Alaska Trip 2011: May 7-8 - Indians and Explorers in North Dakota

This is page 3 of our Alaska 2011 blog. The first page is here. When we did the Glacier trip a couple years ago, there were a few places in western North Dakota that we had to skip because there was not time. We decided to take a couple days on this trip to see them.

Fort Mandan State Historic Site

Fort Mandan is a reconstruction of the fort that Lewis and Clark built to spend the first winter on their expedition. The Mandan and other Indians in the area were mostly friendly, so the fort was as much for protection from the winter weather as it was for defense. It was triangular in shape - three walls - with the cabins and storerooms built in along each wall. They said the reconstruction was not at the original site, which they believed to be now under water.

The first picture is looking in the entrance of the fort, where you can see the flagpole in the center, and entrances to some of the rooms along the wall. The other shot is from further back, showing the entire fort.

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

Apparently I forgot to take pictures here...

This National Historic Site is at the location of an old Mandan Indian village. It has a reconstruction of one of the sod homes, and an interpretive trail that describes some of the other structures that were in the village. There were also exhibits at the visitor center, and we saw a short movie about Mandan Indian life. Like other National Historic Sites, this one was interesting and informative.

Lake Sakakawea

Up here, they have a different spelling and pronunciation of the name of Lewis & Clark's Indian guide. We know her as Sacagawea, which I think is the more common interpretation. Or at least it's the one they used on the Sacagawea dollar coin.

Garrison Dam is on the Missouri River, creating Lake Sakakawea, which stretches across a good portion of the western half of North Dakota. The earthen dam reminds me of Lake Shelbyville near home, but on a much larger scale. I suppose that makes sense, as they were both Corps of Engineers projects.

The first picture is from the top of the dam. The large cylindrical structures are filled with air, and serve as a shock absorber of sorts for the water coming through. The next picture is also from the top of the dam, looking out across the lake. Most of the winter ice has now melted, but you can still see some where the waves lapped up on the far shore. Some of these pictures also give a pretty good look at how gloomy and rainy it was the day we were here.

Unlike Lake Shelbyville, Lake Sakakwea has a spillway that is used to prevent water from breaching the top of the dam. And the rip-rap is pinkish instead of white. This picture of the spillway shows some of the leftover ice accumulating near the spillway gates. There was no water running on the other side, so I presume it was blown there by the wind.

Here are a couple more shots across the lake from near the spillway. We didn't stay here very long, because the wind blowing across the lake was pretty cold. These shots also give a pretty good look at the clouds. We had light rain off and on all day, but thankfully no heavy rain.

Double Ditch

Double Ditch was another old Indian settlement. I don't remember if it was Mandan, Hidatsu, or Arikara. All three were similar, and in the same general area. Archaeologists called this area Double Ditch because of two concentric ditches around the perimeter of the village. The ditches were used for defensive purposes, sort of like a moat or battlement. They had upright poles to make it difficult to cross. The outer of the two ditches was the older, and was apparently when the village was at its population peak. The newer ditch was built later, as the population shrank.

While at double ditch, I took another picture looking out across the prairie. This is pretty typical prairie scenery - a whole lotta nuttin.

Missouri River

Here are a couple nice shots of the Missouri River below the Dam:

Sunday May 8: Travel Day

On Sunday, we moved from our spot near Bismarck, to Dickinson, ND, for one more day of sightseeing before we move on to Montana. This part of North Dakota is apparently experiencing some kind of an Oil Boom. You see lots of wells and drilling rigs, trucks carrying drilling equipment and supplies, and camp sites with row after row of identical small travel trailers, apparently for the workers to stay. I'm guessing there is no unemployment problem here. I'm not sure why it takes so many workers and so many trucks - I guess I need to learn more about driling for oil.

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