(Winnipeg, Man., Can.)—Pembina—Grand Forks—Fargo—Wahpeton—(Watertown, S. Dak.). US 81.Canadian boundary to South Dakota Line, 256.5 m.N. P. Ry. parallels route between Canadian border and Joliette; G. N. Ry. between Hamilton and Fargo; Milwaukee R. R. between Fargo and South Dakota Line. Winnipeg-Fargo route of Northwest Airlines parallels route between Canadian border and Fargo. Graveled roadbed except about 31 m. bituminous-surfaced. Accommodations of all types in principal towns.
(Winnipeg, Man., Can.)—Pembina—Grand Forks—Fargo—Wahpeton—(Watertown, S. Dak.). US 81.
Canadian boundary to South Dakota Line, 256.5 m.
N. P. Ry. parallels route between Canadian border and Joliette; G. N. Ry. between Hamilton and Fargo; Milwaukee R. R. between Fargo and South Dakota Line. Winnipeg-Fargo route of Northwest Airlines parallels route between Canadian border and Fargo. Graveled roadbed except about 31 m. bituminous-surfaced. Accommodations of all types in principal towns.
US 81 crosses North Dakota along its eastern boundary from the Canadian to the South Dakota border, and passes through the rich low valley of the Red River of the North, a wide level plain that was once the bed of the great prehistoric Lake Agassiz. The route parallels the Red River to Wahpeton, and the Bois de Sioux River between that city and the South Dakota Line. Constantly in sight to the left of the road are the heavily wooded river banks, but except for crossing several timbered tributaries the route runs through almost unbelievably flat green fields, broken here and there by an occasional farmstead.
During the early settlement of this region the Red River provided transportation into the newly opened Northwest, and beside its course slow-moving trains of creaking oxcarts preceded the steamboat into the new land. It was in the Red River Valley that the first white settlements in the State were made. Here in the last quarter of the nineteenth century flourished the bonanza farms—those huge land tracts entirely devoted to the growing of wheat that earned for this valley the title of "the bread basket of the world." Today the Red River Valley produces many other crops—potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa—in addition to wheat. Its natural endowments of rich soil and good rainfall combine with the man-made facilities of transportation to constitute the most prosperous section of North Dakota.
US 81 crosses the Canadian border64.5 m.S. of Winnipeg, Can.
PEMBINA (Chippewa,highbush cranberry),3 m.(792 alt., 551 pop.), named for the berries that lend their flaming color to the nearby woods in autumn, is the cradle of North Dakota white settlement. Here, at the confluence of the Red and Pembina Rivers, the earliest trading posts and the first white colony in the State were established. Charles Chaboillez, representing the North West Co., built the first fur post on North Dakota soil on the south bank of the Pembina River within the present site of Pembina in1797-98. Rudely constructed and of short duration, it had already disappeared when Alexander Henry, Jr., also of the North West Co., came up the Red River in 1800. The following year he built a post on the north side of the Pembina, and in the same year both the XY and the Hudson's Bay Co. opened posts at the mouth of the river. The three competing companies, with their free rum and unscrupulous trading, brought about a lawless social condition in the new settlement. Drinking bouts and brawls were continuous as the Indians were plied with liquor by the conscienceless traders, who excused their conduct on grounds of competition.
It was during this time that the first child of other than Indian blood was born on North Dakota soil. The child was not white, but Negro, the daughter of Pierre Bonza, Henry's personal servant. The first white child in the State was born at Henry's post in 1807, the illegitimate son of the "Orkney Lad", a woman who had worked at the post for several years in the guise of a man. Her imposture was not generally known until the birth of her child, after which a collection was taken up and she and the child were sent back to her home in the Orkney Islands.
During the middle of the nineteenth century Pembina was the rendezvous for white and metis hunters, and the town was the starting point for the great Pembina buffalo hunts (see Side Tour 5A).
The fur trade brought some white settlers to this area, but it was not until 1812 that systematic colonization was attempted. In that year William Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, brought a group of dispossessed Scottish peasants to the Red River Valley to farm under an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Co. Untrained for the rigors of frontier life, and persecuted by the fur traders of the rival North West Co. who did not want settlers in their lucrative area, many of the Selkirk colonists moved to Canada in 1818 after establishment of the international boundary defined Pembina as United States soil. The next 30 years saw a slow influx of settlers into the Red River Valley and by 1851 Pembina had become a fairly important river port. In that year Norman Kittson, a fur trader, was named postmaster, the first in North Dakota; and Charles Cavileer, for whom the town and county of Cavalier were later named (see Tour 5), was appointed collector of customs at Pembina. Cavileer became postmaster in 1852, and, as under his influence newcomers arrived to farm, the fur trade declined and there developed the first permanent agricultural community in the State.
Pembina appears from a distance more like a grove of trees than a town. Most of its buildings are old, reflecting the rococo architecture of an earlier day.
On the Red River at the eastern end of Rolette St. isMasonic Park, where a marker commemorates the site of the first Masonic lodge in the State, organized at Pembina in 1863. Each year, both on July 1, which is Dominion Day (the Canadian holiday similar to the U. S. Independence Day) and on July 4, the flag of the United States and the Canadian Union Jack fly together from the park flagpole, a practice illustrating the neighborliness of the border States and Provinces. The Canadian flag is a gift of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Manitoba.
The highway crosses the Pembina River, which in dry seasons is likely to appear more like mud than water. Left on the highway isPembina State Park(good water, firewood, kitchens, and tables), which includes the site of the Chaboillez trading post.
A bridge over the Red River connects Pembina with St. Vincent, Minn., situated on US 59 (see Minn. Tour 17).
At4 m.is the PEMBINA AIRPORT (R), airport of entry operated by the Northwest Airlines. It is on part of the former military reservation of Fort Pembina, established in 1870. The reservation was turned over to the U. S. Department of the Interior in 1895 and sold at public auction. The fort was situated a mile and a half S. of the city of Pembina on the Red River.
JOLIETTE,14.5 m.(796 alt., 100 pop.), is a French-Canadian community named for Joliette, Quebec.
At16.4 m.is the junction with ND 44, a graveled highway and an alternate route of shorter distance between Joliette and Manvel (see below).
Left on ND 44 is BOWESMONT,8.6 m.(794 alt., 125 pop.), named for William Bowes, the first storekeeper. It lies on the level land just W. of the Red River, its treeless streets more like a western North Dakota prairie town than the usual Red River Valley village. The story is told that Bowes won the opportunity to name the town in a game of cards. Bowesmont was first built on the banks of the river, but settlers experienced great hardships when the stream overflowed its banks each spring, and the buildings were moved.
Near Bowesmont in the spring of 1860 occurred an event illustrative of the hardships suffered by the missionaries to this region. The Rev. Joseph Goiffon, assistant at the Pembina Catholic Mission, returning from a trip to St. Paul, left his party behind in an effort to reach the mission in time to conduct a certain Mass. A driving rain had been falling and this suddenly turned to a swirling snowstorm. In a short time the ground was covered with six or seven inches of snow, and the driving wind made it impossible for him to continue. The blizzard did not abate, and in two days his horse had died from exposure and his own legs had frozen so that he was unable to walk. For five days he remained on the prairie, living on the flesh of his horse, until the storm subsided and apasser-by heard his feeble cries for help. It was found necessary to amputate parts of both legs, but in spite of this he returned to the Pembina mission, and was later transferred to St. Paul and Mendota, where he served until his death in 1910.
DRAYTON,18.5 m.(800 alt., 509 pop.), first known as Hastings Landing, was given its present name by settlers who came west from Drayton, Ont., Canada. In contrast with its neighbor Bowesmont, Drayton is situated directly in the timber on the banks of the Red. Its 42-acre city park is unusual in that it lies in another State, across the river in Minnesota. The bridge leading to the park is also unusual; it is a drawbridge, built in 1911, when the high stage of the Red aroused hope of reviving steamboating. After the bridge had been completed the river stage fell, and has never risen, so that the draw has not been lifted since it was built.
Drayton is an active sports town, especially interested in curling, and 10 teams compete in the large enclosed rink each winter.
Left on ND 44 to ACTON HALL,29.5 m., a community building.
On ND 44 to the junction (R) with a graveled road,36.5 m.In a triangle formed by the junction is a CRUCIFIX. On a base of natural boulders, in summer the clear, marble-like whiteness of the cross and canopied figure stands out in contrast with the green of the surrounding countryside.
At50 m.is the junction with US 81 (see below).
HAMILTON,24.5 m.(830 alt., 151 pop.), also a Canadian settlement, is named for Hamilton, Ont. The oldest State bank in North Dakota, organized in 1886, is operated here. The Pembina County Fair, established in 1894, is held here (June or July) each year. In Hamilton is the junction with ND 5 (see Tour 5).
In GLASSTON,31.5 m.(843 alt., 70 pop.), named for Archibald Glass, first postmaster, and ST. THOMAS,37 m.(846 alt., 595 pop.), named for St. Thomas, Ont., are the homes of many retired farmers. The latter is also a potato and sugar-beet shipping center.
AUBURN,46.5 m.(848 alt., 50 pop.), was larger than its neighbor GRAFTON,52.5 m.(833 alt., 3,136 pop.), until the latter became a railroad junction. Named by early settlers for Grafton County, N. H., Grafton is on the Park River in the center of a rich farming area. It was the first city in this part of the Northwest to maintain a municipal light plant, and had the first public library in North Dakota, established by a women's club in 1897. ASpanish-American War Memorial, one of the few in the State, is on the Walsh County Courthouse grounds. On a hill W. of the town is theGrafton State Schoolfor the feeble-minded. Opened in 1904, the institution in 1937 had 778 inmates and a faculty and staff of 110. The grounds, including the school farm, cover 20 acres.
Left from Grafton on ND 17, a graveled highway, to the junction with ND 18,10 m.
Right on this highway8.5 m.is HOOPLE, (901 alt., 325 pop.), one of the largest primary potato-shipping points in the State. More than a thousand carloads of Red River Valley potatoes are loaded here each year. The town is named for Allen Hoople, an early settler. U. S. Senator Lynn J. Frazier, former Governor of the State (1917-1921), lives on a farm NE. of here.
On ND 17 is PARK RIVER,16.5 m.(1,000 alt., 1,131 pop.), on thePark River, probably named by early explorers for the buffalo parks along the stream. The Indians had no weapons which were effective on buffalo at long range, so they constructed corrals of brush into which the animals could be herded for killing. Whenever possible these corrals, which the first white explorers called buffalo parks, were built near the bank of a river or edge of a hill so that the buffalo would charge over the edge and be killed or badly injured in the crushing fall. TheWalsh County Agricultural and Training School, secondary vocational institution, is located in the town. In Park River are offices of theSouth Branch Park River Projectof the Soil Conservation Service, which has a demonstration area of 51,000 acres in central Walsh County on which contour farming and wind strip cropping are practiced. Sinclair Lewis, the novelist, owns a farm 1 m. S. of Park River, which he has never seen.
William Avery Rockefeller, father of John D. Rockefeller, the late oil magnate, lived on a Park River farm for some time. In 1881 an elderly man who gave his name as Dr. William Levingston homesteaded on a quarter section of land just E. of the town, where he lived each summer for 15 years. He later purchased an adjoining quarter, but the deed to this land was in the name of Pierson W. Briggs, a son-in-law of William Rockefeller and then purchasing agent for the Standard Oil Company. In 1895 George W. Towle, former Park River banker, who transacted much of Dr. Levingston's business, saw a picture of the senior Rockefeller in a copy ofMcClure's Magazine, and recognized it as that of his former client, Levingston. William A. Rockefeller was not a doctor, but sold patent medicines and acted as a cancer specialist.
MINTO,63 m.(826 alt., 565 pop.), originally settled by Canadians and named for an Ontario town, is now a Czech and Polish settlement. The Feast of St. Wenslaus, September 28, and Czechoslovakian Independence Day, October 28, are occasions of festivity. Minto is situated on theForest River. There is a park by the stream S. of the town (swimming pool, recreational area, and campgrounds.)
ARDOCH,69 m.(830 alt., 110 pop.), also named for an Ontario town, is now predominantly Polish.Lake Ardoch, a large artificial lake constructed as a water conservation and migratory waterfowl project, adjoins the town on the E.
At80.5 m.is the second junction with ND 44 (see above).
MANVEL,81.5 m.(826 alt., 183 pop.), is named for Gen. A. A. Manvel of the G. N. Ry. Originally known as the Turtle River station, it was one of six stops on the Fort Abercrombie-FortGarry trail in the 1860's. The stage station was a crude log hut, roofed first with prairie sod and later with a thatch of weeds when the rain washed the sod away. The hut had one window and one door. Cooking was done on a fireplace made of clay dobes or hand-made bricks. For meals, served on an improvised table, the traveler paid 50 cents, and for the same price he had the privilege of sleeping on the dirt floor. These stations were comfortable, however, in the coldest weather, with great fires roaring in the fireplaces to warm and cheer the traveler.
At92.5 m.is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road to the GRAND FORKS SILVER FOX FARM,2 m.(visitors allowed Jan. 1-June 1; arrange with manager). About 200 pair of foxes are kept at the farm each winter.
Left at93 m.is a stone memorial marking a point on the old RED RIVER OXCART TRAIL between St. Paul, Minn., and Fort Garry (Winnipeg), Canada. During the late summer and fall most of the traffic through the region was on this trail. It was first used by traders at Fort Garry to transport furs to St. Paul. The exact route is not known today, but it is believed to have run through Grand Forks on 3rd St., turned S. at the present corner of S. 3rd St. and Minnesota Ave., whence it followed approximately the route of US 81 to the Lincoln Park golf course. Here it is believed to have turned E. toward the river, which it followed to Frog Point (Belmont, see below), and thence up the valley. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cavileer, pioneer settlers at Pembina, made a romantic honeymoon journey to St. Paul on this trail in 1840.
At93 m.is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road to the NORTHERN PACKING COMPANY PLANT (open),0.3 m., which in its 15-year existence (1937) has purchased more than $20,000,000 worth of livestock.
At93.5 m.(R) is the NORTH DAKOTA STATE MILL AND ELEVATOR (open weekdays 9-5; conducted tours), a State-owned plant. A product of the Nonpartisan League's industrial program, this institution has played an important role in State politics since its opening in 1922. As early as 1915 the Society of Equity and the Equity Exchange had attempted to establish a State-owned elevator, but had failed, and this failure hastened the formation of the Nonpartisan League. By 1919 the league was strong enough in the legislature to establish its industrial program, part of which was a State mill and elevator. The State Industrial Commission governs the mill and elevator. Managership is generally considered a political plum. Whether or not the mill is a paying venture is a perennially hotly debated question. Its opponents, taking into consideration the original cost of the mill, an amount in excess of $3,000,000, cannot see how it will ever pay for itself, whilethose who favor its operation maintain that it makes a profit, and assert further that the creation of a market within the boundaries of the State is of invaluable benefit to the farmers. Salesmen for the State sell the mill's product in eastern States, and one of the accusations repeatedly hurled at the mill manager during political campaigns is that Dakota Maid Flour retails at a lower price in the East than in North Dakota.
A State law requires all official State documents to be stamped "Buy 'Dakota Maid' Flour."
The mill and elevator consists of six steel-and-concrete fire-proof buildings. The mill proper has three storage wings, and contains three mills, each with a daily capacity of 1,000 bbl. The elevator, equal in height to the average 12-story skyscraper, has a capacity of 1,659,600 bu. Thirty-two storage tanks each have a capacity of 50,000 bu. The elevator is operated independently of the mill, which buys in the open market and pays a rental to the elevator for storage space. In addition to Dakota Maid Flour the mill manufactures cereals, oatmeals, and poultry feeds.
GRAND FORKS,94.5 m.(834 alt., 17,112 pop.) (seeGrand Forks)
Points of Interest: University of North Dakota, Wesley College.
Points of Interest: University of North Dakota, Wesley College.
At N. 16th St. and Skidmore Ave. N. is the junction with US 2 (see Tour 6).
At105.5 m.is the junction with ND 15, a graveled highway.
Right on this road is THOMPSON,2 m.(972 alt., 273 pop.), the center of a large potato-farming area.
At116.5 m.is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road is REYNOLDS,2 m.(915 alt., 351 pop.), named for Dr. Henry Reynolds, an early settler and temperance apostle. The town is on the Grand Forks-Traill County line and many of the residents have their business places in one county and their homes in the other.
At121.5 m.is the junction with a graveled spur.
Right on this spur is BUXTON,1 m.(935 alt., 410 pop.), a Scandinavian town named for Thomas Buxton, a business associate of Bud Reeves, the town site owner. Reeves, active in State politics, was one of the leaders in the drive to obtain funds for maintenance of State colleges after veto of the appropriation bill in 1895 (see Side Tour 1A). When Reeves campaigned for election to Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1894 he traveled over the State in what was probably the first house trailer ever used here, and one of the first used in the region. He had a log cabin built on wheels, and in this he visited every part of the State, a large cowbell attached to the cabin announcing his arrival in each town. No mean patriot, during his speeches he had with him on the platform the American flag and a live eagle.
Several important personages have been residents of Buxton, including two Governors of the State, R. A. Nestos (1877-) and A. G. Sorlie (1874-1928); U. S. Senator A. J. Gronna (1858-1922),one of the six members of the Senate who opposed entrance of the United States into the World War; and Dr. Lila M. O'Neale (1886-), anthropologist and ethnologist who has engaged in research work in Guatemala under the auspices of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and is now a faculty member at the University of California.
At123.5 m.is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is BELMONT,11.5 m., a ghost town which in the 1870's was a booming river port known as Frog Point. It was named by Capt. Sam Painter, one of the first Red River pilots, on an early trip down the river, probably in 1860. Finding the shores almost covered with frogs, he is said to have erected a rude sign reading "Frog Point", and through the rise and fall of the town which grew up there the name remained. In 1871 the Hudson's Bay Co. established a trading post on the point. A year later, because of the fall of the river, Frog Point became head of navigation, and in short order was a rendezvous for boatmen, trappers, hunters, teamsters, and drifters, all living in tents or hastily constructed buildings. Teamsters hauling freight overland from the S. in their heavy, eight-horse, high-wheeled "jumpers", and trappers and Indians with their catches, here boarded the Hudson's Bay Co. steamerInternational, and James J. Hill'sSelkirk. The town, cut from the woods on the bank of the Red, and towered over by tall oaks, became a wilderness metropolis, and its reputation spread to Europe. In England it was believed by many to be a city of broad avenues and tall spires, second in size only to Liverpool, and filled with the hum of industry. Foreign visitors, traveling to Fort Garry, looked eagerly for this Red River capital, and even their disillusionment on seeing the little backwoods city could not dim its reputation. In its streets rough, rugged, heavy-booted woodsmen, rivermen, and trappers thundered up and down the wooden walks, and many a citizen was hastily despatched by their 44's. Heavy-jowled saloonkeepers, slim-fingered sleek gamblers, and gay dance-hall girls were all a part of the mushroom town.
Nature brought downfall to the Point as quickly as she had elevated it to importance. The river fell lower still, and Frog Point lost its position as head of navigation. Many of its inhabitants departed as swiftly as they had come. Fire wiped out a number of buildings which were never rebuilt. Trade dwindled and storekeepers shut up shop. Some 20 years later, with the river level again up, the town revived as a grain-shipping center, but the flood of 1897 ruined grain elevators and their contents, and within a short time the bustle of the town again faded into the past. Today the Hudson's Bay Co. building, which houses a farm implement shop, is all that remains of the early affluence. The present population of the hamlet, which is not even an organized village, is 33.
CUMMINGS,124.5 m.(935 alt., 84 pop.), named for Henry Cumings, an early G. N. employee who helped build the railroad, is principally a Scandinavian community. Originally spelled with one "m", its name was misspelled so consistently that the Post Office Department legitimized the misspelling by inserting the second "m."
At129.5 m.is the junction with ND 7, a graveled highway (see Side Tour 1A).
HILLSBORO,132.5 m.(907 alt., 1,317 pop.), named for James J. Hill, the "Empire Builder" of the G. N. Ry., was platted in 1880 on the attractiveGoose River. A bitter fight for the Traill County seat was prominent in the early history of the town. Neighboring Caledonia, on the Red River, had been the county seat since organization of Traill County in 1875, but the routing of the G. N. Ry. through Hillsboro gave that young city aspirations, and in 1890 it came forward as a contender for the county seat. The campaign grew heated, and Caledonia citizens carried arms and posted guards around their village. To lead their defense they organized a committee, whom Hillsboro residents dubbed Tigers of the Jungle and Irreconcilables. The Tigers imported Col. W. C. Plummer, a widely known professional standard bearer who had served as campaign speaker in many parts of the country, and whom James G. Blaine once called "one of the three best political speakers in the United States." The colonel became the leading figure in the county seat fight. He was an impressive speaker, and the floods of oratory he loosed in behalf of Caledonia were greatly enjoyed by his listeners. The majority of them, however, apparently remained impervious to his arguments—when the votes were counted Hillsboro enjoyed a 1,291 to 218 majority.
Woodland Park, a 25-acre recreational and tourist camp area in the northern part of town, contains a log cabin, originally built at Belmont, in which are an old-fashioned loom once used in weaving the homespun clothing of a pioneer family, and other relics of pioneer days.
Right from Hillsboro on a graveled highway to STONY POINT,1.5 m., site of a camp used by pioneers freighting their supplies overland from Fargo during early settlement of the region. The camp site, situated on a sandy ridge left by the recession of glacial Lake Agassiz, is marked by a large, pointed boulder 20 ft. in diameter, which once served as a landmark. In early days it was believed, from the manner in which the rock was situated in the earth, that it might have dropped from the sky.
South of Hillsboro are many well-built farmsteads—some of which were once part of bonanza farms—and four peaceful villages which in bonanza days were busy wheat centers, but now lie quietly basking in their memories.
GRANDIN,146 m.(898 alt., 172 pop.), is the largest of these towns. It was named for J. L. Grandin, one of the two Tidioute, Pa., brothers who bought 99 sections of Red River Valley land and farmed them under the bonanza system. Dividing their land into 1,500-acre farms, each with a superintendent and a foreman, theyharvested their first crop in 1878. They had 14,000 acres under cultivation near Grandin, and 6,000 at Mayville. Before the advent of the railroad the wheat raised on their land was hauled on barges towed by the steamersGrandinandAlsopto Fargo, a distance of 90 m.—overland Grandin is 35 m. from Fargo. The Grandin farm was one of the earliest practical users of the telephone, although whether the first in the State was installed on this or the Dalrymple farm (see Tour 8) is in dispute.
GARDNER,154.5 m.(891 alt., 108 pop.), named for the town site owner, was founded in 1880 when the surrounding territory was being developed as wheat country, but was not incorporated village until 1929.
ARGUSVILLE,161.5 m.(889 alt., 115 pop.), is believed to have received its name from theDaily Argus, Fargo newspaper published at the time of the town's founding in 1880.
HARWOOD,169 m.(892 alt., 82 pop.), was named for A. J. Harwood, a prominent Fargo real estate dealer who bought all the town sites between Fargo and Grand Forks when the G. N. Ry. was built.
At179.3 m.is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road to HECTOR AIRPORT,0.5 m., a U. S. Department of Commerce A-1 field, land for which was donated by Martin Hector, pioneer Fargo banker, in 1931. The buildings include a city hangar of laminated truss-arch construction, completed in 1936 under the Works Progress Administration.
FARGO, 181 m. (907 alt., 28,619 pop.) (seeFargo).
Points of Interest: North Dakota Agricultural College, Veterans' Hospital, Dovre Ski Slide.
Points of Interest: North Dakota Agricultural College, Veterans' Hospital, Dovre Ski Slide.
At Front and 13th Sts. is the junction with US 10 (see Tour 8).
The WILD RICE RIVER, which the route crosses at188 m., was named for the wild grain which formerly grew on its banks. Near here, in a battle between the Sioux and Chippewa in 1807, Tabashaw, a Chippewa chief, was slain while avenging the death of his eldest son, who had been killed a short time before by the Sioux.
At189 m.is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is HOLY CROSS CEMETERY,0.3 m., one of the first cemeteries in the State, established in 1862. The first burial here is said to have been that of a priest who had been beheaded by an Indian. Another victim of frontier tragedy whose body rests here was Archibald Montrose, a young English nobleman who came to America to establish a home. He was found frozen within a few rods of his own door during a blizzard in 1871. His devoted young wife ordered a covered shelf built on the outside wall of their cabin beneath her bedroom window, and had his coffin placed there. In the spring, when the ground had thawed sufficiently to permit the digging of a grave, she unwillingly consented to the burial of her husband's body. Soon afterward theirbaby daughter, born after the father's death, died also, and the mother, her mind affected by the grief of her bereavements, joined them in the nearby burial ground. For many years a large wooden cross marked the spot where Montrose died.
WILD RICE,191 m.(909 alt., 35 pop.), is the center of a French-Canadian farming community.
HICKSON,196 m.(915 alt., 100 pop.), is named for the Ole Hicks family who were early farmers in the vicinity.
At198.5 m.is the junction with ND 46, a graveled highway.
Right on this highway to a bridge crossing the SHEYENNE RIVER,9 m.On the bridge a tablet has been placed reading: "Sibley Trail 1863. Sibley's Indian Expedition crossed the Sheyenne at this point Aug. 20, returning from the Missouri to Fort Abercrombie."
At9.5 m.is the junction with a graveled spur.
Right on this road to KINDRED,1 m.(948 alt., 429 pop.), a tree-shaded town named for F. E. and W. A. Kindred, surveyors who platted the town site and later were large landholders in the vicinity. The community is principally Scandinavian. An interestingCollection(open by arrangement) of European museum pieces and Indian artifacts is owned by Hjalmer Rustad of Kindred, and is kept at his home.
ND 46 traverses a low range of sandy hills, the western rim of glacial Lake Agassiz. At19 m.is the junction with a dry-weather dirt road. Left on this road at26.5 m., just across the river to the SHEYENNE RIVER PARK (central building of native logs, spring-fed swimming pool, five picnic areas, cabins, and camp sites), under development (1938) as a recreational center by a Federal land utilization project. The park includes an area of unusual scenic attraction. A road winds along the heavily wooded river bottom, and side roads and graveled trails lead out of the valley to the sand dunes which stretch away to the S. The great plain here was deposited in glacial days, when the rushing Sheyenne, then a large stream carrying the sediment-laden waters of the melting ice sheet, flowed into Lake Agassiz. As the lake retreated the sand was left to the winds, which pushed and whipped it into dunes that dip away toward the horizon. Hummocks of trees and shrubs appear like green islands in this wide sea of dull brown. In some places, to combat the moving sand, elm and oak bark has been laid lengthwise in the road to preserve the trail.
CHRISTINE,204.5 m.(926 alt., 204 pop.), has a population 95 percent Scandinavian. When Christine Nilsson, the noted Swedish operatic soprano, appeared in the United States in 1873, she was honored by American Scandinavians, who named this town for her. ACollection(open by arrangement) of pioneer implements, including spinning wheels, brass kitchen utensils, and relics from Fort Abercrombie, is owned by Dr. M. U. Ivers.
ABERCROMBIE,212.5 m.(935 alt., 242 pop.), is a typically peaceful small town on the banks of the Red River. The air of serenity which lies over its tree-lined streets and substantial homesis in decided contrast with the bustling activity of the settlement which surrounded the pioneer post of Fort Abercrombie, first Federal fort in North Dakota, built in 1858. It was named for Lt. Col. John J. Abercrombie, officer in charge of its erection. The most westerly outpost of the settlers' advance during the 1860's, Fort Abercrombie became the gateway to the Dakotas. From here expeditions set out to the unexplored plains of the Northwest, and trains of settlers left by oxcart and covered wagons to seek homes on the prairie beyond.
It was between Fort Abercrombie and Fort Garry that the first steamboat to ply the waters of the Red River of the North carried passengers and freight. Built in Georgetown in 1859, theAnson Northrup, named for its owner, who hauled the machinery overland from the Mississippi River, made its maiden trip to the Canadian post the same summer.
Because of its position on the outskirts of the white settlement, Fort Abercrombie was particularly vulnerable to Indian attacks, and during the Minnesota uprising of 1862 was besieged for five weeks by the hostile Sioux. The first attack, September 3, was repulsed with the loss of one man. At the close of this encounter the defenders discovered that only 350 rounds of rifle ammunition remained—- a supply had been ordered in the spring but had not arrived. The ingenuity of the garrison was exercised; canister shells for the 12-pound howitzers contained balls which fitted the rifles, so the women in the fort were put to work opening the canisters. The makeshift ammunition served its purpose well.
The fort had no stockade; consequently, after the first attack, the defenders threw up around the entire fort a cordwood breastwork 8 ft. high. In the meantime messengers had slipped through the Indian lines to summon aid from Fort Snelling at Minneapolis. On September 6 a force estimated at 400 warriors again attacked the fort, but was driven back after a long fight in which two soldiers were killed and many wounded. The Indians made no more determined attacks on the fort, but continually harassed the beleaguered settlers with desultory sniping until the arrival of a detachment of 350 infantrymen from Fort Snelling relieved the garrison September 23.
In November of the same year 10 acres of the fort reserve were enclosed by a heavy oak-log stockade with blockhouses at three corners, and about the same time a larger garrison was stationed at Abercrombie. It was from this enlarged post that the Sibley expedition set forth to punish the Sioux the following summer (seeHistory). The enlarged garrison was maintained until the abandonment of the fort in 1877. During the 1870's Fort Abercrombie was the point from which trails led W. to Forts Totten, Ransom, Wadsworth, and Garry, and many a train of home seekers or gold seekers spent a few days there before embarking on the hazardous trip through Dakota.
Fort Abercrombie in 1870 was the scene of a treaty between the Chippewa and Sioux, concluded through the influence of Father J. B. Genin, a Roman Catholic priest. After this treaty the eastern part of the Territory was comparatively free from fear of Indian attacks.
Fort Abercrombie State Park, on the eastern edge of the town, preserves 7 acres of the original 7 sq. m. of military reservation. The park lies along the river, and its natural beauty makes it a pleasant recreation center. An old cabin in the park houses a collection of early-day relics. Nearby stands a Red River oxcart whose wooden wheels once creaked over the old river trail before the days of railroads and highways.
DWIGHT,224 m.(959 alt., 104 pop.), was named for Jeremiah W. Dwight, head of a large bonanza farm company organized here in 1879, and was the home of John Miller, first Governor of North Dakota. Miller was superintendent of the Dwight Farm and Land Company, which operated 27,000 acres, and was established with a cash capital of $150,000. TheMiller Residence(private), former home of the family, is R. of US 81 in the southeastern corner of the village.
At227.5 m.is the junction with ND 13, a graveled highway.
Right on this road is MOORETON,7 m.(966 alt., 147 pop.). Here is the headquarters farm of F. A. Bagg, one of the largest landowners in the Red River Valley. He maintains three airplanes in a hangar on his farm and supervises his holdings by air.
WAHPETON (Sioux,village of the leaves),233 m.(969 alt., 3,176 pop.), is at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux (Fr.,forest of the Sioux) and Ottertail Rivers, where the two streams meet to form the Red River of the North. From 1871 to 1893 the town was known as Chahinkapa (Sioux,top of the trees), an old Indian name given this area by the Sioux who, coming from the W. to fight the Chippewa, would here see the tops of the trees appear over the level prairie.
Alexander Faribault, for whom Faribault, Minn., was named, has told of visiting the present site of Wahpeton in 1810 when 3,000 Indians were encamped and engaged in hunting buffalo and drying the meats for food. At that time the grasslands along the Red River were black with bison, who summered on the grazing lands here, and wintered on the uplands of the Missouri Slope W. of the Missouri River.
That politics was a momentous vocation when Wahpeton was a young county seat is indicated in this political advertisement in an 1880 issue of the Richland CountyGazette:
"Republicans of Richland County, please remember and vote for me on election day. Come old and young, father and son, one and all and vote for me. Do not look on money or on the rich man but on an honest man. I have come to this lovely country and have made my happy home and I will be a good citizen of Richland County. You know I am a candidate for County Treasurer of Richland County. Come and spend the whole day on election day and vote for me. We are all brothers and sisters. It makes no difference whether a man is rich or poor, if he is honest; then he is a good man. Come all and see me on election day, in our nice town of Wahpeton."
"Republicans of Richland County, please remember and vote for me on election day. Come old and young, father and son, one and all and vote for me. Do not look on money or on the rich man but on an honest man. I have come to this lovely country and have made my happy home and I will be a good citizen of Richland County. You know I am a candidate for County Treasurer of Richland County. Come and spend the whole day on election day and vote for me. We are all brothers and sisters. It makes no difference whether a man is rich or poor, if he is honest; then he is a good man. Come all and see me on election day, in our nice town of Wahpeton."
TheRichland County Courthousehere, built in a modified Classic style with a cupola, is considered a good example of the official buildings in this State. The first floor exterior is of Kettle River sandstone, with upper stories and dome of Bedford limestone. Across the street from the courthouse is theLeach Public Library, a light-colored brick and sandstone building presented to the city in 1923 by Mr. and Mrs. O. A. Leach, Wahpeton residents since 1896. The library contains 14,000 volumes.
In the northern part of Wahpeton are theState School Of Scienceand theU. S. Indian School. The science school is a vocational institution and junior college with a trades educational program that has received recognition outside the State. Near the entrance to the landscaped campus is a cast bronze life-size bust of the Norwegian poet-dramatist Henrik Ibsen, the work of Jacob Fjelde, distinguished Norwegian sculptor who made his home in Minneapolis from 1877 until his death in 1896. Another portrait of Ibsen in Como Park in St. Paul, Minn., is also the work of Fjelde; these are said to be the only statues of Ibsen in the U. S. The bust at Wahpeton was a gift to the city and Richland County from the Norwegian people of the county, and was unveiled at ceremonies held on Norwegian Independence Day, May 17, 1912. The figure stands on a tapering rough-hewn 8-foot granite pedestal.
The Indian school consists of 40 red-brick buildings housing 300 students, mainly Sioux and Chippewa from reservations in North and South Dakota and Minnesota. In addition to academic work through the ninth grade, vocational training in farm methods is taught the boys, while the girls receive instruction in home economics and sanitation.
Chahinkapa Park, in the northeastern part of Wahpeton, lies between the high banks of the old bed of the Red River and the present channel, its inviting woods cut off from the mainland by meandering lagoons. Improvements and recreationalfacilities (swimming pool, playgrounds, athletic field) by Federal agencies were completed under the Works Progress Administration (1937).
Wahpeton was the home of the late U. S. Senator Porter J. McCumber, who gained national recognition for his work on the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Bill.
The route leaves Wahpeton by way of 2nd St., and for 5 m. follows a winding course parallel to the Bois de Sioux. This portion of the highway runs over a trail used in 1823 by the military expedition of Maj. Stephen H. Long sent to establish the Canadian boundary, and still later as a freight route between St. Cloud, Minn., Fort Abercrombie, and Pembina in the 1860's and 1870's.
FAIRMOUNT,247.5 m.(985 alt., 611 pop.), named for Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Pa., was platted in 1887 until which time it was known as Michigan Settlement because many of its settlers came from that State. Of interest in the town is the widely knownSermon in Stone, an obelisk erected in St. Anthony's Roman Catholic churchyard by Rev. G. C. Bierens. Stones and ores, some semiprecious, have come from all parts of the world to be patterned into this bright-colored shrine. The Ten Commandments, Faith, Hope, and Charity, the Trinity, the Sacraments, and many other abstractions are symbolized in stone.
Father Bierens is an authority on bird life in the Red River Valley, and operates a U. S. Biological SurveyBird Banding Station(1937), one of the few in the State. Since he began the work in 1928 he has banded more than 10,000 birds, never less than 1,000 a year, and as many as 70 species in one season, not including field and shore or water birds. In April 1935 he banded the first European starling caught in North Dakota.
At the F. P. Nelson store in Fairmount is aCollection(open by arrangement) of Indian artifacts and of firearms, including a Chinese gun made in 1526.
Right from Fairmount on ND 11, a graveled road, is HANKINSON,11 m.(1,068 alt., 1,400 pop.), named for R. H. Hankinson, town site owner. Here are theConvent and Academy of the Sisters of St. Francis, the mother house of the order in the United States. This order was established in Germany in 1241. The convent and academy, founded in 1927-29, are housed in a three-story Renaissance-style building of tapestry brick trimmed in Indiana limestone. In a niche over the entrance is a statue of St. Francis, carved in Danube limestone by the Joseph Mueller Art Institute of Munich, Germany, and donated to the order.
South of Fairmount the distant Coteau des Prairies is visible (R). Back in these hills, which form part of the watershed between the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay, live the Sioux Indians of the Sisseton Reservation, a triangular section of which juts into the State from South Dakota.
At256.5 m.US 81 crosses the North Dakota Line, 106 m. N. of Watertown, S. Dak. (see S. Dak. Tour 10).
Junction US 81—Mayville—Portland—Hatton. ND 7 & 18.Junction with US 81 to Hatton, 27 m.G. N. Ry. branch line parallels route between Mayville and Hatton.Graveled roadbed entire route.Accommodations in principal towns.
Junction US 81—Mayville—Portland—Hatton. ND 7 & 18.
Junction with US 81 to Hatton, 27 m.
G. N. Ry. branch line parallels route between Mayville and Hatton.
Graveled roadbed entire route.
Accommodations in principal towns.
This short route traversing a fertile farming area twice crosses the Goose River, which the French Canadians who first explored it called Rivière Aux Outardes (River of the Geese), because of the great number of wild geese that nested on its banks. The route proceeds along the western edge of glacial Lake Agassiz. The rich, black soil—a sandless, clayey silt, peculiar to western States and locally known as gumbo—becomes a muggy, sticky mass when wet. Before the era of graveled highways, travel was virtually impossible after even the lightest rainfall, as wagon or automobile wheels became clogged with the heavy, gummy earth; even today this is true on unimproved roads.
ND 7 branches W. from US 81 (see Tour 1) 5 m. S. of Cummings.
MAYVILLE,12 m.(891 alt., 1,199 pop.), was named for May Arnold, first white child born in the Hudson's Bay Co. trading post established near the present town site in the early 1870's. It is a small, tree-shaded, staid college town on the banks of the Goose River. First settled in 1881, it was moved to the railroad which was built through here in 1883. In that year Mayville and Portland conspired to win the county seat for a new town, Traill Center, platted midway between the two older towns, planning that if their candidate won the election the three towns would merge into one city. So brisk was the campaign that the ballots cast outnumbered the legal voters, and Traill Center won 2,011 to 450. The election was contested, however, and while the case was in litigation the Territorial legislature transferred the two western tiers of townships in Traill County to Steele County. This lost Traill Center its strategic position and with it the county seat.
Mayville State Teachers College, in the northern part of the town, founded in 1889, held its first classes in 1893. When Gov. Roger Allin in 1895 vetoed funds for operating the colleges in North Dakota, enterprising citizens kept the schools open by popular subscription. Bud Reeves, wealthy Minneapolis man who pioneered at Buxton and later became a political figure in the State (see Tour 1), was one of the leaders in the drive for funds to support the schools. In one day he collected $2,000 from heads of large Minneapolis grain firms.
On the college campus is a log cabin built in 1879 and used as the first schoolhouse in the Mayville area.
Alm's Park, on the eastern edge of the city, is a tourist park and camp;Island Park, in the western part, is a recreational center.Railroad Park, E. of the Great Northern depot, contains a tall marble pillar on which is a bronze plaque bearing a relief of Bjornstjerne Bjornson, famed Norwegian author. The plaque is the work of Paul Fjelde, who once attended the Valley City Teachers College (see Tour 8).
In Mayville is the home of Rev. and Mrs. A. M. West, parents of the etcher Levon West (1900-), who has also won recognition for photography under the pseudonym of Ivan Dmitri.
At the western end of the long business street of PORTLAND,14.5 m.(987 alt., 500 pop.), is the gravel ridge ofCampbell's Beach, second hump of sand laid down in prehistoric times by the retreating waters of Lake Agassiz. Portland has four producers and consumers cooperatives—an oil company, elevator, creamery, and store. Across the street from a large Lutheran church in the western part of the town stand the now unused buildings ofBruflat Academy, one of the first private educational institutions in the State, established by the local Lutheran Church in 1889. Portland and vicinity were first settled in 1871, and the place became a boom town when the railroad arrived in 1881.
At19 m.is the junction (R) with ND 18, a graveled highway on which the route proceeds N.
At24 m.is the junction with a county dirt road.
Left on this road to the THORVAL STAVENS FARM,1 m., where the success story of an outstanding but nevertheless typical Norwegian immigrant family is told by the buildings ranging from the lowly sod house of Hans Anderson Stavensbraaten, who homesteaded here in 1870, to the 15-room home and the airplane hangar of his grandson, Thorval Stavens. The original family home and its contents are preserved as aMuseum. Across the road is the first school in the district, built in 1879.
HATTON,27 m.(1,085 alt., 804 pop.), named for Frank Hatton, Third Assistant Postmaster General when the town was foundedin 1882, is at the southern end of the Elk River Delta, a rich, fertile deposit laid down in ancient times as the waters of the melting glacier flowed into Lake Agassiz.
Hatton was the birthplace and boyhood home of Col. Carl Ben Eielson (1897-1929), pioneer Alaskan aviator. Eielson left the University of Wisconsin to enlist in the Army Air Service in 1916. Following the World War he barnstormed in North Dakota and neighboring States in a plane purchased for him by friends in the vicinity of Hatton. In 1922 he went to Alaska where he pioneered in aviation and flew the first air mail in the Territory. His experience as an Arctic flyer drew the attention of the English explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, and in 1928 the pair made their flight across the top of the world from Point Barrow to Spitzbergen. When Wilkins gave his attention to the Antarctic, Eielson piloted him on several flights over that continent. He returned to Alaska in 1929 and late that year was killed while attempting to save the passengers and cargo of the ice-bound shipNanukoff North Cape, Siberia. He had already made one trip to the ship, bringing back six passengers and part of the fur cargo, when a fierce storm took its toll. Eielson and his mechanic, Earl Borland, crashed, and it was more than a month before their bodies were found in the wreckage of their plane. Eielson's body was returned with honors to Hatton, where it was interred in the family plot, marked with an unpretentious stone. In theCity Hallis theAlaskan, a plane he used in his explorations with Wilkins in 1926, and at theElmer Osking Homeis a collection of the many medals he received. A part of the fin of the Hamilton all-metal plane in which he died is displayed in the museum of the State historical society (seeBismarck).