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We woke up thinking about the numbers of same sex weddings
that had taken place in MN last night, after mid-night with the change in state
law. Congrats to all who got married, or
have weddings in the works. We celebrate
with you!
After a hearty breakfast, we were off to four Lewis and
Clark sites. Lewis and Clark spent more time in North Dakota than any other
state in their explorations in 1804-1806.
They spent their first winter there, with the help of the
local Indian people.
First up was Knife River Indian Village National Historic
Site. This site included a number of ruins from villages that were inhabited
for hundreds of years and finally abandoned in 1837 due to a small pox
plague.
This area was a center of
trading and commerce for Native Americans for hundreds of miles around.
At the time of Lewis and Clark, this village
complex had more population than St. Louis.
We were especially pleased to be able to go into a reconstructed earth lodge
that was really huge (over 40 feet across) and surprisingly filled with
light.
These were the Indian people with
whom Lewis and Clark spent the winter.
Then we went on to see the site of Fort Clark, which had
been an early trading fort, not a military fort. Not much to see there.
But there WAS plenty to see at The Lewis and Clark Interpretative
Center, a world-class museum that focused especially on the North Dakota part
of their story.
There were many interactive exhibits that really used technology well to tell the Lewis and Clark story. Patti enjoyed trying on
the military uniform that the adventurers wore.
We met an interpreter for the center who was very knowledgeable since we
asked many questions. We kept him going for quite a while. Afterwards, we thought he was enjoying responding to questions other than, "Where is the bathroom?" We learned so much from him. There was a great statue there, which showed the
explorers meeting with one of the Mandan chiefs.
Then we went on to Fort Mandan just two miles away.
Here we had the chance to be part of a great interpretative
program where we learned about the area being the center of native American commerce.
There was really a perfect storm of it being
in a convenient location at the cross road of major rivers, the settlements
remained in the same area for centuries so others could know where to find
them, and coincidentally they happened to be at the point where horse came up from
the Spanish south to meet firearms coming form the French and English form the
north.
Fort Mandan was built by Leis and Clark and company for that
first winter when they arrived in ND in November.
Brrrrrrr.
They have done a good reconstruction of the Fort, and we so enjoyed
getting the chance to have a guided tour, by out same interpreter who had
provided the earlier talk.
Lots of great
information and juicy stories were shared.
Then continuing the Patti history journey, we mad a stop in
Plaza ND, the town where Patti and her parents lived until she was 2 years
old.
There are maybe 200 people in the
town, and the road to get to it wasn’t even numbered on the state highway map.
Not much to see, but we were there.
And life would have been different for Patti
had her parents stayed there in the far north of North Dakota.
Speaking of far North in North Dakota, this northwest
concern of the state is experiencing a huge oil boom.
We were warned that we would run into a lot
of traffic, especially big trucks.
They
weren’t kidding!
HUGE trucks were
carrying water and chemicals to supply the fracking that is going on to
recovered natural gas, in addition to the underlying crude oil.
Traffic jams kept happening as we made slow
progress.
We were struck by the amount
of new (cheap) housing being thrown up for the workers as the towns tripled in
population. There were pickup trucks everywhere. We were glad to break out of
it when we finally got to Theodore Roosevelt National Park where we camped for
the night.
We took a little tour of the park, seeing both beautiful scenery
and a big herd of buffalo.
Then we
tucked ourselves in to bed at 8:30.
These days are full!!!
“We
live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is
no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
– Jawaharial Nehru
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