Road Trip 2015 - Lewis & Clark Trail

Either just before or just after the Theodore Roosevelt National Park stop, we began to notice signs along the highway indicating that we were on the Lewis and Clark Trail. I remember looking at that once before but had forgotten all about it until I saw the signs.

While my Facebook post commented that the pair did a nice job on the road construction, I knew that there was much more to their expedition than imagining a paved highway. They actually set out on May 14 1804 to discover a waterway across the continent. The expedition group was called the Corps of Discovery and included others beside Lewis and Clark who headed the trip across the continent from Washington DC to Chinook, Washington on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Thomas Jefferson was instrumental in getting Congress to fund the expedition. He had tried several times before to get an expedition to explore the West. He had quite a sense of adventure himself.

Meriwether Lewis had been secretary to President Jefferson when chosen by the president to head the Corps of Discovery and explore the west. Lewis went to school for a year before the expedition set off to study the sciences, medicine, and navigation.

William Clark had been in the Army in Ohio with Meriwether Lewis and when Lewis was appointed by the president to lead the expedition, he chose Clark as his co-leader. Clark was instrumental in mapping the territory they covered.

York was perhaps one of the least known of the expedition's members. He was a black man, a slave of William Clark. He made significant contributions in hunting for food and serving as a scout. He was also a bit of a good luck charm when dealing with the Indians who had never seen a black man before.

Of course the most famous woman of the expedition was Sacajawea. She was the only woman and traveled with a baby. She was married to a Frenchman who was hired as a translator and was said to have guided the expedition when in fact she was more of a fellow traveler. Clark mentions in his diary that she was a token of peace in dealing with the Indians. They did not see the expedition as a war threat since they were traveling with a woman in their party.

We picked up the trail in North Dakota and followed it through Montana. On the way home, we follow part of the trail through South Dakota as well. Thankfully our travel is a lot more comfortable than theirs.

Road Trip 2015 - Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Always looking for places to stop and take a break from long drives, I spotted the Theodore Roosevelt National Park along the way from Jamestown, ND to Glasgow, MT. This was one of the longer stretches of our trip, six and a half hours, so the opportunity to stop about midway was not to be missed for both of us. Besides, Bob would be able to get an extra stamp in his National Park Passport.

Theodore Roosevelt used to hunt bison in this Dakota Territory in 1883. He became interested in cattle ranching as well and eventually owned two cattle ranches. When his wife and mother died, he thought he would make Elkhorn, the second ranch, his home. It was finished in 1885 and the men who ran his ranch for him moved into the site. After a couple of disastrous years and with Roosevelt now living in New York, he sold the ranch in 1898. By 1901 however, the Elkhorn ranch had been stripped down to its bare foundations.

Today, you can visit the land where the ranch once was and the foundation of the original ranch house is visible but nothing has been done to reconstruct the structure. The ranch is about 35 miles north of the town that sits just outside the park, Medora.

We did not want to add too much time to our travel day so we stopped only at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center that was just off I-94. It has a spectacular view of the North Dakota Badlands that Roosevelt fell in love with and not too far away we had passed several bison grazing.

It is only fitting that Theodore Roosevelt have a national park in his name. During his presidency he fought for conservation and urged the creation of the Forest Service in 1905 to manage government-owned forest reserves. He also exercised presidential authority to set aside land to be protected. In his years as president, he set aside more lands than his predecessors combined, 194 million acres. Acres we are enjoying today.


 

Road Trip 2015 - Jamestown, North Dakota

Give me a home where the buffalo roam, the skies are not cloudy all day. That about sums up our excursion into North Dakota. Beautiful golden landscape, corn fields, and acres of sun flowers whose drooping heads were ready for harvest. I could only imagine how beautiful it had been when they were in the prime of the blooming season.

Jamestown was our destination. Jamestown? What could their possibly be in Jamestown? Why, the world's largest cement buffalo, of course! And a wonderful place called Frontier Village. Once we checked into our hotel, we headed out, crossed the highway and found the signs for Frontier Village. The little town has about two dozen little shops and buildings most of which I think were donated and moved or built new but show the historical significance of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

A jail, a fire house, a school, a bank, a barber, a dentist and a writer's nook are among the little buildings that line the main street. I knew that Louis L'Amour was a western writer but until now, I didn't know that his birthplace was Jamestown, ND. And he went to college there as well. I had already started one of his books (I'll leave that for a Books For The Road post later) so it was with great interest that I perused the displays in the little house that was dedicated to him.

We meandered in and out of buildings and especially enjoyed the shops. One was of art work and another an old fashioned trading store with all sorts of goods and finds including leather bound L'Amour books. During the summer season, there are stagecoach and pony rides in the village.

Bordering the village is a buffalo museum that we passed on mainly because we wanted to be out in the fresh air on a beautiful day. On our way to look it over though, we passed a fenced in field that held a rare albino buffalo.

Of course we couldn't resist getting a selfie with the giant buffalo. Built in 1959, it is 60 tons of concrete and gives the town the distinction of being called "Buffalo City."

After a little exercise, some education, and lots of smiles and we left Frontier Village to find a spot to get dinner. Then it was back to the hotel to get some rest. There was a whole lot more road to cover before we got to Glacier National Park.