North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie StateFederal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota
History
North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State
Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota
North Dakota; North Dakota -- Guidebooks
Right from W. Main St. in Washburn on a well-marked country road to
FORT MANDAN STATE PARK, =14 m.=, site of Fort Mandan on the north bank
of the big bend in the Missouri. Here the Lewis and Clark expedition
spent the winter of 1804-5 with the friendly Mandan Indians. It was
here that Sakakawea, or Bird Woman, a young Shoshone Indian girl,
joined the expedition which she helped to guide to the Pacific (_see_
BISMARCK). Warring Sioux destroyed the buildings of the fort in 1805,
and the ever changing river channel has altered the landscape so that
it is impossible to identify the exact site (_see Tour 10_). Near
the markers that have been erected are the trenches of unidentified
expeditions.
At =150.5 m.= is the junction with a county dirt road (_see Side Tour
3B_).
WILTON, =160 m.= (2,152 alt., 1,001 pop.), named for Wilton, Maine, is
on the McLean-Burleigh County line and is the center of a Ukrainian
settlement. These people come from Galicia, a province of the former
Austro-Hungarian Empire, and found work in the lignite mines which
at that time were just opening here. One group arrived in 1897 and a
second two years later. Many old customs are preserved, including folk
dances performed in picturesque, brightly colored costumes by both old
and young people. The Ukrainians are fond of flowers and their homes
usually have beautiful gardens, in which they can be seen working in
the early hours of summer days.
On opposite sides of the highway at the northern end of town are two
unusual churches, both focal points of the Ukrainian settlement. SS.
PETER AND PAUL GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH (R) has two steeples topped with
fourchée crosses. It is of the Greco-Slavonic branch of the Greek
Church. The RUSSIAN ORTHODOX GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH (L) belongs to the
Russo-Greek branch; a cruciform building, it has three steeples, each
bearing the Greek schismatic cross of papal design, symbolizing the
Trinity, with the lowest member set obliquely to denote that the church
does not recognize the authority of the Pope. Both churches use the
Julian calendar and have similar services and holidays.
A bird-banding station established in Wilton in 1931 by Mrs. W. H. Gray
under the U. S. Biological Survey banded 5,805 birds of 86 species in
its first five years.
Left from Wilton via Main St. to the second largest LIGNITE STRIP MINE
of the Truax-Traer Co., =2 m.= Formerly one of the largest underground
lignite mines in the world (_see Tours 5 & 7_), in 1934-35 it yielded
185,381 tons of coal.
BISMARCK, =184.5 m.= (1,672 alt., 11,090 pop.) (_see_ BISMARCK).
_Points of Interest_: State Capitol, Liberty Memorial Building,
State Historical Society Museum, Roosevelt Cabin.
At 6th St. and Main Ave. is the junction with US 10 (_see Tour 8_),
which unites with US 83 between this point and STERLING, =209.5 m.=
(1,807 alt., 110 pop.).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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