheyenne River, I headed north on Route 3 for 43 miles. I saw cylinders with the brand CROPLAN stamped on them. (CROPLAN provides quality seed to farmers). I crossed a bridge arcing over a long freight train lumbering across the land. Three big trucks with huge cream cylinders passed by me on the narrow two lane highway. The land wasn’t as flat as I’d imagined North Dakota; rolling hills were stacked with neat bales of hay and cattle dotted the hills.

There were more cream cylinders, this time Meridian. These were silver hopper bottom bins; I found they were multi-purpose storage bins, supposedly versatile and used for grain, seed, fertilizer and more. I found myself curious about farming because I don’t know a thing about it.

I was out here in North Dakota with not a soul in sight so was shocked when a single car whizzed past me near a field of sunflowers, in a hurry to get to nowhere.

At 11:00, I landed in Rugby; known as the Geographical Center of North America. There wasn’t much to the town, just a Restoration Ministries, a field of school buses, the ubiquitous gas station/convenience store. The clouds were woven into long skeins of wool overhead.

Rugby, N.D., Geographical Center of North America

I passed a man in a pickup truck stopped in the middle of the road; he was picking up a male hitchhiker carrying a huge backpack. Rounded mounds were to my left, wind turbines to my right. I watched as the corn grew all around me. Lana del Ray sang, asking if it was the end of America. I saw yet another kind of storage bin, a hopper bottom and bin package called Micada. These are retro-fit hopper bottoms for any existing grain.

Gold tipped grasses swayed as Rodriguez sang that his heart had become a crooked hall full or mirrors. He sang that he set sail in a teardrop and I felt I had set sail in a raindrop today. The leaves on the scattered trees were changing into yellows, greens and reds.

By 12:15, I’d arrived at the International Peace Garden. As the 3.65-square-mile garden sits on the border of Canada and the U.S., I drove past U.S. Customs but didn’t check in with them, and turned right before Canadian Customs.

The International Peace Garden was dedicated July 14, 1932. It commemorated peace between the U.S. and Canada. To the south of the invisible border, wheat fields were everywhere, and to the north, the Manitoba Forest Preserve. A place was chosen on North Dakota Route 3, the longest north-south road in the world, and about centrally located on the continent of North America. Lake Udall is on the U.S. side and Lake Stormon is on the Canadian side.

I started my visit in the Conservatory, home to more than 5,000 unique and rare species of cacti and succulents.

Conservatory at the International Peace Garden

In the Formal Gardens were more than 80,000 annuals and perennials.

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

The 9/11 memorial site pays tribute to more than 2,800 lives lost in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On June 3, 2002, the garden received ten 10-foot girders from the World Trade Center wreckage. The girders lie at rest at the 9/11 Memorial Site as an everlasting reminder of the human tragedy that occurred one quiet September morning in New York City, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

I hadn’t known about the 9/11 Memorial Site at the garden, but it seemed appropriate that I happened to visit on September 11, 2019. Apparently, they had held a 9/11 memorial that morning and were putting away the chairs by the time I’d arrived.

9/11 Memorial at the International Peace Garden

9/11 Memorial at the International Peace Garden

9/11 Memorial at the International Peace Garden

9/11 Memorial at the International Peace Garden

9/11 Memorial at the International Peace Garden

The World Trade Center Tragedy

Military Action

Effects of the 9/11 Event

9/11

I went into the All-Faith Peace Chapel, where Tyndall stone walls were embedded with marine fossils and inscribed with quotes.

Peace Chapel

Peace Chapel

quotes in the Peace Chapel

The Carillon Bell Tower was cast in Croydon, England in 1931, a year before the Peace Garden was dedicated. The 14 bells in this tower were a memorial gift from two sons to their late mother. The sons of Lady Arma Sifton – Sifton was once a big name in Manitoba business circles – purchased the bells in her memory for the First Methodist Church of Brandon, where they chimed for 42 years.

The bells range in size from 250 to 2,000 pounds, and were valued at $150,000 CDN in the mid-1970s, when Brandon’s Central United Church donated them to the Peace Garden.

The Peace Garden was able to provide a home for the bells because of assistance from North Dakota Veterans organizations. In a great effort, they raised $48,000. The Tower is dedicated to war veterans.

Apparently they ring every 15 minutes during the warmer months.

The Carillon Bell Tower

I walked back through the Formal Gardens on the way to my car.

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Today was one of the colder days on my Road Trip to Nowhere; I had to drag out my winter coat.

me at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

Formal Gardens at the International Peace Garden

I drove the loop around the gardens and stopped in briefly at the North American Game Warden Museum.

North American Game Warden Museum

Timber Wolf

Mountain Lion

Kodiak Bear

Polar Bear

I stopped at some wetlands at Peace Garden Lake.

Peace Garden Lake

Peace Garden Lake

Peace Garden Lake

By 2:45, I left the International Peace Garden and entered through U.S. Customs back to North Dakota. In about a half hour, I was in Bottineau, where I would stay the night.

I checked in early and then went out for dinner at Marie’s. I enjoyed a martini with a cucumber and lemon. I also had Poutine. It said on the menu: “Our northern neighbors created and gave to the world this dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with brown mushroom gravy.” I also enjoyed a Lava Cake for dessert: “Wonderfully warm, moist chocolate cake filled with creamy, semisweet chocolate ganache, topped with soft ice cream and raspberry puree.”

Marie’s in Bottineau, N.D.

inside Marie’s

Poutine

The best thing about the day was the drive, and sadly I have no photos of that. Woolly clouds hung over a rolling patchwork terrain of golds and greens: sunflower fields, wheat fields, corn fields, grasslands and wetlands. With that heavy cloud bank hovering overhead, it was a dramatic scene. I was bowled over by the beauty of it all. Sadly, these country roads had no place to pull off, and I wasn’t sure a photo would have done it justice anyway. But, oh! It was stunning!

Here are my journal pages from today:

International Peace Garden

September 11, 2019

*Drove 230.10 miles. Steps: 6,814, or 2.89 miles*

*Wednesday, September 11, 2019*

Underwater World

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The Horse in North Dakota

Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today

Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples

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