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Published: September 11th 2007
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Sunrise over Lake Sakakawea
Sunrise over Lake Sakakawea Obfuscator writes: We left Lake Sakakawea State Park promptly in the morning, except for once again spending some time trying to dry our stuff out. That had to be cut a bit short though, as we were running in front of what we thought was a storm front. We drove into the nearest town, which was very small, and called Pick City. There we found the “Best dam bar by a dam site,” which we declined to visit. It was 9:00 AM, which is a little early to start, even for me.
We drove along the Missouri, and along the way, encountered our mystery bird. Basically we were following a truck, that suddenly swerved and broke hard. Less than a second later, one of our friend’s cousins flew off the front driver’s side of the truck, and flopped awkwardly toward us. Onaxthiel skillfully steered us around it, and the drive continued. We also drove through the biggest dust/smoke cloud I’ve ever seen, near a power plant in the area. Apparently they use the fly-ash from that plant in making flex-crete, and lightweight alternative to concrete.
Our first stop of the day was at the Knife River Indian Villages, where
Inside the Knife River Earthenlodge
Inside the Knife River Earthenlodge we were able to learn about the aforementioned villages, and of course, Sakakawea, who lived there until she went with her husband on the Lewis and Clark expedition. They have preserved the sites of these villages quite nicely, and made a cool replica of an earthen lodge, complete with a cache in the floor. We learned a bit about Hidatsa and Mandan cultures, as they were the Indians who occupied these villages. Very educational.
After that, we drove a bit and on our way to the Lewis and Clark interpretive center, we took a little detour to look at the small town of Washburn. There we looked at the County building, the preserved cabin of one of the area’s earliest white settlers, and at a monument dedicated to the “son’s of Martha.” The Lewis and Clark interpretive center had a lot of the same information that we already got at Knife River, but it was also cool. They had quite a bit more information on the Lewis and Clark expedition, as well as some really great artwork. Nearby, we visited Fort Mandan, which is where Lewis and Clark spend the winter of 1804. It’s also where they picked up
Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark vs. Paul Bunyan? Well, to put things in perspective, Lewis and Clark and their Indian friend are all made of metal, and best as we can tell, there's no love lost between big Paul and Indians. the Frenchman (Charbonneau?) and Sakakawea. It was a neat little fort, but I certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed a ND winter in it.
From the Lewis and Clark sector, we drove south to Bismarck, where we found Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. It was too late to hit any tours there, so we registered for a site, and went back into Bismarck for a dinner at a place with an alien theme. We thought it might be neat, but in fact it was just sort of lame. Mostly kitsch, and not very funny kitsch at that. We checked out a bar that the bartender told us might be interesting on a Wednesday night, and decided not to go in, being exhausted by that time. We also scoped out nearby Camp Hancock, which was small and pointless. They did have an interesting and old Episcopalian church there though. That was apparently the first non-Catholic church in Bismarck. Finally we found a movie theater (with a rather bizarre but cool Egyptian theme, and some neat old posters), and watched the Simpson’s movie, which was pretty amusing. Spider Pig!
Onaxthiel’s Lessons Learned: Indians don’t like it when you take their land (the
Capitol of North Dakota
Doesn't it just make you want to march and create monstrous beaurocracy? ownership of which they claim not to have a concept of). North Dakota has one of the ugliest state capitols out there, featuring an architectural style I found reminiscent of minimalist Albrecht Speer. Obfuscator disagrees with me. He considers it more influenced by early soviet. In any case, the people of North Dakota will walk in lock step until their final victory over all opposing Ideologies. Really, this wasn’t a day about learning what works and doesn’t outdoors. It was more conventionally educational. OOH! I got one! The method of building a dugout canoe that won’t break in the middle under stress is to cut the trunk of the tree in the middle and insert dowels into the sides to give the vessel a bit more flex!
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Michelle
non-member comment
I don't know what you are talking about. It has been a life long dream of mine to spend a long cold winter holed up in a fort with a french man.