On Monday we went and toured the North Dakota state capitol building in Bismark. First off, it is a "skyscraper" (at 18 stories), no dome in sight. Also, they meet biannually. The building was built in the 1930s and has a ton of art deco influences. We got to go up to the observation deck and look out over Bismark, on a good day you can see 20+ miles or more.
On Tuesday, we went to Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site. This site mostly focuses on the Hidatsa peoples and had a really cool earthlodge you could go in and explore.
Wednesday we went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park--the only such park named after an individual. We learned some new things about him here: his time in North Dakota really shaped him for the presidency and also shaped his conservation views, which is how we got so many of our national parks! He also came out to North Dakota for a second time after his wife and mom died on the same day. He ranched, hunted, and dealt with his grief in North Dakota.
This statue in the visitor center is made from materials owned or used by Theodore Roosevelt, including the clothes, which were his. Even up on that horse, you can tell he was kind of short, not as tall as I expected for a "larger than life" personality!
This is the Maltese Cross cabin (there's a Maltese Cross in the end of one of the beams) that was the first piece of property T.R. bought when he came out to North Dakota.
We didn't spend a ton of time in the park, but we did see a TON of prairie dogs (see the light colored mounds in the background?) and a half dozen wild horses!!! We also saw a lot of construction (see the orange cone?) that made it kind of hard to get in and out of the park.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is not on the way to anywhere, but it's beautiful and totally worth spending time here!
On Friday we went to Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site. This site straddles two states but is on Central Time. We got to see these signs a lot!
This fort is a complete reconstruction based on the archaeological findings and is amazing. I wish we could have come for the annual rendezvous in June.
The fort was used for trading with the native tribes and dealt mostly in furs.
These two signs are on your way in and out of the parking lot.
Then we drove to Minot, North Dakota to see the Scandinavian Heritage Park. We have Scandinavian heritage on both sides so we had to stop here. It is a park with paths and ponds and lots of different buildings scattered around. If you are there during business hours, you can go in all the amazing buildings. This one is a replica of the Gol Stave church in Norway and made me feel like I was looking at a How to Train Your Dragon building.
A Dala horse--from Sweden. See the little plaque to the left of the picture, by the boulder? This thing is HUGE!
A little bit of humor by one of the ponds
Saturday we went to Rugby, North Dakota to see the Geographical Center of North America. We previously went to the center of the contiguous U.S. (including Hawaii and Alaska) but this is the center of the continent.
We then headed north to the border, to the International Peace Garden
It is fall up here, the flowers are still beautiful and there is so much to see.
We decided to camp here for a few days but drove into Canada, just because! When you are in the park, you are neither in the U.S. or Canada. When you leave, you have to go through customs to get back into either country.
The customs officer was nice enough to put a stamp in our passports. J and S have never been to Canada before. There's not much to see in Manitoba....but we can say we've been!
Because church would have been an hour's drive or more and we needed our passports to get there (Canadian or U.S. church), we decided to have a Family Home Evening church in the campground instead for our Sunday.