MINOT

The original Bankside Theater, about one block N. of the present site, was dedicated in 1914 and is said to have been the first open air theater to make use of the natural curve of a stream to separate the stage from the auditorium. The initial performance given here,A Pageant of the Northwest, was written by students of the Sock and Buskin Society (now the Dakota Playmakers) under the direction of Prof. Frederick Koch, who is distinguished for his work in American folk drama.

The banks of English Coulee have fostered both drama and romance. College sweethearts spend their evenings by this stream, admiring the reflection of the moon in the water. The custom is known locally as "coulee-banking."

Thirteen social fraternities, including 11 national groups, are represented at the university, and there are 10 sororities, 9 of them national. The houses along Fraternity Row on University Avenue and the other streets near the campus present the architecture of many nations and periods. A French chateau shouldering a stucco cottage, a graceful Georgian Colonial residence standing between an English country house and an Italian mansion, and houses of Spanish and English design form a quaint architectural democracy that is, perhaps, a fitting background for the social life of a student body representing various nations.

12. WESLEY COLLEGE, N. of University Ave. opposite the University of North Dakota, is the first of the Methodist schools in the United States designated by that name and the first church school to affiliate with a State university. Its residence halls are open to students of all church affiliations, as are the classes in religion, music, and expression. Work in any department of Wesley College is credited toward university degrees.

The campus contains four buildings, Corwin, Larimore, Sayre, and Robertson Halls, constructed of white brick with trimmings of white glazed terra cotta in Grecian style. Robertson Hall, the newest building, contains the administrative offices, school of religion, and expression department. This building, costing $40,000, wasmade possible by the contribution of an alumnus, John M. Hancock, and his family of Hartsdale, N. Y., and was completely furnished by Mrs. Hancock. Corwin Hall houses the well-equipped music department. Larimore Hall, the women's dormitory, is immediately behind Corwin, while the men's dormitory, Sayre Hall, adjoins Robertson Hall.

North Dakota State Mill and Elevator,1 m.; Red River Oxcart Trail, 1.5 m.; Northern Packing Plant,1.5 m.; Grand Forks Silver Fox Farm,4 m.(see Tour 1). American Sugar Refining Co. plant,2 m.(see Minn. Tour 7).

Railroad Stations:Great Northern Station, W. end of Central Ave. across viaduct, for G. N. Ry.; Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Station, 17 N. Main St., for Soo Ry.Bus Stations:Union Bus Depot, Front at 3rd St. SE., for Checker, Interstate, and Northern Transportation Co. bus lines; Stearns Bldg., 2nd St. SW. at 1st Ave., for Minot-Crosby Bus Line.Airport:Municipal airport, 1¼ m. N. of business district on outskirts of city, E. of US 83, taxi fare 35c, time 10 min.; no scheduled air service, no public hangars.Taxis:25c to any point in city, 10c for each additional passenger.City Bus Line:Throughout city, to State Teachers College, fare 10c.Traffic Regulations:Valley St. (US 52), 4th Ave. SE. and SW. (US 2), 2nd St. SW. and NW. (US 83), are through streets. No U-turn on through streets and no left turns out of alleys. Turns may be made in either direction at intersections.Accommodations:10 hotels; municipal tourist camp, Roosevelt Park, 4th Ave. SE. at 11th St.Tourist Information Service:Association of Commerce, 205-207 1st Ave. Bldg.Theaters and Motion Picture Houses:McFarland Auditorium, State Teachers College, 9th Ave. NW., college productions and lyceum programs; Minot high school auditorium, 2nd Ave. SE. between 1st and 2nd Sts.; 3 motion picture houses.Athletics:Baseball, football, track, skating, and hockey rinks, Roosevelt Park Recreation Field.Golf:Municipal 9-hole course SW. edge of city on US 2 (greens fee 25c); Riverside 9-hole course, E. of city limits on US 2 (greens fee 25c).Tennis:Courts at Oak Park, W. end 3rd Ave. NW.; Lincoln Park, 4th St. at 5th Ave. NW.; and Roosevelt Park.Swimming:Municipal outdoor pool. Roosevelt Park.Skating:Rinks at 2nd St. and 8th Ave. NE., 1st Ave. at 3rd St. NW., Lincoln Park, South Hill residential district, and Roosevelt Park; all floodlighted.Curling:Rink near Fairmount Creamery, 701 4th Ave. SE.Annual Events:Winter Sports Carnival, February, no fixed date; Northwest State Fair, fairgrounds E. end of 4th Ave. SE., week of July 4; Homecoming, State Teachers College, October, no fixed date;The Messiah, State Teachers College, December, no fixed date.

Railroad Stations:Great Northern Station, W. end of Central Ave. across viaduct, for G. N. Ry.; Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Station, 17 N. Main St., for Soo Ry.

Bus Stations:Union Bus Depot, Front at 3rd St. SE., for Checker, Interstate, and Northern Transportation Co. bus lines; Stearns Bldg., 2nd St. SW. at 1st Ave., for Minot-Crosby Bus Line.

Airport:Municipal airport, 1¼ m. N. of business district on outskirts of city, E. of US 83, taxi fare 35c, time 10 min.; no scheduled air service, no public hangars.

Taxis:25c to any point in city, 10c for each additional passenger.

City Bus Line:Throughout city, to State Teachers College, fare 10c.

Traffic Regulations:Valley St. (US 52), 4th Ave. SE. and SW. (US 2), 2nd St. SW. and NW. (US 83), are through streets. No U-turn on through streets and no left turns out of alleys. Turns may be made in either direction at intersections.

Accommodations:10 hotels; municipal tourist camp, Roosevelt Park, 4th Ave. SE. at 11th St.

Tourist Information Service:Association of Commerce, 205-207 1st Ave. Bldg.

Theaters and Motion Picture Houses:McFarland Auditorium, State Teachers College, 9th Ave. NW., college productions and lyceum programs; Minot high school auditorium, 2nd Ave. SE. between 1st and 2nd Sts.; 3 motion picture houses.

Athletics:Baseball, football, track, skating, and hockey rinks, Roosevelt Park Recreation Field.

Golf:Municipal 9-hole course SW. edge of city on US 2 (greens fee 25c); Riverside 9-hole course, E. of city limits on US 2 (greens fee 25c).

Tennis:Courts at Oak Park, W. end 3rd Ave. NW.; Lincoln Park, 4th St. at 5th Ave. NW.; and Roosevelt Park.

Swimming:Municipal outdoor pool. Roosevelt Park.

Skating:Rinks at 2nd St. and 8th Ave. NE., 1st Ave. at 3rd St. NW., Lincoln Park, South Hill residential district, and Roosevelt Park; all floodlighted.

Curling:Rink near Fairmount Creamery, 701 4th Ave. SE.

Annual Events:Winter Sports Carnival, February, no fixed date; Northwest State Fair, fairgrounds E. end of 4th Ave. SE., week of July 4; Homecoming, State Teachers College, October, no fixed date;The Messiah, State Teachers College, December, no fixed date.

CITY OF MINOT

MINOT (1,557 alt., 16,099 pop.) is still young and growing, although past its fiftieth birthday. Its name (pronounced MY-not) was given it to honor Henry D. Minot, young Eastern capitalist and college friend of Theodore Roosevelt. Situated in the deep valley of the Souris (Mouse) River, the town overflows the level mile-wide flood plain to thrust itself up the south slope of the valley onto the open prairie. Rough, well worn block pavement in the business section evolves into smooth, tree-bowered asphalt avenues lined with fine homes in the residential districts. The twisting, sluggish river winds through the center of the city, in some sections its banks scarred with piles of refuse, in others rimmed by trim lawns.

The hills that rim the Souris at Minot are evidences of the mighty force of the raging waters that during the glacial period poured from the melting edge of the great Dakota ice sheet to plow deep valleys and lay the basis for the town's future prosperity. The products of the geological past yield valuable returns. One, the rich, fertile bed of glacial Lake Souris, provides good crops. The other is lignite, the soft brown peat-like coal that underlies much of the northwestern portion of the State, and for which Minot is an important shipping point.

James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway was pushing west through Dakota Territory in 1887 when it was found necessary to stop near here and build a bridge across a coulee. Where construction halted there immediately sprang up a large tent town, which was generally assumed to be the start of a permanent settlement. The railroad company, however, had selected a town site to the east, on the Souris River, and when this became known the exodus was sudden and complete; almost overnight the tent town was transplanted to the new location. This mushroom-like appearance, coupled with an almost phenomenal growth to 5,000 population during its first year, earned the new frontier settlement the title of the Magic City.

The first white man to settle on the ground now incorporated into the city of Minot was Erik Ramstad, who in May 1885 had come from Grafton, N. Dak., and settled by squatter's right on a quarter section bisected by the Souris. Late in the summer of 1886 he relinquished 40 acres south of the river to the town site people, and this land together with another 40 acres to the south became the original site of Minot. On July 16, 1887, less than a year after settlement, Minot was an incorporated city. A few weeks later an entire slate of city officers was selected in a campaign which set a high standard for many heated city elections of later years. Principal interest centered about the candidates for mayor,and with typical frontier camaraderie the defeated man was the first to sign the bond of office for his victorious opponent. At its initial meeting the newly elected city council selected as the city's first police chief William Flumerfelt, a saloon-keeper.

When Minot's first Christmas arrived, in 1887, not a church graced the town. To observe the season a Christmas tree was set up in Jack Doyle's saloon, which stood on the site of the present Woolworth store at the corner of Central Avenue and Main Street. Most of the town turned out for the celebration, gifts were hung on the tree, and everyone was given candy.

Many early residents were buried in a cemetery in southwest Minot, although no markers remain. This burial place on one occasion almost saw the interment of a person who, by virtue of being very much alive, was quite undeserving of inclusion here. It happened that a local character known as Spider had gone to his reward, and "the boys" had taken over his obsequies, stopping on the way to the cemetery to fortify themselves at a saloon. Reaching the grave, they attempted to lower the coffin, but one end dropped down and the other caught on the side of the grave. John J. Powers, a well-known rancher, was selected to straighten the coffin, but in getting down he was caught between it and the wall of the grave. Disregarding his protests, the high-spirited pallbearers proceeded to shovel in dirt, and he was covered except for his head and shoulders when passersby, hearing his cries, arrived on the scene and effected a rescue.

It was events like this that earned Minot the name of a wild town; and, considering the type of people who flocked into the new city—transient railroad workers and hangers-on, horse and cattle thieves who at that time infested the west and northwest sections of the State, gamblers who saw opportunity in the new settlement, and criminals who had escaped across the boundary from Canada—it is hardly remarkable that the town soon had a reputation for lawlessness and iniquity. Many pioneer residents of Minot still remember a certain railway passenger conductor who would call the name of the station, "MINOT, this is M-I-N-O-T, end of the line. Prepare to meet your God!"

In spite of the disreputable element, many dependable citizens selected the boom town for their permanent homes, and to them the development of the city has been due. As early as 1887 Marshall McClure was publishing the first newspaper, the weekly MinotRustler-Tribune. The city had its first wooden sidewalk in 1888, and the same year Main Street was lighted with kerosene lamps. The city council passed an ordinance against speeding with horses, the limit being set at eight miles per hour. Apparently the council of that day believed that actions speak louder than words, for on one occasion it adjourned to go out in a body to grub stumps and fix a road that needed repair. In 1889 this same progressive body voted that the city pay 50 cents per barrel for the first 10 barrels of water delivered at any fire in the city. The first fire wagon was John Strommen's dray, which was used to haul water every time an alarm was turned in.

Burlington (see Tour 7), the first community in the Souris region, had confidently expected that the Great Northern would be routed past its door, but instead the road chose the Minot site. The Magic City thereupon set out to deprive its rival of the county seat as well. Arrangements were made for the railroad company to sidetrack an old freight car at Lonetree 28 miles west of Minot. Telegraph wires were strung into it, and the roadmaster presented an affidavit to the county commissioners stating that a station had been opened. Burlington protested: Lonetree belonged in the Burlington precinct, it claimed, and there were not enough residents to open the polls. The railroad installed two operators, a station agent and a helper; Lonetree was declared a precinct, and it is said that railroad crews as far west as Glasgow, Mont., voted. Minot became the county seat.

Settlers rushed into "Imperial Ward" County when it was surveyed and opened to homesteading in 1896. The origin of the county's nickname is apparent from the following description in Colonel Lounsberry'sRecord: "... a small sized empire of 5,000 square miles rich in soil, clays, coal, and the energy of its people, immigration unequaled, steady and firm like the flow of a river." Land entries at Minot during the first nine months of 1905 were said to be greater than at any other U. S. land office in the country. Homesteaders slept on the floor of the office to avoid losing their turn in filing for land.

Imperial Ward remained intact until 1910, when its ample acres were carved into Renville, Burke, Mountrail, and present Ward Counties.

Deer, antelope, prairie and timber wolves, foxes, mink, otter, beaver, ducks, and geese provided early settlers of the Minot area with food, furs, and sport. In the winter, when water holes were opened in the frozen river for stock, fish would come up to the openings in such numbers that they could easily be speared with pitchforks, and it was not uncommon at these watering places to see fish frozen and stacked up like cordwood.

Since the Souris winds through Minot for a distance of eight miles, its overflow can cause great damage, and several times there have been severe floods. The worst occurred in 1882, 1904,1916, 1923, and 1927. The 1904 flood took the town by surprise, as there were no telephones in the territory upstream from Minot by which the alarm could be given, and small houses were torn from their foundations as the crest of the flood hit the city. Railroad tracks were under water and traffic on the Great Northern and Soo was at a standstill. The flood continued for about three weeks, and children rejoiced as school was discontinued. People went about their business in boats, using their front porches for piers. Many north side residents moved in with friends living on the higher south side.

In recent years dikes have been built to keep the Souris within bounds, and Federal works on the river above the city, the subsistence homestead project at Burlington, and the Upper Souris migratory waterfowl project (see Tour 7) have constructed dams which enable engineers to control the flow of water.

While the Great Northern was responsible for Minot's origin and early growth, several factors have shared in the city's later development. Extension of the railroad westward added to the trade territory, all of which is agricultural, and the city became the logical wholesale distribution point for northwest North Dakota. The arrival of the Soo in 1893 tapped untouched areas southeast and northwest, again enlarging the trade region. The first bus line in the State began operation between Minot and Bismarck in 1922. Truck and bus lines now radiate from Minot to serve the many outlying communities not on the transcontinental railroads. The city is a center for an area of 22,500 square miles, extending north to the Canadian line and west into Montana. In 1930 Minot had the second largest volume of wholesale business in the State, with transactions totaling $18,500,000.

Its location in an extensive agricultural area has established Minot as a farm market. During both pre-war and post-war periods of heavy crop yields and high prices, Minot boomed as a grain shipping point. Two flour mills have been a factor in maintaining cash grain prices at higher levels than in other communities. Processing of dairy and poultry products has become an important industry, and a cash livestock market has brought additional returns and marketing facilities in the past few years. A plant of the poultry cooperative maintained by the North Dakota Farmers Union is situated in Minot. The recent droughts lessened grain marketing, but pushed forward in another direction the production and stability of diversified farm products, as indicated by the expansion of one and the erection of another creamery and processing plant.

Like other cities, Minot has felt the depression period, but outwardly there remains only one prominent scar—"Sparrow Hotel," the steel skeleton of a 10-story hotel building. Begun in 1929, construction was halted by the market crash of that year, and the framework now houses only a multitude of twittering, chirping sparrows.

Its rail facilities have helped to make Minot a natural shipping point for the great quantities of lignite mined in this vicinity. The Truax-Traer Company, with headquarters here, is one of the largest lignite strip mining companies in the United States, and operates the three largest strip mines in the State.

Out of theRustler-Tribune, which reported Minot's earliest events, there grew the MinotOptic Reporter, which is now the MinotDaily News. TheDemocrat, a political publication, has grown into theDakota State Journal, and the weekly Ward CountyIndependentis also published in Minot. A radio station, KLPM, maintains studios in the Fair Block on South Main Street.

With improved transportation facilities and good roads, Minot has become a medical center for the northwest section of the State. Two large hospitals, two smaller private hospitals, and medical and dental clinics are maintained.

1. MINOT STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, 9th Ave. NW. between 2nd and 8th Sts., with an average quarterly enrollment of 525, is the largest normal school in the State. It is an accredited four-year college with a teachers training school in connection.

Its 70-acre campus, 60 acres of which were donated by Erik Ramstad, Minot's first settler, lies at the foot of the hills bordering the Souris valley on the N. and contains six brick buildings of modern construction, including a main educational building with auditorium and gymnasium, two dormitories, two training school buildings, a powerhouse, and a floodlighted athletic field.

The college offers a two-year standard teachers course as prescribed by State law, a two-year junior college course, and a four-year curriculum leading to a B.A. degree in education. In the training school a model primary, grade, and high school is maintained, enabling prospective teachers to secure actual experience in their profession. Many children in the northwest section of the city attend the college school.

2. WARD COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 3rd St. SE. between 3rd and 4th Aves., was dedicated May 31, 1930. It is said to be the first North Dakota public building of modern design. A motto inscribedupon the front elevation reads: "Let Us Develop the Resources of Our Land, Call Forth Its Power, Build Upon Its Institutions and Promote All Its Great Interests."

This austere spacious structure, designed by Tolz, King and Day of Minneapolis, and erected at a cost of $450,000; succeeded an old-fashioned brick courthouse built in 1891 and razed in 1928. The old courthouse, built after Minot had won the county seat from Burlington, was by no means adequate, but the commissioners feared to submit the question of a new courthouse to a vote, since the county as a whole was not reconciled to Minot's county seat victory. As the law allowed repairs without popular approval, the commissioners "repaired" the $8,000 courthouse to the extent of a new $25,000 addition.

3. PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9, except July and Aug., 9-6), 101-107 2nd Ave. SE., is a buff brick Carnegie institution containing more than 18,000 volumes.

4. ROOSEVELT PARK (swimming pool, playgrounds, picnic grounds, athletic field, tennis courts, tourist camp), E. end of 4th Ave. SE., on the S. bank of the Souris River, is an 85-acre tract beautified by rustic bridges, lagoons, flower beds, and sunken gardens. A Zoo containing many species of foreign and domestic animals attracts thousands of visitors annually.

In the park is a bronzeEquestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt, depicting him as a Rough Rider. The base of the statue is a reproduction of the Badlands formations along the Little Missouri River where Roosevelt once lived. This memorial, designed by A. Phimister Proctor of New York and presented to the city in 1924 by Dr. Henry Waldo Coe, pioneer North Dakota physician and life-long friend of Roosevelt, is dedicated to the school children who contributed the cost of the base.

Coe Drive, a scenic two-mile route through the woods bordering a loop of the Souris River, connects with a mile drive through Roosevelt Park. It is reached by driving one block into the park from the entrance and turning right.

5. OAK PARK, W. end of 3rd Ave. NW., has more than 50 acres of wooded land. Provided with tennis courts, wading pool, and picnic tables, it is a favorite spot for Sunday picnickers from the surrounding country.

6. ROSEHILL CEMETERY, 3rd St. SE. at 11th Ave., contains the nine-foot marbleWorld War Memorial Shaftand theDaughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War Memorial.

Burlington underground lignite mines,8 m.; Burlington Subsistence Homestead Project,8 m.; Velva lignite strip mine,32 m.(see Tour 7).

Entrance:4.5 m. S. of Mandan on graveled road (see Tour 8).Points of interest in park:Fort McKeen, Slant Indian Village, site of old Fort Abraham Lincoln.Regulations:Park open during daylight hours only; parking cars on highway prohibited.

Entrance:4.5 m. S. of Mandan on graveled road (see Tour 8).

Points of interest in park:Fort McKeen, Slant Indian Village, site of old Fort Abraham Lincoln.

Regulations:Park open during daylight hours only; parking cars on highway prohibited.

The 750 acres of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park lie on the west bluffs of the Missouri River, encompassing three sites of historical and archeological interest—a Mandan Indian village and two old military posts. The park is being developed by the State Historical Society of North Dakota in cooperation with the National Park Service.

As the roadway enters the park, the bluffs rise steeply to the right, while below on the left is spread a beautiful view of the Missouri winding away to the distant hills, tracing the outlines of Sibley Island, the Heart River below, flowing into the Missouri, and Bismarck and the capitol set against the background of the valley rising on the other side of the river.

Fort McKeen is on the river bluffs, and the Indian village is below on the river bank, slightly higher than Fort Abraham Lincoln, the cavalry post, on the broad ancient plain near the mouth of the Heart.

Left as the highway enters the park is a crude log palisade that guards the old SLANT VILLAGE. Before these prairies saw the invasion of the white men, perhaps two centuries ago, a group of Mandan Indians, seeking a new location in their advance up the Missouri Valley, selected this narrow point of land which had such excellent natural protection. On the east was the Heart River and on the south a deep coulee. Along the exposed sides the Indians built a palisade and dug a moat to secure their little town.

Depressions in the earth show that the settlement contained 68 lodges. Five have been restored by the park administration, four of them homes and the other the large ceremonial lodge. All have been placed as nearly as possible on their original sites, and in some cases the locations made by park workers were so accurate that remains of the old lodges were found in excavating for the restoration work. The five lodges have been carefully reproduced in every detail. (A general description of the construction and equipment of the typical Indian earth lodge will be found underIndians and Their Predecessors.)

Crude tools such as the inhabitants of this town used in domestic and agricultural work are on display in one lodge. Hoes and shovels were flat bones fastened to wooden handles, and brooms were bunches of brush bound together. A short post with a hollowed center served as a mortar, a club about the size of a baseball bat as a pestle, and with this apparatus corn was ground for meal.

Furnishings in the lodge include the horse corrals, beds, and altars which were part of the domestic scene. There are specimens of dog and horse travois, and an Indian bullboat, made by stretching a green buffalo hide over a wooden frame and drying it. The result resembled nothing so much as an ungainly washtub, but the awkward-looking craft would carry two or three persons quite safely across the treacherous currents of the Missouri.

The ceremonial lodge, with a diameter of 84 feet, has been restored in its original position in the center of the village court, and the interior of this surprisingly large building furnishes an index of the architectural advancement of these supposedly savage people. In this lodge tribal ceremonies were held, and the site doubtless witnessed many enactments of the most holy Mandan religious service, in which the young men of the tribe were inducted into manhood with bloody and gruesome torture rites.

Right of the highway, almost opposite the entrance to the village, the restored and graveled military road branches steeply upward to where FORT McKEEN commands a far view of the plains and the twisting Missouri. Although Bismarck, the two bridges across the river, and many other marks of settlement are now part of the scene, the entire view from this point was one wild, untouched, verdant picture when Army engineers came from Fort Rice in 1872 in search of a location for an infantry post to protect the surveyors, engineers, and workmen who prepared the way for the gleaming intrusion of the Northern Pacific rails. This site was selected, as the Mandan 200 years before had selected the one below, for its natural protection. The fort was built in 1872, and was named for Col. Henry Boyd McKeen of the Eighty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, but on November 19, 1872, the name was officially changed to Fort Abraham Lincoln in honor of the martyred President. A triangular area was fortified, with a blockhouse at each corner and palisade walls connecting them on two sides. The steep face of the bluff protected the remaining side. Within the stockade were officers' quarters, barracks, kitchens, hospital, and laundry. The scouts' headquarters and the laundry were built of cottonwood logs cut along the river, while most of the other buildings were of lumber.

The soldiers stationed at the fort led a varied life, the monotony of frontier existence being tempered by fighting the Sioux, maintaining order among the lawless element which followed the progress of the railroad, and even building smudges to protect the workers from the tormenting swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes.

The three blockhouses and the palisade have been restored, so that the fort looks much as it must have looked more than 50 years ago when it crowned this bluff, guarding its prominent position on the river. None of the buildings within the enclosure is left, but the sites of all are marked.

To avoid confusion, the restored fort is commonly referred to as Fort McKeen, distinguishing it from the later Fort Abraham Lincoln, although the latter included both posts. The FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN SITE is right of the park road just south of the Indian village. Markers indicate the sites of the various structures, and holes partly filled with debris also show where the buildings of the Northwest's strongest fortress once stood. A row of cottonwoods, which grew along Officers' Row, stands in lonesome splendor.

When Gen. George A. Custer and his spirited Seventh Cavalry came to Fort Abraham Lincoln in 1873 it became a nine-company cavalry and infantry post, with the cavalry established on the level plain below, where a good drill and parade ground was available. Custer, with his long sandy-colored hair and restless vivacity, was one of the most personable and interesting military men of his time. He and his wife, a young and talented woman, soon drew about themselves a social circle that was widely known and aspired to. Balls, musicales, and other entertainments drew people from the surrounding territory, including the new town of Bismarck across the river. The social life at Fort Abraham Lincoln would have been a credit to any city, as, beneath crystal chandeliers, to the music of the Seventh's band, stately couples moved in the graceful figures of the dance.

For the soldiers, life consisted chiefly of maintaining order among the Indians and the incoming white population. At one time the guardhouse at the fort had a distinguished occupant, Rain-in-the-Face, the Sioux warrior. He had been heard boasting of "counting coup" on the bodies of two white men killed on the Stanley expedition in 1873, and Tom Custer, brother of General Custer, was sent to take him into custody at Standing Rock Agency (see Side Tour 8C). Rain-in-the-Face was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Abraham Lincoln, but escaped in a jailbreak engineered by friends of some of the other prisoners, and joined Sitting Bull.

Life at the post often grew monotonous for the troopers, who in winter found their activities hampered by the severe cold, and in the summer suffered from the torments of the heat and the mosquitoes.

When the routine of military life palled too greatly on the soldiers, they took refuge in the activities of the Point, a little settlement of dance halls, saloons, and similar places of entertainment, that flourished on the opposite bank of the river directly across from the fort. Since there was no bridge across the Missouri the Point could be reached only by ferry or on the ice. At the time of the spring break-up, however, even the ferry could not be used, and many of the soldiers missed the customary recreational and liquid facilities afforded by the Point. One spring, as the ice was going out, a young man, whose fine physique was equalled only by his foolhardy daring, offered to cross the river for some liquor. Crossing a river on breaking ice has been known as a daring feat since even before the days of Eliza and the bloodhounds, but crossing the Missouri is a particularly hazardous exploit, for this river, always maliciously menacing, is even more so in the spring, with great ice blocks eddying and whirling, crunching violently together, then flung apart by the swift current. The slightest misstep or miscalculation meant death to the young, thirsty soldier, but with the greatest nonchalance he made the crossing and the return, bringing his precious burden back with him, and great and twofold was the rejoicing when he safely reached the home shore.

Three years of existence left Fort Abraham Lincoln in comparative quiet, with only an occasional Indian skirmish. Then events on the frontier conspired to bring the Indian troubles to an end. The campaign of the Little Big Horn was planned (seeHistory). One day in 1876 the Seventh, with bands playing and colors flying, marched away along the Heart in pursuit of the Sioux. On a stifling night early in July the residents of Bismarck were awakened from their sleep by loud sounds of shouting, of wagons and horses moving, at the river. Capt. Grant Marsh had arrived from the Little Big Horn with his steamer, theFar West, loaded with the wounded of Major Reno's command, survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. But more than the wounded, he bore news—news of the death of 267 men, of the annihilation of Custer and his immediate command. Twenty-six of the waiting wives at Fort Abraham Lincoln were widows.

The only living thing left of Custer's command was Comanche, Capt. Myles Keogh's horse. Through the rough country filled with hostile, victorious Sioux, Reno's wounded men had been carried to theFar West, and Captain Marsh had made his epic 54-hour run to Bismarck and the fort 700 miles away.

A RED RIVER VALLEY WHEATFIELD

OATS

Captain Marsh's story of how he learned of the Custer tragedy is strange, and almost unreal. He related later that, as he waited on the river for word from the military commanders, a Crow Indian peered from the brush along the shore and signed that he wished to board the boat. On deck the Indian, unable to speak a word of English, squatted and began to make signs. He drew a group of dots, designated them with the Crow word for "white men." Then he showed a circle of dots around the white men, and for them spoke the word for "Sioux." And then, with a sweep of his hand, he wiped out the inner group of dots. In this simple, abrupt manner, Marsh related, the tragedy was first told to the world.

The story of Custer's annihilation was put on the telegraph wires by Col. C. A. Lounsberry. James W. Foley, North Dakota poet laureate, has commented: "It was, for stark tragedy, horror and surprise, perhaps the greatest news story ever flashed over a telegraph wire to a stunned and stricken country, in the history of the United States."

The Little Big Horn disaster was the beginning of the end of the era of Indian fighting in this region, and troops were withdrawn from Fort Abraham Lincoln in 1891, after which the buildings were carried off piecemeal by the settlers in the vicinity. A new infantry post, known as Fort Lincoln, was later established across the river (see Tour 8).

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is being developed for recreational and historical purposes by the Federal Government in cooperation with the State historical society. The grounds are being landscaped, foot trails laid out, and picnic shelters built. Under construction between the Indian village and the Fort Lincoln site is a museum which will house some archeological material being unearthed on the sites of the old earth lodges and historical material dealing with Fort McKeen and Fort Abraham Lincoln.

Season:Open year round. June to September most favorable period.Tourist Information:State Historical Society of North Dakota, Liberty Memorial Building, Bismarck, N. Dak.Admission:Free.Transportation:North Park.Entrances: E. entrance, US 85 (see Tour 4); N. entrance—less desirable—dirt road from Arnegard (see Tour 4). Branch of Great Northern Ry., Fairview, Mont., to Watford City; Carpenter Bus Line from Williston.Roads: 14 m. gravel and scoria highway; 10 m. horse or hike trail. No guide service.South Park.Entrances: E. entrance, W. entrance, US 10 (see Tour 8). Main line Northern Pacific Ry. and Northland Greyhound Bus Line to Medora (see Tour 8).Roads: 10 m. gravel and scoria highway; 10 m. graveled truck trail; 5 m. horse or hike trail.Guide service: Buddy Ranch, 1.5 m. E. of Medora on US 10.Accommodations:North Park.Hotel accommodations at Watford City (see Tour 4); camping and trailer facilities at Squaw Creek Picnic Area (see North Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour below).South Park.Hotel accommodations at Medora (see Tour 8).Camping and trailer facilities at camping area in park (see South Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour below).Meals, cabins, and horses at Buddy Ranch, 1.5 m. E. of Medora. Horse rates for resident guest, $1.50 per day, guide provided with party of 5; for nonresident guest, $1.50 for one-half day, $2.50 per day, guide provided with party of 5.Climate, clothing, and equipment:Summer tourists should prepare for hot days and cool evenings and for sudden rain or dust storms. Those who expect to tramp in the Badlands should dress for walking through brush and soft, clayey soil. Breeches and high-top boots are in order, the latter serving the additional purpose of protection against snake bite.Medical service:North Park.Watford City (see Tour 4).South Park.Belfield (see Tour 8).Special regulations:No hunting allowed. Camping permitted at points where facilities are provided. Fires allowed only at points designated.Warnings:Avoid low places during heavy rainstorms. Horse trails should not be attempted after rains until trail makers have had an opportunity to repair. Use only native horses. Rattlesnakes are encountered only infrequently (seeGeneral Information).Summary of attractions:Badlands views, petrified forests, horseback riding, camping.

Season:Open year round. June to September most favorable period.

Tourist Information:State Historical Society of North Dakota, Liberty Memorial Building, Bismarck, N. Dak.

Admission:Free.

Transportation:

North Park.Entrances: E. entrance, US 85 (see Tour 4); N. entrance—less desirable—dirt road from Arnegard (see Tour 4). Branch of Great Northern Ry., Fairview, Mont., to Watford City; Carpenter Bus Line from Williston.

Roads: 14 m. gravel and scoria highway; 10 m. horse or hike trail. No guide service.

South Park.Entrances: E. entrance, W. entrance, US 10 (see Tour 8). Main line Northern Pacific Ry. and Northland Greyhound Bus Line to Medora (see Tour 8).

Roads: 10 m. gravel and scoria highway; 10 m. graveled truck trail; 5 m. horse or hike trail.

Guide service: Buddy Ranch, 1.5 m. E. of Medora on US 10.

Accommodations:

North Park.Hotel accommodations at Watford City (see Tour 4); camping and trailer facilities at Squaw Creek Picnic Area (see North Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour below).

South Park.Hotel accommodations at Medora (see Tour 8).

Camping and trailer facilities at camping area in park (see South Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour below).

Meals, cabins, and horses at Buddy Ranch, 1.5 m. E. of Medora. Horse rates for resident guest, $1.50 per day, guide provided with party of 5; for nonresident guest, $1.50 for one-half day, $2.50 per day, guide provided with party of 5.

Climate, clothing, and equipment:Summer tourists should prepare for hot days and cool evenings and for sudden rain or dust storms. Those who expect to tramp in the Badlands should dress for walking through brush and soft, clayey soil. Breeches and high-top boots are in order, the latter serving the additional purpose of protection against snake bite.

Medical service:

North Park.Watford City (see Tour 4).

South Park.Belfield (see Tour 8).

Special regulations:No hunting allowed. Camping permitted at points where facilities are provided. Fires allowed only at points designated.

Warnings:Avoid low places during heavy rainstorms. Horse trails should not be attempted after rains until trail makers have had an opportunity to repair. Use only native horses. Rattlesnakes are encountered only infrequently (seeGeneral Information).

Summary of attractions:Badlands views, petrified forests, horseback riding, camping.

Theodore Roosevelt's biographer, Herman Hagedorn, writes:"Between the prairie lands of North Dakota and the prairie lands of Montana there is a narrow strip of broken country so wild and fantastic in its beauty that it seems as though some unholy demon had carved it to mock theloveliness of God. On both sides of a sinuous river rise ten thousand buttes cut into bizarre shapes by the waters of countless centuries. The hand of man never dared to paint anything as those hills are painted. Olive and lavender, buff, brown, and dazzling white mingle with emerald and flaming scarlet to make a piece of savage splendor that is not without an element of the terrible. The buttes are stark and bare. Only in the clefts are ancient cedars, starved and deformed. In spring there are patches of green grass, an acre here, a hundred acres there, reaching up the slopes from the level bottom-land; but there are regions where for miles and miles no green thing grows, and all creation seems a witch's caldron of gray bubbles tongued with flame, held by some bit of black art forever in suspension."

Theodore Roosevelt's biographer, Herman Hagedorn, writes:

"Between the prairie lands of North Dakota and the prairie lands of Montana there is a narrow strip of broken country so wild and fantastic in its beauty that it seems as though some unholy demon had carved it to mock theloveliness of God. On both sides of a sinuous river rise ten thousand buttes cut into bizarre shapes by the waters of countless centuries. The hand of man never dared to paint anything as those hills are painted. Olive and lavender, buff, brown, and dazzling white mingle with emerald and flaming scarlet to make a piece of savage splendor that is not without an element of the terrible. The buttes are stark and bare. Only in the clefts are ancient cedars, starved and deformed. In spring there are patches of green grass, an acre here, a hundred acres there, reaching up the slopes from the level bottom-land; but there are regions where for miles and miles no green thing grows, and all creation seems a witch's caldron of gray bubbles tongued with flame, held by some bit of black art forever in suspension."

Here in this broken country, known as the Badlands of the Little Missouri, the Roosevelt Regional State Parks are being developed to preserve parts of the strange area as scenic and recreational centers, and at the same time to establish a memorial to the former President, who as a young man spent part of each year from 1883 to 1886 ranching here. (See Tours 8 and 10.) To view the freakish, tumbled, unearthly valley is to appreciate and at the same time be amused by Gen. Alfred Sully's oft-quoted characterization of the region as "hell with the fires out." It must be remembered that the general received his impressions as he jolted along in a wagon, sick, while his troops fought Sioux through the confused, uncertain terrain all one hot day in August 1864. Others visiting it under more favorable circumstances, especially during the freshness of spring, concede the unparalleled fantasy of the landscape, and agree on its strange, wild, potent beauty. Twenty years after Sully fought the Sioux here Roosevelt wrote, "I grow very fond of this place ... it ... has a desolate, grim beauty, that has a curious fascination for me." Since then many noted travelers and writers have marveled at its beauties and deplored the fact that its attractions have not been made more widely known.

The traveler approaching the Badlands from the rolling prairies on either side suddenly finds himself overlooking a valley cut abruptly into the heart of the plain, a valley filled with a strange welter of bare ridges and hillocks, buttes and domes, pyramids and cones, forming one of the most extraordinary topographies on the surface of the earth. In broad horizontal stripes across the varied shapes of the buttes are the browns, reds, grays, and yellows of the sand and clay laid down centuries ago when during successive ages arms of the sea covered large parts of the North American Continent. Where today the visitor stands and looks out over thenaked buttes once lay a mighty sea in which swam monsters whose fossilized skeletons are embedded in the strata laid down by the primordial waters.

Here and there, standing out against the lighter coloring of the sands and clays, are black veins of lignite. Ages ago dense forests, rivaling those of the tropics of today, rose over the swamps of the receding seas. The motorcar speeds through a region where the giant hog, the three-toed horse, and the saber-toothed tiger roamed among lofty trees. The cast-off growth of the forest fell into the swamps below, where, shut away from the air by water and mud, it turned into peat. Centuries later the seas returned to crush it with heavy layers of shale and clay, until pressure and heat drove out most of the volatile oils of the wood, leaving carbon or coal. It is not surprising to find that lignite coal has the same cellular formation as wood, and that it at times bears the imprint of leaves or of whole trunks of trees. The forms of stumps 15 feet in diameter have been found in the coal beds of the State.

Lighting up the dull strata of the buttes are the ever present pinks and reds of scoria—clay burnt into a brick-like shale by the centuries-old fires of burning coal veins. Some of these burning veins still exist in the Badlands, being more easily discoverable in the wintertime, when the heat from combustion causes steam to rise. This burning has been one of the major factors in the production of the present Badlands topography, for as the fires have eaten into the coal veins in the cliffs, the earth has crumbled and been carried away by the rains and streams. These fires were an awesome sight to the Indians, who believed the hills were on fire.

The chief agent, however, in the formation of the Badlands has been the Little Missouri River, which centuries ago began to carve its way down through the soft shales and sandstones with which the early seas had covered the area. Aided by the eroding action of wind, frost, and rain, by huge landslides, and by burning coal veins, the once swift, always silt-laden river and its tributaries have floated away all the age-old clays of the region except these buttes and domes piled in indescribable confusion along the valley floor. The Indians, called the valley "The-place-where-the-hills-look-at-each-other," and the first white explorers, impeded in their travel, named it "bad lands to travel through," a phrase inevitably shortened to Badlands.

Adding to the bizarre coloring of this unusual valley are the blue-gray and silver of the sage, so often remarked by Roosevelt, the light green of the sparse grasses of butte top and valley, and the darker green of the cedars which cling to the shady sides of buttes. Cottonwood, ash, box elder, elm, bull pine, dogwood, andflowering currant grow along the Little Missouri, while gooseberries, buffalo berries, and chokecherries ripen in the gullies. In June the large, white, open flowers of the low-growing gumbo lily, also known as the cowboy lily and the butte primrose, appear in the otherwise barren soil at the foot of the buttes, to be followed shortly by the purple-centered white and lavender Mariposa and creamy white yucca lilies. In midsummer the small, wine-colored flowers of the ball cactus and the large, waxy, lemon-yellow and brown blossoms of the prickly pear cactus show on the drier soil of the buttes, and the scoria lily, with its thistle-like foliage, opens its large, white flower only after sundown. In addition to these striking, gaudy blooms, a great variety of more common North Dakota flowers also appear in the valley of the Little Missouri, especially in the springtime.

When white men first visited the region, it was rich in wild life. Beaver and otter swam the streams, flocks of game birds hid in the breaks, droves of elk, deer, and antelope fed along the Little Missouri, and huge herds of buffalo often darkened the prairie above the valley. In Roosevelt's ranching days game was still abundant, and grizzlies and mountain lions were encountered occasionally. Rocky Mountain, or bighorn, sheep were killed as late as 1906. Bobcats and coyotes are found occasionally even today. The valley harbors more than 300 species of birds, including many game birds and the golden eagle.

On patches of dry grassland here and there, down in the bottoms or up on the buttes, there are prairie-dog towns—areas sometimes as much as a hundred acres in extent, thickly dotted with the small mounds of their cunning inhabitants. Prairie dogs, somewhat larger than good-sized rats, are burrowing rodents allied to the marmot. In digging their burrows they throw the earth up into little mounds, upon which, whenever anything has aroused their curiosity or fear, they sit to chatter, barking like very small dogs, or perhaps more like gray squirrels.

Interesting in connection with any description of the origin of the Badlands is the Sioux legend of their formation. Unknown centuries ago, it is said, the Badlands were a fertile plain, covered with rich grasses and abounding with game. Every autumn the plains tribes came here to get meat for winter and to hold friendly councils beneath the trees which grew along the rivers. Tribes, hostile at other times and in other places, while here greeted each other in peace.

This happy arrangement continued for many years, but one season a fierce tribe came from the mountains to the west and drove the plains tribes from their hunting grounds. Being unsuccessful in their attempts to dislodge the invaders, the plains peoplefinally called a great council and fasted and prayed. Many days passed, however, and no answer came from the Great Spirit, and they began to despair.

Then suddenly a great shudder convulsed the earth, the sky grew black as midnight, and lightning burned jagged through the gloom. Fires hissed from the earth and the once pleasant land rolled and tossed like the waves of the sea, while into its flaming, pitching surface sank the invading tribe, the streams, the trees, and all living things. Then just as suddenly as it had begun, the upheaval and the conflagration ceased, leaving the plain fixed in grotesque waves.

In this way the Great Spirit destroyed the prize that had stirred up strife among his children, and the Badlands were created.

East entrance (see Tour 4)—Sperati Point (see Tour 10), 14 m.

The North Roosevelt Regional State Park, which has an area of approximately 40 square miles, presents many of the best Badlands features, including a petrified forest and the remarkable views of the Grand Canyon of the Little Missouri River from Sperati Point.

From the eastern entrance the winding graveled and scoria park highway proceeds in a general westerly direction along the northern side of theLITTLE MISSOURI.

Just inside the entrance are the blue-gray buildings of the permanentCCC CAMP (L), which houses the 200 men assigned to putting trails through the area and building rustic equipment at the picnic and camping areas in the park.

At1.5 m.is theCHALONER CREEK HORSE TRAIL.

Right on this trail which affords an opportunity for a ride of5 m.among the buttes and along the edge of the higher land above the brush-filled gullies or breaks. Some parts of the trail are cut through groves of aspen, ash, elm, and cedar on the north side of buttes, while other parts move over the face of the cliffs or on high and narrow ridges with precipitous canyon walls 300 ft. or more in depth dropping on either side. Petrified stumps are along the trail.

The highway, continuing W. more directly than the river, which here makes a deep bend to the S., skirts patches of woodland along the bottoms to reachSQUAW CREEK PICNIC AREA,5 m., the best-developed camping center in the two parks. This picnic area on the banks of the Little Missouri has excellent grass and shade.Its one-way road leads among aspen, aromatic sumac, oak, poplar, and cottonwood to a number of individual camp sites. In addition to a stone and log shelter and numerous fireplaces, the area has 4 wells and 45 tables. At the east edge of the area a rustic footbridge leads over a little ravine, to clean, grassy picnic grounds.

Northwest of Squaw Creek Picnic Area the road passes along the edge of the breaks overlooking the river to a junction with CEDAR CANYON HORSE TRAIL at5.8 m.

Left on this 5-mile trail, which is very similar in character to the Chaloner Creek Horse Trail, are lookout points affording excellent views. In spring portions of the trail show a profusion of wild flowers.

The highway proceeds NW. to the junction with a graded road.

Right at this junction on a road disclosing very good views; it leads NW. along the west side of dry SQUAW CREEK to the northern boundary of the park,6 m.Beyond lies ARNEGARD,20 m.(see Tour 4), by which the Badlands and the park can be entered from the N.

At7 m.is CEDAR CANYON LOOKOUT, which commands an exceptionally good view to the S. across the Little Missouri River and beyond, where as far as the eye can reach stretch the tumbled outlines of the buttes.

Northwest of Cedar Canyon the road moves out upon the plateau above the Badlands and then turns W. and SW. in a large arc along the edge of the breaks to SPERATI POINT,14 m.(see Tour 10), a high shoulder of the plateau, overlooking the spectacular GRAND CANYON OF THE LITTLE MISSOURI. Lying just W. of the bend of the Little Missouri where it turns E. toward the Missouri, the point affords views up and down the canyon, which in places is 600 ft. deep. It is proposed to make this a completely developed recreational center, with cabins, stables, lodge, and a store.

From Sperati Point an unmarked and indefinite trail, which should not be tried without a guide, leads SW.

Left on this trail to a PETRIFIED FOREST,2 m., one of those Badlands areas, often many acres in extent, which abound with petrified logs and stumps. Petrified stumps are a common sight throughout the valley of the Little Missouri, suggesting that at one time it must have been heavily forested. When the originals of these stone trees died, their trunks, either standing or fallen, soaked up soil water holding mineral matter in solution. As the water evaporated, the mineral matter was left behind, filling the pores of the wood and the tiny cavities produced by decomposition. In time decay removed all the wood and the trees became stone, or, popularly, petrified wood. Some of the logs—for, of course, the trees are not now standing—are as much as 35 ft. in length and 2 ft. in diameter. In some places the soil has been washed and blown away from beneath the stumps, leaving odd formations shaped like toadstools.

East entrance (see Tour 8)—Hell's Hole—West entrance (see Tour 8), 10 m.

The South Roosevelt Regional State Park comprises an area of approximately 90 square miles, lying along the Little Missouri just N. of US 10. In addition to the fantastic beauty of the Badlands buttes, it contains a petrified forest, and one of the largest burning coal mines in the Badlands.

From the eastern entrance the route leads NW. over the broad, pale-pink ribbon of the graveled and scoria park highway.

HELL'S HOLE (L),4 m., was named for a burning coal mine once situated in this valley. The mine burned out, causing the earth to crumble and destroy a tiny lake which lay under the cliff.

At7 m.three trails form a triangle on a level area adjacent to the LITTLE MISSOURI RIVER. Here it is proposed to develop a recreational center with full tourist accommodations, including cabins, store, lodge, and stables. At the north end of the proposed area is the old PEACEFUL VALLEY RANCH, which served tourists many years. It has been acquired by the park, and the ranch house and corrals are to be preserved as a recreational center. At Peaceful Valley Ranch are the junctions with an unimproved trail, a graveled truck trail, and an unmarked and indefinite horse trail.

1. Right from the ranch on the unimproved trail to PADDOCK CREEK,0.4 m., which like all the creeks here is dry except in rainy seasons. Up the creek, one on the L. bank at1 m.and the other on the R. at1.5 m.are the mounds of two PRAIRIE-DOG TOWNS.

2. Right from the ranch on the truck trail which crosses JONES CREEK,0.8 m., and turns E. just before reaching CATHEDRAL BUTTE,2 m., an old landmark on the trail.

Left from Cathedral Butte0.5 m.on an unimproved trail to WIND CANYON, a narrow, deep valley leading down to a broad elbow of the Little Missouri. Its name was suggested by the striking examples of erosion by winds, which, whipping at the buttes for centuries, have worn them into odd shapes. From Wind Canyon the trail passes NW. along the river to SHELL BUTTE,0.8 m., a high butte into which the river has cut deeply, revealing large deposits of marine shells.

East of Cathedral Butte on the main side route following the truck trail for about a mile and then NE. across JUEL CREEK,3.3 m., to GOD'S GARDENS (R),4.5 m., an unusually attractive stretch of butte and lowland, from which the road leads NW. across GOVERNMENT CREEK,5.3 m., where to the R., one on either side of the creek, are two PRAIRIE-DOG TOWNS. At the crossing of Government Creek is the junction with an unimproved trail (do not follow without guide).

Right on this trail3 m.to a BURNING COAL MINE, which is one of the largest in the Badlands. The burning of the coal causes cracks to form in the earth above the vein; one guide says he hasbrought water to a boil in 15 min. by placing it above one of these cracks. As the vein is consumed, the earth crumbles and falls, and the rains carry it away to the streams.

Amid some of the finest Badlands scenery the truck trail continues in a general northwesterly direction to the north boundary of the park,10 m.

3. Left from the ranch on the unmarked and indefinite horse trail to a PETRIFIED FOREST,5.5 m., considered one of the best examples of a petrified forest (see North Roosevelt Regional State Park Tour above) in the Badlands. The trip to this forest, which makes a nice day's outing, requires a guide.

Southwest of Peaceful Valley Ranch, the route runs along the east bank of the winding, shallow Little Missouri to a CAMPING AREA (R),8 m., sheltered by trees along the stream. It is furnished with tables, fireplaces, and wells, and several individual camping spaces have been developed along the road that circles through it.

At8.5 m.the route fords the river—a passage which in times of high water cannot be effected by motorcars—and, turning SW. along the western bank, reaches a permanent CCC CAMP (L),9 m., with its low, trim, slate-blue buildings lying next the stream on a level piece of bottom land overshadowed by lofty buttes.

At9.5 m., is a junction with a graveled road leading uphill away from the river.

Right on this trail is a PICNIC SHELTER,0.5 m., built over a spring and provided with a fireplace.

Right from this shelter5 m.on a marked HORSE TRAIL, which winds among the buttes in a figure eight. At some points on the trail the tops of Square (Flat Top) and Sentinel Buttes (see Tour 8) are visible far away to the SW. At the center of the figure eight, forming a pleasant place for lunch, is a clump of trees with a spring flowing down over little sandstone terraces.

At9.8 m.is the sandstone portal of the west entrance, beyond which is the junction with US 10 (see Tour 8),10 m.

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