Day 22 (June 5). Lewis & Clark Mandan Fort; North Dakota.

From: Bismarck, ND

To: Devils Lake, ND

Miles today: 247

Total miles: 5489

By 10 am I had the oil changed in the cycle, and was on the road under what are becoming familiar conditions: overcast skies, temperatures below 60 degrees, no rain, and wide open two-lane roads.  I rode through the center of Bismarck, with limited success in finding any real downtown.  A couple of government towers (this is the State Capitol), but not much else that I could identify as “the heart of Bismarck.”  I headed north on US 83 for Minot, location of the State Fairgrounds, and close to Minot Air Force Base, which operates gigantic B-52 bombers. 

About halfway there, one of those signs appeared that I could not resist: “Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Next Left.”  Near the present day town of Washburn, ND, is the location where the Corps of Discovery made winter camp 1804-05 before pushing westward in the spring. Someone has carefully reconstructed “Fort Mandan” out of the same cottonwood trees that L&C used.  (The original is long gone.)  A young man whose name I neglected to record and then immediately forgot took me on a one-person tour (it is early in the season).  After the tour I strolled easily over to the Missouri River itself, which is undeveloped and probably looks much like it did in 1805. 

Fort Mandan, whre The Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1804-05

The Missouri River, near the site of Fort Mandan.

My guide gave me more interesting information on life in North Dakota in 2015.  (He is a history major at Bismarck State College, he has lived in Bismarck most of his life, and this is his summer job.)  The winters are eight months long here, and the temperature touches 40 below at least a couple of times in that span.  This seems to be a magic number for Dakotans.  November and December are not too bad and are referred to as “Honeymoon winter.”  But by January and February and March the honeymoon is over, and they call it “Hell winter.”  Once I commented on how pleasant everyone has been (a version of Minnesota Nice, I guess), and he replied “we are now” (now that the weather is warmer).  Apparently if you come here in, say, February, people are pretty testy.  He added that it never really gets light in the dead of winter this far north; on the other hand, it is usually too cold to snow, so there is little of that.  He added that tough as Bismarck winters are, at least they have hills to break the wind; Minot and Fargo are on much flatter terrain, and the wind just – just – he had no words. 

One last anecdote from by Mandan friend and his co-workers.  I had discovered a few days ago that the capitol of South Dakota, Pierre, is pronounced “PEER” – one syllable. Commenting on this, he stated that it was important to always pronounce it “pea-AIRE,” because it annoys them. Sibling rivalry?

Continuing north on US 83, I found that the land did flatten out considerably, but not completely.  More striking was the sudden appearance of small lakes (ponds?) everywhere.  Was this the border between non-glaciated and glaciated Dakota?  A later Internet confirmed that this was the case; these are of the same form as Minnesota’s ten thousand. A good 20 miles of the road was through a wind farm.  That makes sense.

Glacial lakes and wind turbines

A gigantic ethanol plant in the distance.  Wind, Ethanol; this does not even count the fracking going on in the western part of the state around Williston. 

Minot also offered little in the way of direct interest, so after slowly riding through what I hoped was the middle of town I turned east on US 2 for the town of Devils Lake.  (The town is located on a lake of the same name)  US 2 is 4-lane divided highway, basically Interstate with occasional stop lights. I did stop for a photo-op in the town of Rugby, which has been identified as “approximately” the center of the North American continent.  They have a monument in a restaurant parking lot (apparently moved from somewhere else a couple of miles away, giving you a sense of the margin of error here). Here is my bike next to it.

Rugby, ND: the center of North America, more or less

I finished the day by pulling into Devils Lake, where I am now. This town has a small airport, and Karen is flying in later tonight to join me here for the weekend.  In fact I’m leaving to get her right now!  (In a rental car, not on the motorcycle.)