Tag: Mandan

Lake Sakakwea, Lewis and Clark, and Mandans

We are spending three nights at the Corps of Engineers campground at Lake Sakakwea, 80-ish miles south of Minot, ND. It is an absolutely gorgeous campground with huge sites, asphalt and concrete sites, lots of grass and trees.

We arrived on Thursday, and went spent time Friday and Saturday seeing historic sites nearby. We started at the North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center outside of Washburn, ND. Very, very nice historical presentation and some replicas of outstanding art, both modern and 1800s.

Sculpture in front of the Lewis and Clark Interprative Center

Once we got ourselves oriented, we went to Fort Mandan, a recreation of the  fort the expedition stayed in during the winter of 1804\1805. There was a charge for the interpretive tour, but the guide was really, really good.

Looking at the enlisted men’s quarters
Front of the recreated fort

The fort had had a lot of furnishings to show how they lived.

Eight enlisted men lived in each of these small rooms plus the attic
Enlisted quarters
Room where Clark and Lewis lived

We then went to the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site a few miles away. This is the same group of Indians whose dirt/log buildings we saw recreated at Fort Abraham Lincoln a few days before. This recreated building had a number of furnishings in it and was slightly larger.

The original inhabitants built caches for food both inside and outside the lodges
Historically accurate artifacts were all around
Definitely bigger than the others we saw
The lodge from the outside

It was a foggy, dreary morning. We noticed how many boats were fishing the outlet of the spillway, and we drove down it a little to see.

There was a LOT of water coming over the spillway with 4 big gates open

Today we went back to Washburn for a late breakfast and tried to see the local county museum. Silly us didn’t check the times though, and it wasn’t open. Then we decided to go to the “ big town” of Garrison to get some groceries before heading to the FMCA rally in Minot. We had a fascinating detour through the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge. The building itself was officially closed, but the cleaner let us in. I didn’t want to spend too much time inside, but we did do the Auto Tour. It was gorgeous, and I saw this huge hawk. I am not sure what kind it is, but it was so big I thought it might be a a juvenile eagle. This is a picture I took at as big of a zoom as I possibly could manage.

I will put the name of I find out what it is!

We had pork chops in the sous vide along with potatoes mixed with onions and mushrooms. Lovely. Tomorrow we head to the rally pretty early so we don’t get caught into the line here for the dump station. They only have 2 dumps for the 90 or so campsites here!

Bismarck, ND

We moved yesterday to the Bismarck KOA. Nice place where we are going to stay for two nights before heading to a Corps of Engineers park at Lake Sakakwea (yes, it is really spelled like that). What a surprise! Shady sites which means no satellite, but we get decent OTA channels.

Unusual to have a pull through shady site with full hooks

Today we went to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. Great place with lovely views and interesting history. First the scenery along the Missouri River.

The park is set on a small hill overlooking the Missouri. The first settlements known were Mandan. They lived here in a town of up to 1500 people known as Slant. Sadly their numbers were decimated by small pox brought by Comanches in the mid 1700s and the site was abandoned by the time Lewis and Clark arrived in 1805. A few of their earthen lodges have been recreated.

A view from the hill above Slant

 

A bit closer via the path from the Visitor Center
Showing the construction details

I think the thick earth walls would make this a much more comfortable place to live in the hot summers and the cold winters.

The next people to settle were American infantry soldiers who were to protect settlers and rail readers. Not a very intelligent move to send infantry to protect against some of the finest horsemen ever known! Fort McKeen was built in 1872 on a tall site overlooking the river.

One of the reconstructed infantry blockhouses

When the US decided to send cavalry, the fort was moved closer to the river and renamed to Fort Abraham Lincoln. The first commander of the expanded fort was George Custer (until he went to the Little Bighorn). A number of buildings have been reconstructed.

Reconstructed barracks
One of the many horse barns. This was the only one reconstructed since the river took the foundations of many of the others
Even the old post cemetery was still there
Reconstructed barracks
A distant view showing some barracks and Custer’s house, tucked next to the barracks on the far left
One of the many horse barns. This was the only one reconstructed since the river took the foundations of many of the others
The old post cemetery

The fort was abandoned in the 1891. As usual it was the CCC who built the park visitor center (a lovely stone building), shelters, and roads. They also built the Ft. McKeen blockhouses and the Mandan village. The other buildings were built by a combination of park employees, volunteers, and the ND National Guard.

Oh, and we went by Scheel’s to buy me a new pair of walking shoes. Woah! Those things are expensive, but hopefully they help me walk more.