GEN. GEORGE A. CUSTER
GEN. GEORGE A. CUSTER
GEN. GEORGE A. CUSTER
SITTING BULL
SITTING BULL
SITTING BULL
BATTLE OF THE BADLANDS, 1864Drawing by a soldier who participated in the engagement
BATTLE OF THE BADLANDS, 1864Drawing by a soldier who participated in the engagement
BATTLE OF THE BADLANDS, 1864
Drawing by a soldier who participated in the engagement
OppositeSTATE CAPITOL, BISMARCKPhoto by Risem
OppositeSTATE CAPITOL, BISMARCKPhoto by Risem
OppositeSTATE CAPITOL, BISMARCKPhoto by Risem
A "LITTLE OLD SOD SHANTY" OF EARLY DAYS
A "LITTLE OLD SOD SHANTY" OF EARLY DAYS
A "LITTLE OLD SOD SHANTY" OF EARLY DAYS
REVIVING A NORWEGIAN FOLKDANCE, ESMOND, N. DAK.Photo by P. B. Rognlie
REVIVING A NORWEGIAN FOLKDANCE, ESMOND, N. DAK.Photo by P. B. Rognlie
REVIVING A NORWEGIAN FOLKDANCE, ESMOND, N. DAK.
Photo by P. B. Rognlie
Railroad Stations:Northern Pacific, Main Ave. bet. 4th and 5th Sts., for N. P. Ry.; Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie, 117 7th St., for Soo Line.Bus Stations:Union Bus & Truck Terminal, 618 Bdwy., for Northland Greyhound Lines and Interstate Transportation Co.; Grand Pacific Hotel, Bdwy. and 4th St., Mandan-Bismarck, for local intercity line, fare 25c.Airport:Municipal airport, 2 m. SE. of city on unmarked county road, taxi fare 50c, time 10 min., for Northwest and Hanford Airlines. Day and night service, no public hangars.Taxis:Fare 25c in first zone and to Capitol; 35c to outlying districts.City Bus Line:Busses leave Patterson Hotel, Main Ave. at 5th St. and cor. of 4th St. and Bdwy., through residential district to Capitol, fare 10c.Traffic Regulations:No U-turn on through streets, Main Ave. (US 10) and 6th St. (US 83). Turns in either direction at intersections and vehicle to the right has right-of-way. One-way streets border Custer Park in W. end of city. Street signs show hour parking limits in business district.Accommodations:6 hotels; tourist camp adjoining Riverside Park at SW. edge of city, reached by turning L. on US 10 just before reaching Liberty Memorial Bridge.Information Service:Association of Commerce, 215 6th St. City Hostess maintains office here also.Theaters and Motion Picture Houses:Bismarck Auditorium, Bdwy. at 6th St., occasional road shows and local productions; 3 motion picture theaters.Golf:18-hole course at Country Club on NW. outskirts of city (greens fee 40c, Sat. and Sun. 75c).Tennis:Country Club and Hughes Field, 316 Ave. D, W.Swimming:Outdoor municipal pool, 323 W. Bdwy.Skating:Floodlighted rinks at 7th St. and Ave. D, 4th St. and Ave. F, Hannafin St. and Ave. A.Hunting and Fishing:Information can be obtained from State Game and Fish Department in the Capitol.Annual Events:Slope Poultry Show, World War Memorial Bldg., early January; State high school basketball tournament, World War Memorial Bldg., 215 6th St., March, no fixed date; State Art Exhibit, Capitol, mid-May; City Flower show, World War Memorial Bldg., late summer, usually August; State Corn Show, World War Memorial Bldg., last week in October.
Railroad Stations:Northern Pacific, Main Ave. bet. 4th and 5th Sts., for N. P. Ry.; Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie, 117 7th St., for Soo Line.
Bus Stations:Union Bus & Truck Terminal, 618 Bdwy., for Northland Greyhound Lines and Interstate Transportation Co.; Grand Pacific Hotel, Bdwy. and 4th St., Mandan-Bismarck, for local intercity line, fare 25c.
Airport:Municipal airport, 2 m. SE. of city on unmarked county road, taxi fare 50c, time 10 min., for Northwest and Hanford Airlines. Day and night service, no public hangars.
Taxis:Fare 25c in first zone and to Capitol; 35c to outlying districts.
City Bus Line:Busses leave Patterson Hotel, Main Ave. at 5th St. and cor. of 4th St. and Bdwy., through residential district to Capitol, fare 10c.
Traffic Regulations:No U-turn on through streets, Main Ave. (US 10) and 6th St. (US 83). Turns in either direction at intersections and vehicle to the right has right-of-way. One-way streets border Custer Park in W. end of city. Street signs show hour parking limits in business district.
Accommodations:6 hotels; tourist camp adjoining Riverside Park at SW. edge of city, reached by turning L. on US 10 just before reaching Liberty Memorial Bridge.
Information Service:Association of Commerce, 215 6th St. City Hostess maintains office here also.
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses:Bismarck Auditorium, Bdwy. at 6th St., occasional road shows and local productions; 3 motion picture theaters.
Golf:18-hole course at Country Club on NW. outskirts of city (greens fee 40c, Sat. and Sun. 75c).
Tennis:Country Club and Hughes Field, 316 Ave. D, W.
Swimming:Outdoor municipal pool, 323 W. Bdwy.
Skating:Floodlighted rinks at 7th St. and Ave. D, 4th St. and Ave. F, Hannafin St. and Ave. A.
Hunting and Fishing:Information can be obtained from State Game and Fish Department in the Capitol.
Annual Events:Slope Poultry Show, World War Memorial Bldg., early January; State high school basketball tournament, World War Memorial Bldg., 215 6th St., March, no fixed date; State Art Exhibit, Capitol, mid-May; City Flower show, World War Memorial Bldg., late summer, usually August; State Corn Show, World War Memorial Bldg., last week in October.
BISMARCK (1,670 alt., 11,090 pop.), Burleigh County seat, watched over by its lonely skyscraper statehouse, is the storm center of the State's widely known progressive politics. Ever since it won that honor in Territorial days, its chief claim to fame and most prized possession has been the capitol, which is an integral part of Bismarck, influencing its development and character more than any other single feature. From the very first the capital city showed signs of enterprise that has characterized its growth. Its name was selected with a view to flattering Germany's Iron Chancellor in the hope of bringing German capital to the rescue of the financially stricken Northern Pacific Railway.
CITY OF BISMARCK
CITY OF BISMARCK
CITY OF BISMARCK
Bismarck is in the south-central portion of the State where the Northern Pacific Railway and US 10 cross the Missouri River. The natural ford here was long known to Indians and buffalo asone of the narrowest and least dangerous crossings on the Missouri. A "pay roll" town because of the State and Federal offices, it is a growing city despite post-boom years; 87 new homes were built during 1936. Modern business buildings constitute the downtown area, and comfortable, new, bungalow-type homes, clean streets, and well-kept lawns can be seen on the hills which not long ago were the home of Indian tribes.
The generous western spirit of the residents seems reflected in the structure of the city. Nothing is crowded. On the east bank of the restless Missouri River the site of the city is hilly, rising to the north. Gullies and small hills in the residential district have been filled in and smoothed off as the city has grown. Along the Missouri near the city cretaceous rocks are exposed. Strata of shale reaching up almost to the summit of the bank are topped with a thin layer of drift. Butte-like hills can be seen in the distance north and east of the city, their flat tops capped with Fox Hills sandstone.
In Bismarck are the headquarters of both of the old-line political parties and the various progressive groups. Hotels are the unofficial headquarters of different parties, especially when the legislature is in session. At such times, although the city is businesslike on the surface, there is an air of expectancy as it awaits new developments in the State's changing political creeds.
Pioneers of the city can still remember the first legislative session in 1889, when the lobbyists for the Louisiana Lottery poured their money into legislators' pockets, and were shadowed and exposed by private detectives hired by a Governor and his friends. Nor forgotten are the machinations of Alexander McKenzie, who represented the railroad interests in all things political, and who in later years exercised his peculiar talents in Alaska to such an extent that Rex Beach accorded him the role of villain in his novelThe Spoilers(see below). And even the young citizens recall how four governors succeeded one another in the teakwood gubernatorial office in the course of a little more than six months.
Long before the arrival of the white man, the Mandan Indians found the Bismarck-Mandan area a favorable spot for their homes. Their culture gives this vicinity an interesting archeological background (seeIndians and Their Predecessors). Several village sites of the Mandans and Hidatsa are in this vicinity, and a full-sized model of an earth lodge is constructed on the Capitol grounds. Artifacts, including implements of warfare and agriculture, pottery, and beads, were recovered in these sites and are preserved in the museum of the State historical society.
French fur traders, Lewis and Clark, Prince Paul of Wurttemberg, Maximilian, Prince of Wied, and many another early adventurer and explorer passed the site of Bismarck in voyages up the Missouri, but squatters, anticipating the westward path of the Northern Pacific Railway, were the first to settle this vicinity, in the winter of 1871-72. During construction of the railroad a settlement called Burleightown, named for Dr. Walter Burleigh of the Northern Pacific Company, grew up near where Fort Lincoln stands. At the end of the railroad grade on the bank of the Missouri, just opposite Fort McKeen, was a tent-town called Carleton City, later called Point Pleasant, and known to the soldiers of the fort as Whiskey Point.
The site of the city was originally occupied by Camp Greeley, later known as Camp Hancock, a military post established in 1872 for the protection of railroad crews. One of the log buildings of the post is incorporated into the United States Weather Bureau at 101 Main Avenue, the original post site, and is the oldest building in Bismarck.
In 1860 river transportation had begun on the upper Missouri, opening a vast new region to settlement. During this period at least fifty cargoes were being discharged yearly at Fort Benton in Montana, while it required a fleet of some thirty or more vessels to transport troops and carry supplies to the various posts, forts, and Indian agencies in the Missouri basin. The "Crossing on the Missouri" became a stirring steamboat port, attracting many rivermen and wood choppers. The latter served an industry of extensive proportions, since wood supplied all fuel needs for boats on the river and for the military posts and agencies.
The flooding of the flats near Burleightown each spring threatened danger for the railroad grade, however, and this is thought to have been the ostensible reason for changing the route in 1873; actually, the change was probably made to keep land grabbers from obtaining control of the point at which the road would cross the river. A new grade was built about one mile north, running past Camp Greeley. The Lake Superior and Puget Sound Company, a town site location company auxiliary to the Northern Pacific, was then able to locate another city site which was named Edwinton for Edwin F. Johnson, Northern Pacific chief engineer, but was generally known as "The Crossing." When the Burleightown grade was left unused the town was abandoned and the inhabitants moved to Edwinton. In 1873 the name Bismarck was chosen, but the first title of the town persisted. When Mrs. Linda Slaughter became postmistress in 1874 she found it necessary topoint out to the Post Office Department in Washington that mail should be addressed to "Bismarck, D. T." rather than to "The Crossing, Northern Pacific Railroad on the Missouri River, D. T."
Rails were laid into Bismarck on June 4, 1873, and it remained the terminus of the Northern Pacific until 1879. With the coming of the railroad the town became the head of navigation on the Missouri. When river traffic closed in the fall because of low water, no attempt was made to operate the Northern Pacific west of Fargo until the following spring, as the company did not have snow-fighting equipment with which to keep the road open during the winter months. Merchants had to stock up in the fall with enough goods to last until spring. Mail came once a week via a Government carrier from Fargo to Fort Abraham Lincoln. Enterprising persons sometimes came from Minnesota with loads of dressed poultry and hogs for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The trip from Fargo to Bismarck took about six days by wagon.
In early days the young town combined the advantages of a river steamboat port and a western railway terminus. A frontier town, the life of its residents was necessarily rugged. A story is told of the young son of a newspaper editor, who questioned a stranger about his family and learned that the father of the visiting gentleman had died. The youngster, familiar with the columns of his own father's paper, said, "Got shot, did he?" The stranger replied that he had not. "Drank too much whiskey?" Again the visitor replied in the negative. "Well, he can't be dead then," the boy triumphantly exclaimed, "'cause that's the only way men die in Bismarck!" There were always the few, however, who made an effort to preserve the social graces. At the first party given in Bismarck, honoring Dr. and Mrs. Slaughter on their fourth wedding anniversary, dancing was part of the entertainment, and the evening ended with refreshments of champagne and buffalo tongue sandwiches.
The first train arrived in Bismarck June 5, 1873. Part of its cargo consisted of printing presses for the BismarckTribune, which was first issued July 11, 1873, and continues publication as North Dakota's oldest newspaper. TheTribune'sgreatest scoop was scored in 1876 when it gave the world the story of the Custer massacre at the Little Big Horn in Montana. Mark Kellogg, reporter for theTribuneand New YorkHerald, was killed in the battle, but more than a column of notes on the battle was found in a buckskin pouch on his body. When Grant Marsh's steamerFar Westbrought Reno's wounded and the first news of the disaster, Col. C. A. Lounsberry, founder-editor of theTribune, obtained the story, wiring it to theHeraldat a reputed cost of $3,000 for 24 hours use of the telegraph wires.
Bismarck felt the loss of Custer's command keenly, for he and his Seventh Cavalry officers from Fort Abraham Lincoln had figured prominently in the social life of the city.
The BismarckSun, another early newspaper, had a prominent part in the exposure of Indian and military post corruption which led to the impeachment of Secretary of War William W. Belknap in 1876. James A. Emmons, publisher of the paper, issued a handbill entitledPirates of the Missouriwhich alleged that appointments as traders at military and Indian posts were being bought from the Secretary of War. The New YorkHeraldsent out a reporter, who obtained a position at Fort Berthold Indian Agency, incognito, and succeeded in exposing the dishonesty prevalent at almost all of the Missouri River posts. The reporter barely escaped with his life when his identity was discovered; but he returned the next year and succeeded in completing his investigation. Belknap was impeached on a charge of bribery, and resigned, but was later acquitted. The episode caused a great furore throughout the country, but particularly in Bismarck.
Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, and Bismarck experienced its first boom. A regular stagecoach and freight line was maintained to Deadwood, S. Dak. It was more than 200 air line miles cross country, with no towns between. Stations were established every 20 miles and all freight was hauled into the Black Hills by wagon, 10 or 12 yoke of "wild Montana cattle" being used to pull trains of two or three wagonloads of freight. Gold seekers flocked to Bismarck, where they outfitted their supply trains before departing for the gold fields. The BismarckTribuneof October 25, 1879, reported:
"There are no rooms available at the hotels in Bismarck tonight as there are many transients in town bound for the Hills. Our freight and passenger business to the gold fields has been very heavy during the past ten days, amounting to 300,000 pounds of freight and seventy passengers. There were also two carloads of horses shipped in for the stage coaches. There are at present two and sometimes three stages a day."
"There are no rooms available at the hotels in Bismarck tonight as there are many transients in town bound for the Hills. Our freight and passenger business to the gold fields has been very heavy during the past ten days, amounting to 300,000 pounds of freight and seventy passengers. There were also two carloads of horses shipped in for the stage coaches. There are at present two and sometimes three stages a day."
Gold dust and nuggets brought $20 an ounce in trade in Bismarck. Many who came to join in the gold rush stayed to take advantage of the business opportunities.
The year 1881 saw a serious flood of the Missouri River. Most Bismarck residents, with their homes up on the hills out of the river's reach, made light of the occasion, some even to the extent of an excursion. Capt. William Braithwaite ran his steamerEclipseto the foot of Third Street where passengers boarded for a trip to nearby Mandan, the greater part of which, like the fivemiles of river bottom land between the two towns, was under water. It is reported that everyone on the boat "danced and had a good time." Not so pleasant, however, were the experiences of those who lived in the lowlands. The flood came upon them suddenly, drowning their horses and cattle, inundating their homes, and forcing many to climb trees. Perched above the muddy, swirling waters and floating cakes of ice, several of these unfortunates froze their hands and feet or otherwise suffered from exposure. Wildlife also suffered because of the flood, and deer and other game could be seen floating down the river on cakes of ice.
The Northern Pacific railroad bridge across the Missouri was completed in 1882. Previous to this time the trains had crossed the river on barges in the summer and on tracks laid on the ice in winter.
When the Territorial capital was removed from Yankton, S. Dak., to Bismarck in 1883 the city experienced a second boom. Land prices skyrocketed, and blocks of lots often changed hands several times in an incredibly short period, since it was fondly, if erroneously, anticipated that Bismarck would have a phenomenal growth and would soon outrank many well-established and populous cities. The cornerstone of the capitol building was laid that year at an elaborate ceremony attended by members of the Golden Spike Excursion who were on their way west to celebrate the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway. Headed by ex-President Grant and Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific, there was present a galaxy of prominent Americans including Sitting Bull and numerous foreign dignitaries and noblemen. These notable guests spent some time in Bismarck and every effort was exerted to make their stay eventful. One young woman went so far as to painstakingly decorate her apple tree with three bushels of apples purchased at a local grocery store. Showing it to her admiring guests the next day she asked, "What do you think of this for a fruit-growing country?" "Magnificent, magnificent!" Grant replied, "I am surprised, wonderfully surprised!" So were townsmen standing nearby, but they held their tongues.
Since these early booms the growth of the city has not been remarkable, but it has been steady. A large factor in the prosperity of Bismarck has been the numerous Federal and State institutions and offices.
Bismarck's first church service was held on June 15, 1873, although Mrs. Linda W. Slaughter organized a Sunday school in a Camp Hancock tent as early as August of the previous year. The first church in the city was the Presbyterian, at 303 Second Street. When the Catholic church was built in 1898 the Marquise de Moresgave a large stained glass window in honor of her late husband. The window, portraying the Immaculate Conception, bears his name and is in the front of the church in the choir loft. Fourteen religious denominations are represented in Bismarck.
Two hospitals and several clinics serve both the urban population and a large rural area. Radio station KFYR, with studios at 200 Fourth Street, is an associate member of the National Broadcasting Company and operates on 5,000-watt power during the day and 1,000 at night. Four newspapers in addition to theTribuneare published in Bismarck: Two semi-weeklies, the BismarckCapitalandDer Staats Anzeiger(German); and two weeklies, theLeader, organ of the Nonpartisan League, and the DakotaFreie Presse(German). Bismarck and its surrounding territory have a large German and Russo-German population.
The city was the home of James W. Foley, North Dakota poet, during his school days, and later he was a member of the BismarckTribunestaff. His numerous books includePrairie BreezesandVoices of Song.
Although Bismarck is in the heart of the spring wheat region, where four times more acres are planted in wheat than any other crop, the city's industrial life is subordinate to its political. Commercially it is a wholesale distributing point for many State or district offices of various lines of merchandise. In addition there are flour mills, creameries, grain elevators, and seed-houses. A pioneer seed-house and nursery, the Oscar H. Will Company, founded in Bismarck in 1881, is the largest concern of its kind in the State. Specializing in seed corn, in which it followed the example of the agricultural Mandan Indians, the company has propagated many new, and acclimated several established, varieties of plants, grain, and nursery stock that are exceptionally hardy, drought resisting, and quick maturing. North of Bismarck are extensive lignite coal deposits, with one of the largest strip mines in the State in north Burleigh County, near Wilton.
In 1903 several thousand farmers of German extraction migrated from Wisconsin to settle the farm lands in the Bismarck territory. They have made the city a shipping point for a constantly increasing dairy, wool, honey, and corn output. The drought conditions of the 1930's have cut into agricultural production, but have intensified recognition of the need for diversified farming, which is more widely practiced each year.
One of the most notable events of recent years was the burning of the old capitol in December 1930. The year following there was talk of capital removal, the most serious contender being thecity of Jamestown, 100 miles to the east. In the election of 1932, however, popular vote decided in favor of retaining the site at Bismarck, and on October 8 that year Vice President Charles M. Curtis laid the cornerstone of the new statehouse.
1. The 19 stories of the STATE CAPITOL (open weekdays 9-5; guide), N. end of 6th St., high on Capitol Hill, overlook the city and the broad Missouri valley. The white shaft is an impressive sight even to those who quarrel with the idea of a skyscraper capitol for a prairie State. Designed in 1932 by two North Dakota architects, Joseph Bell de Remer of Grand Forks and William F. Kurke of Fargo, with Holabird and Root of Chicago as associates, its clean hard modern lines are exponent of the fact that, as the architect F. A. Gutheim has said, "Domed pseudo-Renaissance state capitols are sinking low on the Western horizon." North Dakota has followed the example of Nebraska and Louisiana in building what may be a forerunner of a new and distinctive style of State capitols.
The possibility of architectural developments from this building does not, however, deter critics who find it difficult to reconcile the skyscraper with the prairies. The customary objection is that those conditions which are theraison d'etreof the skyscraper—high land values and congestion at transportation centers—are decidedly absent in Bismarck. The justification of the building, therefore, must lie in its expression of the dignity and power of the State government.
Despite criticism, the Capitol has its defenders, who feel the strength and height of the structure to be expressive of its intent. And no matter what the decision may be on the architectural problem, the building at any rate fulfills its utilitarian function: it is one of the most efficiently built government buildings in the country. It provides space for approximately one thousand State and Federal employees. The asymmetrical tower arrangement allows complete separation of the executive and legislative branches of the State, and despite differences of opinion as to the exterior of the building, opinion is general that the interior is both remarkable and beautiful.
The building houses State administrative offices in the tower and the State legislature in the circular three-story wing. The two sections of the structure are joined by Memorial Hall. The outer walls of the entire building are faced with Bedford limestone, and the base is trimmed with a broad ribbon of Rosetta black granite (gabbro), a relatively rare stone of volcanic origin.
A sweeping flight of steps leads to the plaza, above which rise the huge bronze-framed windows of Memorial Hall, topped with symbolic bronze figures representing the Indian, Hunter, Trapper, Farmer, Miner, and the Mothers of the State. These figures, as well as others in the interior of the building, are the work of Edgar Miller of Chicago.
The building can be entered from the plaza or on the ground floor through the porte-cochère. The ground floor corridor is wainscoted in rosy-tan Montana travertine. In the lobby is the custodian's desk where visitors register. From this point tours of the building leave hourly. To the right is the elevator lobby, where the sliding bronze elevator doors depict the Indian, the Hunter, the Cowhand, and other figures symbolic of the development of the State. At the end of the elevator lobby is the capitol café.
Steps ascending from the ground floor in a stairwell of highly polished black Belgian marble lead directly into Memorial Hall, which, although 342 ft. long, 25 ft. wide, and 42 ft. high, appears even more spacious with its 10 tall fluted bronze columns lining either side and catching the sunlight which floods through the tall windows of the facade. The walls are of polished Montana travertine and the floors of gray-white Tennessee marble. From the windows in the facade there is a beautiful view of the city, the winding Missouri, and the hazy blue bluffs beyond.
The legislative foyer, a continuation of Memorial Hall into the three-story wing, is paneled in rosewood and curly maple. Inlaid canopies project over upholstered wall seats. Both the House of Representatives (L) and the Senate Chamber (R) are semicircular in design. Paneling of matched chestnut adorns the walls of the House, and the floor and ceiling are blue. An indirect lighting and ventilation system is concealed in the coves of the ceiling. The Senate Chamber, somewhat smaller than the House, has been judged one of the most beautiful rooms in the United States. It is paneled in a rich brown English oak with bronze cross stripes covering the joinings. The ceiling and floor are brown and the chairs are upholstered in cream-colored leather.
At the end of Memorial Hall opposite the legislative foyer are the offices of the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. In the governor's suite the reception room is paneled in laurelwood, the private office of the governor in teakwood, the corridor in prima vera, and the conference room in mahogany.
The second floor of the tower is occupied by the supreme court. The dignified courtroom is paneled in rosewood, the judges' conference room is finished in walnut, and Honduras mahogany is used in the office of the chief justice. The supreme court lawlibrary of 50,000 volumes occupies two large rooms. A fine view of Memorial Hall can be obtained from the supreme court elevator lobby, which faces directly on the hall.
Above the second floor of the tower are other State offices. The eighteenth floor is designed as an observation tower, which affords a panoramic view of the entire Bismarck-Mandan vicinity, taking in Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, Fort Lincoln, the State Penitentiary, the curving river with its wooded lowlands, the gray-blue bluffs beyond, and, all around, the rolling prairie.
2. LIBERTY MEMORIAL BUILDING (open weekdays 9-5), SE. of the Capitol, a memorial to World War dead, designed in 1921 by Keith and Kurke of Fargo, houses the North Dakota State Library Commission, State Historical Society of North Dakota, and its museum and library. A four-story structure of Classic design, with a base of Minnesota granite and walls of Bedford limestone, its Ionic columns rise gracefully above the grass-covered terrace.
The massive bronze doors of the west facade lead into a corridor paneled in Italian travertine with a trim of Kasota stone. The graceful double stairway which rises across the corridor has marble balustrades and travertine newel posts.
Left of the stairway is the historical society library exhibit room, and right is the State library commission which has general supervision of all public libraries in the State.
On the ground floor are the main offices of the State historical society library. The offices of the historical society are on the second floor. This society was founded in 1887, became a State department in 1905, and in addition to its work in collecting and preserving historical material has been especially active in building up the 46 State parks and historical sites.
TheHistorical Society Museum, on the second and third floors of the Memorial Building, contains excellent collections of North Dakota material. The Indian collection gives a complete picture of the life of the North Dakota Indian, showing examples of clothing, cooking utensils, pottery, knives, drums, saddles, war clubs, bows and arrows, canoe, and bullboat. It also includes many archeological finds made in the State.
In the pioneer rooms are relics of early days of white settlement of the State. A military collection shows many types of guns and cannon in use since settlement. The natural history rooms contain fine displays of flora and fauna, fossils and minerals.
An equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt, the plaster model by A. Phimister Proctor for the statue in Roosevelt Park in Minot (seeMinot), is on the third floor, and nearby is the desk whichRoosevelt used for most of his writing at his Badlands ranch. Many models of early forts, Indian villages, and river steamboats are on display.
A bronzeStatue of Sakakaweastands on the lawn between the statehouse and the Liberty Memorial Building. Sakakawea was the Shoshone Bird Woman who led the Lewis and Clark expedition through the unexplored mountainous Northwest to the Pacific Ocean. The statue, by Leonard Crunelle (1910), depicts the Indian woman with her baby strapped to her back, looking westward toward the country she helped to open.
Unsung during her lifetime, Sakakawea in recent years has been recognized as the outstanding woman in the development of the Northwest. Carrying her new-born son, Baptiste, she joined the expedition at the Mandan village near the present site of Stanton, N. Dak. She accompanied the party with her husband, Touissant Charbonneau, who had been engaged as an interpreter. Soon she proved to be the most valuable member of the party. Her services were those of guide, cook, and general emissary to the Indian tribes encountered on the journey. Lewis and Clark credited her with the success of their expedition.
On the return of the exploring party Sakakawea, Baptiste, and Charbonneau were left at the Mandan village where they had joined the expedition more than a year earlier. Mystery and controversy obscure the lives of the Indian woman and her son from this point. Sakakawea is believed by some to have died on the Shoshone Reservation at Wind River, Wyo., when almost 100 years of age. Others hold that she died at Fort Manuel on the Grand River in South Dakota only a few years after the return of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Painstaking investigation has definitely proved neither theory.
Of Baptiste it is known that he was educated by Capt. William Clark at St. Louis. Returning to the Northwest, he became an interpreter like his father, and met Paul Wilhelm, Prince of Wurttemberg, who was exploring North America. With the German nobleman he went to Europe, but on his return his path is lost to the historian. He may have been with his mother on the Wind River Reservation—if, indeed, she died there.
TheProw of the BattleshipNorth Dakota, mounted on a boulder of native granite, stands N. of the Memorial Building, near the statue of Sakakawea. To the south of the building stands a large Krupp gun, assigned to the State by the Federal Government as a trophy of the World War. Near these guns lie specimens of Cannonball River sandstone formations.
3. ROOSEVELT CABIN (open June 15-Sept. 15, weekdays 10-5, Sun. 2-5), E. of Memorial Building, was the home of Theodore Roosevelt from 1883 to 1885, when he was a rancher in the North Dakota Badlands. Known as the Maltese Cross because of its cattle brand, the ranch was renamed by Roosevelt for nearby Chimney Butte.
The cabin originally had a much steeper, shingle roof, but a later owner replaced this with a sod one, hoping to make the building warmer. The interior furnishings are copies of those used by "Teddy," although the cook stove is thought to be the original. Much Rooseveltiana, including books and guns, is preserved in the cabin.
In 1904 the Chimney Butte cabin was purchased by the North Dakota Commission, and sent to the St. Louis World's Fair of that year, to Portland, Ore., for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905, and then to Bismarck where it was placed on the grounds in front of the Capitol, and after a few years was moved to its present site. An iron gate, handwrought by Haile Chisholm of the North Dakota Agricultural College faculty, depicts the initial letters of the various fields of enterprise in which Roosevelt engaged.
4. EARTH LODGE (open weekdays 9-5 June 15-Oct. 1), N. of the Roosevelt Cabin, is a reproduction of the dwellings of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa, the agricultural tribes who inhabited the valley of the Missouri previous to white settlement of this region. (For description of the earth lodge seeIndians and Their Predecessors.) The lodge was built by the State historical society under the direction of Scattered Corn, a Mandan woman, the daughter of Moves Slowly, last of the Mandan Corn priests.
The women of the Indian tribes built the lodges in the river villages, although the men gave them assistance in placing the heavy timbers which supported the thick earth walls. A Mandan legend relates that when the first Mandan village was built under the leadership of the tribal hero, Good Furred Robe, the First Man told them how to build the earth lodges.
5. GOVERNOR'S MANSION (private), 320 Ave. B, has been the residence of North Dakota Governors since 1893, when the house was purchased by the State from Asa Fisher, wealthy brewer. Governor Eli C. D. Shortridge was the first chief executive to occupy the mansion. Typical of the architecture of the Territorial day in which it was built, the two-story white frame building, with its spacious, high-ceilinged rooms and four fireplaces, hasremained unchanged except for the addition of a front porch. The large elm and box elder trees were planted in 1900. During early statehood many important social functions were held in the mansion.
6. CAIRN (private), 912 Mandan St., home of Mr. and Mrs. Clell G. Gannon, is a small house built largely of native boulders, and designed by its owners.
7. HOME OF ALEXANDER McKENZIE (private), 722 5th St., a large white frame house built in the indeterminate, unpedigreed style typical of North Dakota's architecture of the nineties, remains unchanged from the days when it was the home of Alexander McKenzie (1856-1922), spectacular figure of early Bismarck and State history, master politician, ally of the railroads.
Arriving in Bismarck as a young man in the early 1870's, he soon rose to a position of civic and Territorial importance, becoming an unofficial representative of the Northern Pacific Railway. How much McKenzie had to do with moving the Territorial capital from Yankton to Bismarck will perhaps never be known. However, the fact that a Capital Commission was named and given power to move the capital, and the fact that McKenzie secured for himself a place on the commission, are credited to him as among his most able political maneuvers.
Although he held only one public office—sheriff of Burleigh County for 12 years—his influence and the so-called "McKenzie ring" survived all attacks by political reformers. He was active in State politics until his death in 1922.
8. BURLEIGH COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Thayer Ave. between 5th and 6th Sts., is a three-story modern-type building designed by Ira Rush of Minot and constructed of North Dakota concrete-brick faced with Bedford limestone, with a base of pearl pink granite. In the main floor vestibule, wainscoted in marble, is a series of murals by Clell. G. Gannon, Bismarck artist, depicting early county history. A further native note appears in the balustrading of the stairways, where grilled nickel silver forms a graceful design using the stalk, ear, and slender leaf of the corn as motif.
This is the third Burleigh County courthouse to stand on this block. A marker on the west lawn designates the site of the first, a log building built in 1873. It was replaced in 1880 by a brick structure. The present building was erected in 1930.
9. BISMARCK PUBLIC LIBRARY (open weekdays 10:30-9; Oct.-May Sun. 2-5), 519 Thayer Ave., a Carnegie institution, is a vine-covered, red brick Georgian Colonial style building. In addition to having a large and varied selection of magazines, newspapers, and fiction and non-fiction books, it maintains a separate children's division with loan service, reading room, and story hour.
10. FEDERAL BUILDING, NE. corner Bdwy. and 3rd St., a tile-roofed Indiana limestone building of Italian design, houses the post office, United States courtroom, and various Federal offices.
11. MARQUIS DE MORES' STORAGE PLANT, 300 Main St., is a plain, somewhat shabby building used as a restaurant, built by the marquis when he envisaged a huge meat packing industry in the Badlands (see Tour 8). The building was formerly situated south of the railroad. The walls consist of two-inch planks laid flat on each other. These, together with the brick veneer, form a wall about 14 inches thick.
12. UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU (open), 101 Main St., was begun as part of the work of Camp Hancock in 1874, and a portion of the structure, the old log building which was Camp Hancock headquarters, remains. It is the oldest building in Bismarck, but has been sheathed in lumber, and additions have been built. The bureau, moved 11 times, is now permanently established at its first home.
13. WORLD WAR MEMORIAL BUILDING, 215 6th St., which serves as a community center, is a three-story structure of modern design, built of white Hebron (N. Dak.) brick and concrete with limestone trim. It was designed by Liebenberg and Kaplan of Minneapolis in 1930.
14. BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA (open weekdays 8:30-4:30), 700 Main St., was created by a special referendum election of June 26, 1919, passing a law providing that "For the purpose of encouraging and promoting agriculture, commerce and industry, the State of North Dakota shall engage in the business of banking, and for that purpose shall and does establish a system of banking, owned, controlled and operated by it, under the name of the Bank of North Dakota." It is managed and controlled by the State Industrial Commission. State funds, and funds of State institutions are deposited here. The bank was one of the important features in the program of the Nonpartisan League at the time of its organization, being designed to carry out the fourth plank of the league platform, the establishment of rural credit banks operated at cost. The red brick bank building was originally an automobile warehouse.
State Regulatory Department Laboratory(open), is on the fourth floor of the Bank of North Dakota Building. North Dakota was a pioneer State in pure food legislation. A law passed in 1895paved the way for the pure food and fertilizer laws of 1903. State inspectors, active at all times throughout the State, send samples for analysis to this laboratory, where trained chemists make the tests. Constant inspection of food and dairy products, feeds, fertilizers, water, oils, and paints is maintained.
15. ST. MARY'S CEMETERY, NE. edge of the city, contains the graves of many of the pioneers who played an important part in the development of the city and State. Among those buried here are Alexander McKenzie and his son, Alexander, Jr.; and Gen. E. A. Williams, first representative from Burleigh County to the Territorial Assembly, and his wife.
State Penitentiary,2 m., Fort Lincoln,4.5 m., Sibley Island,7 m., Liberty Memorial Bridge,1.5 m.(see Tour 8). Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park,9.5 m.(seeFort Abraham Lincoln State Park). Pioneer Park,2 m.(see Side Tour 3B).
State Penitentiary,2 m., Fort Lincoln,4.5 m., Sibley Island,7 m., Liberty Memorial Bridge,1.5 m.(see Tour 8). Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park,9.5 m.(seeFort Abraham Lincoln State Park). Pioneer Park,2 m.(see Side Tour 3B).
Railroad Stations:Northern Pacific, Bdwy. at Front St.; Great Northern, Bdwy. at 5th Ave. N.; Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul (Milwaukee), 1101 2nd Ave. N.Bus Stations:Union Station, 502 N. P. Ave., for Northland Greyhound, Checker, Jack Rabbit, and Triangle Lines; Cole Hotel, 407½ N. P. Ave., for Liederbach Line.Airport:Hector Field, NW. outskirts of city, ½ m. W. of US 81, Northwest Airlines, taxi fare 50c, time 10 min.; day and night service, public hangars.Taxis:25c anywhere in city, 10c for each additional passenger.City Bus Line:Intra-city, fare 10c.Traffic Regulations:Front St. and 1st Ave. N. (US 10), 13th St. (US 81), 10th, and 4th Sts. are through streets. Watch for stop signs and street signals; no U-turn on through streets; turns in either direction at intersections. Street signs designate hour parking limits in business district.Accommodations:30 hotels; Fargo municipal tourist camp, Lindenwood Park, marked road ¾ m. S. of city limits, from S. end of 5th St.Tourist Information Service:Greater North Dakota Association, 13 Bdwy.; Chamber of Commerce, 504 1st Ave. N.Theaters and Motion Picture Houses:Little Country Theater, agricultural college, 13th St. at 12th Ave. N., college productions; Festival Hall, agricultural college, occasional touring artists and stock companies; 6 motion picture houses.CITY OF FARGOGolf:Municipal 18-hole course, Edgewood Park, 3 m. NE. of city limits (greens fee 35c).Tennis:Courts at Oak Grove Park, E. end of 6th and 7th Aves. N.; Island Park, S. end of Bdwy.Swimming:Outdoor, Red River bordering Island Park at E. end of 1st Ave. S.; indoor, Central High School, 3rd Ave. S. bet. 10th and 11th Sts., open during summer; Y. M. C. A., 632 1st Ave. N.Baseball:Barnett Field, Fairgrounds, 19th Ave. N. and Bdwy., Northern League.Skating:Island Park; Pershing Park, 14th St. at 8th Ave. N.Skiing:Dovre Ski Club, highest artificial jump in United States (1936), 1½ m. N. of 19th Ave. on N. Bdwy. Rd.Tobogganing:Island Park.Hockey:Island Park, Commercial League and high school teams.Annual Events:Ice Carnival, Island Park, January 1; Farmers' and Homemakers' Week, agricultural college, 3rd week in January; Bison Brevities, agricultural college, March, no fixed date; May Festival, agricultural college, 1st week in May; Northwest Norwegian Whist Tournament in connection with Norwegian Independence Day, May 17; Lilac Festival, agricultural college, May, no fixed date; State Fair, Fairgrounds, Bdwy. at 17th Ave. N., June, no fixed date; Valleyland Music Festival, June, no fixed date; State Golf Tournament, Fargo Country Club, July, no fixed date; Harvest Festival and Homecoming, agricultural college, October, no fixed date; 4-H Club Boys' and Girls' Achievement Institute, agricultural college, December, no fixed date.
Railroad Stations:Northern Pacific, Bdwy. at Front St.; Great Northern, Bdwy. at 5th Ave. N.; Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul (Milwaukee), 1101 2nd Ave. N.
Bus Stations:Union Station, 502 N. P. Ave., for Northland Greyhound, Checker, Jack Rabbit, and Triangle Lines; Cole Hotel, 407½ N. P. Ave., for Liederbach Line.
Airport:Hector Field, NW. outskirts of city, ½ m. W. of US 81, Northwest Airlines, taxi fare 50c, time 10 min.; day and night service, public hangars.
Taxis:25c anywhere in city, 10c for each additional passenger.
City Bus Line:Intra-city, fare 10c.
Traffic Regulations:Front St. and 1st Ave. N. (US 10), 13th St. (US 81), 10th, and 4th Sts. are through streets. Watch for stop signs and street signals; no U-turn on through streets; turns in either direction at intersections. Street signs designate hour parking limits in business district.
Accommodations:30 hotels; Fargo municipal tourist camp, Lindenwood Park, marked road ¾ m. S. of city limits, from S. end of 5th St.
Tourist Information Service:Greater North Dakota Association, 13 Bdwy.; Chamber of Commerce, 504 1st Ave. N.
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses:Little Country Theater, agricultural college, 13th St. at 12th Ave. N., college productions; Festival Hall, agricultural college, occasional touring artists and stock companies; 6 motion picture houses.
CITY OF FARGO
CITY OF FARGO
CITY OF FARGO
Golf:Municipal 18-hole course, Edgewood Park, 3 m. NE. of city limits (greens fee 35c).
Tennis:Courts at Oak Grove Park, E. end of 6th and 7th Aves. N.; Island Park, S. end of Bdwy.
Swimming:Outdoor, Red River bordering Island Park at E. end of 1st Ave. S.; indoor, Central High School, 3rd Ave. S. bet. 10th and 11th Sts., open during summer; Y. M. C. A., 632 1st Ave. N.
Baseball:Barnett Field, Fairgrounds, 19th Ave. N. and Bdwy., Northern League.
Skating:Island Park; Pershing Park, 14th St. at 8th Ave. N.
Skiing:Dovre Ski Club, highest artificial jump in United States (1936), 1½ m. N. of 19th Ave. on N. Bdwy. Rd.
Tobogganing:Island Park.
Hockey:Island Park, Commercial League and high school teams.
Annual Events:Ice Carnival, Island Park, January 1; Farmers' and Homemakers' Week, agricultural college, 3rd week in January; Bison Brevities, agricultural college, March, no fixed date; May Festival, agricultural college, 1st week in May; Northwest Norwegian Whist Tournament in connection with Norwegian Independence Day, May 17; Lilac Festival, agricultural college, May, no fixed date; State Fair, Fairgrounds, Bdwy. at 17th Ave. N., June, no fixed date; Valleyland Music Festival, June, no fixed date; State Golf Tournament, Fargo Country Club, July, no fixed date; Harvest Festival and Homecoming, agricultural college, October, no fixed date; 4-H Club Boys' and Girls' Achievement Institute, agricultural college, December, no fixed date.
FARGO (907 alt., 28,619 pop.) is on the Red River of the North at the entrance of two transcontinental railroads into the State. A small, youthful city, whose varied activities give its business section a somewhat disorderly air, it is the largest town in North Dakota. Over the flatness of an old lakebed, where ten thousand years ago the water of the melting glacier stood 200 feet deep, the city now widely spreads its homes, manufacturing plants, wholesale houses, trees and parks, schools and hospitals.
The trail which in 1871 led west from the Red River ferry, across the level floor of prehistoric Lake Agassiz, is now Front Street, which enters Fargo from the east to be greeted by the city's slum district, where dilapidated, unpainted frame shacks near the river give way westward to better buildings in a wholesaling district, until Broadway is reached. Broadway is the very heart of Fargo, a busy, crowded thoroughfare whose appearance often causes visitors to believe the city larger than it actually is. From its wide south end where it intersects Front, Broadway runs north, flanked for six blocks by two-and three-story store and office buildings. Two of North Dakota's four "skyscrapers" are on Broadway.
Fargo first appeared on the horizon in the 1870's as an outfitting point, the last outpost of settlement for those tens of thousands who pioneered in the State, and through the years of its growth has retained its first excuse for being, for it still serves as chief distributing point for a large agricultural area. Farm implements, foodstuffs, petroleum products, automobiles, and automotive equipment to the value of more than $45,000,000 are handled annually.
Although from a North Dakota standpoint it is an old city, Fargo is young enough to have a few of its founders still alive to tell of how they first advertised their spindly little city by boasting that its volunteer fire company, the Yerxa Hose Team, was the world's fastest; or of how, in later years, Fargo gloried in being the "Gateway City" to the "bread basket of the world," the fertile Red River Valley which real estate agents compared to the valley of the Nile. The Valley is no longer the intensive wheat-raising area it was, but the Fargo Chamber of Commerce will tell you that this very fertile flat land, through which meanders one of the few rivers that flow north, is literally a land of milk and honey, and others no less cognizant of their surroundings have changed the old slogan to the "food basket of the world."
Because it is the distributing point for an agricultural State, changes in farming methods have been reflected in the business life of the city. With the introduction of diversified farming to supplement wheat growing, Fargo became an important shipping center for grain, potatoes, dairy, and poultry products. In 1936 it was the largest primary sweet clover market in the world. Seed companies, creameries, a flour mill, bakeries, and implement distributors are evidence of the relationship between the city and the large farming area it serves. As late as 1927 Fargo was the world's third largest farm machinery distributing point, and, although it undoubtedly does not retain this position, as a shipping point it has become even more significant. A change in freight rates granted in 1925 by the Interstate Commerce Commission boosted Fargo volume. Two of the three railroads into the city are transcontinental lines which, with their branches, cover almost the entire State of North Dakota. Several "feeder lines" converge at Fargo and in addition there are a large number of trucking companies. The MinneapolisStarsaid in 1936: