Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota

“ On this night the boys and girls heard of the great monster who breaks up the ice in the Missouri each spring, of how one of the goose nation was shown in a dream that her people should go south each autumn in order to avoid the harsh winter, and of the Iktomi, the little "spidermen," who on moonlight nights, high on hilltops, can be heard with their tiny hammers, shaping arrowheads which they place in piles where Indians can find them. ”

“ Dominating the silhouette of these little villages were the grain elevators, those bright sentinels which symbolized the reason for the towns' founding, and still remain the most typical buildings in the North Dakota picture today. Like tall men standing head and shoulders above a crowd, they rise 60 to 70 feet above the low prairie. First glimpsed as any town comes into sight is the row of wedge-shaped cupolas, like arrowheads in profile, topping the almost square red, green, or maroon shafts. ”

“ The chief agent, however, in the formation of the Badlands has been the Little Missouri River, which centuries ago began to carve its way down through the soft shales and sandstones with which the early seas had covered the area. Aided by the eroding action of wind, frost, and rain, by huge landslides, and by burning coal veins, the once swift, always silt-laden river and its tributaries have floated away all the age-old clays of the region except these buttes and domes piled in indescribable confusion along the valley floor. ”

“ Gophers flashing across the road. Little towns crowded on Saturday night, and busy cities shipping out the products of North Dakota and supplying the needs of the producers. Sudden blinding, isolating blizzards, and soft, fragrant spring days with tiny sprouts of grain peering greenly through the topsoil. Pasque flower and cactus, flame lily, and fields of yellow mustard. The sad, slow wail of a coyote on the still prairie. People—Norwegians, Germans, Russians, Poles, Czechs, Icelanders, but all Americans. Square dances in barn lofts, and college "proms" with corsages and grand marches. ”

“ Those who have seen the vast fields in the summer know the meaning of this land to the farmer and the stock-raiser; for while the romantically inclined can meditate on the beauties of a bronze wheatfield under the July sun, or the picturesque qualities of fine cattle grazing on a hillside, the agricultural statistician can point out that 87 percent of the land in the State is devoted to agriculture, and, given sufficient moisture, the richly productive soil will more than repay the efforts of the farmer or stockman who depends upon it for his livelihood. ”

“ The buttes are stark and bare. Only in the clefts are ancient cedars, starved and deformed. In spring there are patches of green grass, an acre here, a hundred acres there, reaching up the slopes from the level bottom-land; but there are regions where for miles and miles no green thing grows, and all creation seems a witch's caldron of gray bubbles tongued with flame, held by some bit of black art forever in suspension. ”

“ Ages ago dense forests, rivaling those of the tropics of today, rose over the swamps of the receding seas. The motorcar speeds through a region where the giant hog, the three-toed horse, and the saber-toothed tiger roamed among lofty trees. The cast-off growth of the forest fell into the swamps below, where, shut away from the air by water and mud, it turned into peat. Centuries later the seas returned to crush it with heavy layers of shale and clay, until pressure and heat drove out most of the volatile oils of the wood, leaving carbon or coal. ”

“ Across the river from Fort Yates, in the heyday of the military post, there sprang up a little town called WINONA, a natural corollary of the restrictions of military life on an Indian reservation. By ferryboat in summer and over the ice by bobsled in winter went the soldier, trader, bullwhacker, Indian, and cowboy, to taste the "night life" offered in the gaming houses with their expansive bars and amiable hostesses. In Territorial days no less than nine saloons were operating, and an excellent race track was the scene of many financial exchanges. ”

“ During past ages the Little Missouri has been the chief agent in cutting into the prairies of North Dakota the wide slash that is the Badlands region. Rain and surface waters have washed away the soft upper layers of the deposits made by successive prehistoric seas, and, continually seeking lower levels, in the slow process of erosion through the centuries have left a jumble of jagged buttes. The sides of these buttes expose the various strata, each the testimonial of one age in the geological history of the area. ”

“ The soldiers stationed at the fort led a varied life, the monotony of frontier existence being tempered by fighting the Sioux, maintaining order among the lawless element which followed the progress of the railroad, and even building smudges to protect the workers from the tormenting swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes.
The three blockhouses and the palisade have been restored, so that the fort looks much as it must have looked more than 50 years ago when it crowned this bluff, guarding its prominent position on the river. ”

“ Red men and white men, who hunted buffalo and fought at the Little Big Horn, who saw the railroads push their gleaming paths across the Plains, who recall a puny young man named Theodore Roosevelt hunting in the Badlands with his short-stocked rifle, still survive to tell their tales. In those fledgling days, the land was rich with promise. Bonanza farms unfolded their ample acres of wheat, thousands of cattle roamed unchecked in the gullies and over the plains of the western counties. ”

“ Here, as the highway begins to descend into the valley of the Cannonball River, there is a far-reaching view of country severe and imposing. Steep grass-covered hills and mesas give way to sharp, abrupt, gray clay cones and buttes that rise in confusion from the plain. The work of erosion in the creation of these formations is visible in many sidehills, where the top layers of earth have worn away to expose the bedrock strata beneath. ”

“ The Valley is no longer the intensive wheat-raising area it was, but the Fargo Chamber of Commerce will tell you that this very fertile flat land, through which meanders one of the few rivers that flow north, is literally a land of milk and honey, and others no less cognizant of their surroundings have changed the old slogan to the "food basket of the world." ”

“ Badlands views, petrified forests, horseback riding, camping.
Theodore Roosevelt's biographer, Herman Hagedorn, writes:
"Between the prairie lands of North Dakota and the prairie lands of Montana there is a narrow strip of broken country so wild and fantastic in its beauty that it seems as though some unholy demon had carved it to mock the [Pg 175] loveliness of God. On both sides of a sinuous river rise ten thousand buttes cut into bizarre shapes by the waters of countless centuries. The hand of man never dared to paint anything as those hills are painted. ”

“ A short post with a hollowed center served as a mortar, a club about the size of a baseball bat as a pestle, and with this apparatus corn was ground for meal.
Furnishings in the lodge include the horse corrals, beds, and altars which were part of the domestic scene. There are specimens of dog and horse travois, and an Indian bullboat, made by stretching a green buffalo hide over a wooden frame and drying it. The result resembled nothing so much as an ungainly washtub, but the awkward-looking craft would carry two or three persons quite safely across the treacherous currents of the Missouri. ”

“ Below the North Roosevelt Park ranches are fewer, and people are seldom seen from the river.
The wider, majestic Missouri is soon reached, and forms the route for the remainder of the voyage. Up this avenue of exploration came Lewis and Clark, Maximilian, Catlin, Ashley, Lisa, and other adventurous explorers and traders; first in the round, unwieldy, skin bullboats of the Indians, and later in the chugging steamboats, plying the river in search of trade between the tribes and forts established along its course. ”

“ Spread as far as one can see toward the northern horizon is a magnificent display of buttes, showing in varying light and shadow the great charm of this never-monotonous country. A drive lined with a wall of brick-red scoria (see Natural Setting) , mottled with green, like weathered bronze, parallels the highway, providing a good point from which to take photographs.
As the highway descends into the Badlands, it twists through ravines and valleys. At 335 m. is the eastern entrance to the SOUTH ROOSEVELT REGIONAL STATE PARK (see Roosevelt Regional State Parks) . ”

“ On Russo-German farms in the southern and western parts of the State a European love of color asserted itself as houses were painted sky blue or nile green or pink, and color combinations such as red, white, and blue formed a pattern of diagonal stripes on the barn or granary door.
In each township appeared the one-room country school, usually white or light green in color, with its three windows on each side, coal shed and door in one end, chimney and black board in the other, and possibly a bell tower over the door. ”

“ From early spring to the first frosts of autumn, thousands of wild flowers brighten the prairies. Many species are general throughout the State, while others are typical only of certain sections. Before the last patches of snow are gone, the blue-gray pasque flower, so like the crocus that it is often called by that name, appears on the rolling prairies and the northern slopes of hills. ”

“ It was in this vicinity that Charles Cavileer (see Tour 5) , one of the most prominent settlers of the State, in the 1860's while making a trip with a party from Pembina to Devils Lake, saw a herd of buffalo like a black cloud on the horizon. The party immediately arranged their carts in a semicircle and prepared for an onslaught. The bison came on with a rumble like thunder, the rumble became a roar, and the earth trembled; but when they reached the carts the herd parted and swerved on either side, upsetting only the outside row of the improvised stockade. ”

“ It must be remembered that the general received his impressions as he jolted along in a wagon, sick, while his troops fought Sioux through the confused, uncertain terrain all one hot day in August 1864. Others visiting it under more favorable circumstances, especially during the freshness of spring, concede the unparalleled fantasy of the landscape, and agree on its strange, wild, potent beauty. Twenty years after Sully fought the Sioux here Roosevelt wrote, "I grow very fond of this place ... it ... has a desolate, grim beauty, that has a curious fascination for me." ”

“ Out upon these roofs, especially in the summertime, was much activity—children played, old men watched for enemy tribesmen, sweethearts conversed, neighbors gossiped. Although the tribes were often ruthless and cruel in war, in their prairie homes and villages they were very friendly and companionable people. Both men and women indulged in a great number of games, and spent a good deal of time in visiting, feasting, and dancing. Catlin upon his departure after living with the Mandans for months was loaded with gifts and urged to continue his visit. ”

“ A "pay roll" town because of the State and Federal offices, it is a growing city despite post-boom years; 87 new homes were built during 1936. Modern business buildings constitute the downtown area, and comfortable, new, bungalow-type homes, clean streets, and well-kept lawns can be seen on the hills which not long ago were the home of Indian tribes.
The generous western spirit of the residents seems reflected in the structure of the city. Nothing is crowded. On the east bank of the restless Missouri River the site of the city is hilly, rising to the north. ”

“ In spite of these fundamental similarities the material life of the Indians on the various reserves presents not only a mingling of white and Indian cultures, but also somewhat wide differences in economic status. With the exception of that done at Fort Berthold little farming is carried on, a situation not generally due to lack of land; while more than 6,000 Indians at Turtle Mountain are crowded into 72 square miles, and while the present homes of all of the tribes are rather infinitesimal in comparison with their former wide ranges, most of them do not lack space for farming. ”

“ At any rate, many generations before the coming of the whites, the Mandan—probably crowded by other tribes—began to wander westward. Apparently their long trek finally brought them and their wives and children to the junction of the White River with the Missouri in what is now South Dakota. Grass-grown sites of their old villages along the benchland of the river show how these people, in quest of a new and more satisfactory home, moved northward in successive migrations until in time they arrived at the mouth of the Heart River in the neighborhood of present Mandan and Bismarck. ”

“ Then the radio becomes the chief source of entertainment in the farm home; radio reception on the open prairie is exceptionally good. In winter the western farmers have an advantage over those of the east, for they get less snowfall, and chinooks (warm dry winds which descend from the Rocky Mountains) often temper the weather and melt the snow, permitting social life to continue almost uninterrupted.
In every rural community "fair week" is an important date. Farmers take their best cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry to compete with their neighbors' entries for the prized blue ribbons. ”

“ Difficulties of these workers in adjusting themselves to northern modes of living discouraged the use of Mexican labor, however, and today only a few of the larger farms still employ it. Most of the work is now carried on by local labor, often by school children. In driving through the Red River Valley, one can tell the farms on which sugar beets are a crop of many years' standing, for scarcely one of these is without an old tar-paper shack, a cook car remodeled into a house, or some other crude dwelling which was once the home of a family of Mexicans. ”