POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS Burlington underground lignite mines, =8 m.=; Burlington Subsistence Homestead Project, =8 m.=; Velva lignite strip mine, =32 m.= (_see Tour 7_). PLAYGROUNDS FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN STATE PARK =Entrance:= 4.5 m. S. of Mandan on graveled road (_see Tour 8_). =Points of interest in park:= Fort McKeen, Slant Indian Village, site of old Fort Abraham Lincoln. =Regulations:= Park open during daylight hours only; parking cars on highway prohibited. The 750 acres of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park lie on the west bluffs of the Missouri River, encompassing three sites of historical and archeological interest--a Mandan Indian village and two old military posts. The park is being developed by the State Historical Society of North Dakota in cooperation with the National Park Service. As the roadway enters the park, the bluffs rise steeply to the right, while below on the left is spread a beautiful view of the Missouri winding away to the distant hills, tracing the outlines of Sibley Island, the Heart River below, flowing into the Missouri, and Bismarck and the capitol set against the background of the valley rising on the other side of the river. Fort McKeen is on the river bluffs, and the Indian village is below on the river bank, slightly higher than Fort Abraham Lincoln, the cavalry post, on the broad ancient plain near the mouth of the Heart. Left as the highway enters the park is a crude log palisade that guards the old SLANT VILLAGE. Before these prairies saw the invasion of the white men, perhaps two centuries ago, a group of Mandan Indians, seeking a new location in their advance up the Missouri Valley, selected this narrow point of land which had such excellent natural protection. On the east was the Heart River and on the south a deep coulee. Along the exposed sides the Indians built a palisade and dug a moat to secure their little town. Depressions in the earth show that the settlement contained 68 lodges. Five have been restored by the park administration, four of them homes and the other the large ceremonial lodge. All have been placed as nearly as possible on their original sites, and in some cases the locations made by park workers were so accurate that remains of the old lodges were found in excavating for the restoration work. The five lodges have been carefully reproduced in every detail. (A general description of the construction and equipment of the typical Indian earth lodge will be found under INDIANS AND THEIR PREDECESSORS.) Crude tools such as the inhabitants of this town used in domestic and agricultural work are on display in one lodge. Hoes and shovels were flat bones fastened to wooden handles, and brooms were bunches of brush bound together. 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.