Day 93/14 Mon Sept 1
This was mostly a driving day.
NORTH DAKOTA (Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck)
FARGO
Plains Art Museum. The main exhibit was by Rimer Cardillo’s about the intersection of politics, economics, and ecological degradation – the devastating impacts of human activity on the natural world, particularly the alarming decline in animal species and plant life. it sounds great but wasn’t very interesting with a lot of contemporary art. Free
National Buffalo Museum, Jamestown. Set in the Jamestown open-air museum (a church, school, log house and the largest buffalo statue in the world + many more relocated buildings), this is a good museum where I learned a lot about buffalo.
There were once an estimated 40 million buffalo and about 60 Indian tribes depended on them for almost everything. They were a keystone species on the prairies responsible fot the maintenance of a healthy prairie. There were four species but only two are important now – plains bison and wood buffalo (larger, taller, had a square hump, darker, had straight rather than curly, no hair on their lower legs, and a smaller, more pointed beard). The original roads often followed buffalo trails. They then were hunted to the point of only 1,000 remained. The favourite buffalo gun was a 50 calibre rifle – a large bullet was necessary for the largest mammal in North America.
In 1870, only about 100 were wild and the majority of the rest were in Yellowstone NP or on private ranches. They were killed for sport (once the railway arrived, passengers were encouraged to shoot as many as they could from the train), for their hides (better than cattle) and for their tongues. After a concerted program of conservation, the number has now increased to about 400,000. Most are still on private ranches. Some were moved to Canada and I have visited the buffalo paddock in Waterton Lakes NP several time. Ted Turner has one of the largest herds numbering about 40,000 and they supply meat to his many restaurants. The meat is leaner and has less cholesterol.
At the museum, watch a great video. There are several stuffed ones including an albino buffalo (genetically the same as other pure albinos. They were less able to handle the sun). See guns, bows and arrows, put together a plastic specimen, Indian beaded handicrafts, skulls of prehistoric buffalo, and more. $8, $6 reduced
Jud. I thouogh about going to Jud, it looked like it was not a great distance south of the highway. When I put it into the map for distance, it turned out to be 35 miles each way. It is a tiny town of 69 people with no redeeming features other than it is in the middle of nowhere. These are the Nomad Mania sites that I have complained about – a 70 mile drive for what? Other than a tick in a box.
I bought the cheapest gas of the trip $3.25 but the price of gas has been falling for the last several weeks. Maybe N Dakota doesn’t have the cheapest gas in the US.
BISMARCK
Former Governors’ Mansion. Bismarck is the capital of North Dakota and this is where the governor lived from 1893 to 1960. It is a lovely 2-story house with period furniture. Nothing very exciting. Free State Historic Site
ON Pizza Hut in Bismarck
Day 94/15 Tue Sept 1
This was a planned big drive day with a hope to get to northern Montana and possibly southern Alberta. I would be driving through country that I visited with my family when I was a child. Until the age of 7, I lived just across the border in Glentworth, Saskatchewan and many in my paternal family lived in Assiniboia and surrounding farms (Maxstone, Rockglen, Coronack).
MONTANA (Billings, Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman, Missoula)
Saint-Marie, Montana (eerie near ghost-town).
When the Air Force base was decommissioned, the on-base housing was purchased and offered for sale to private individuals. While many of the bids for the houses were from salvage companies, the community ultimately escaped demolition. Homes which had housed thousands of military personnel (the maximum population was 7,000 in 1970) when the base was in operation were briefly promoted as condominiums for retirees.
Despite local efforts, most of the re-purposed housing units sit empty and abandoned. A few hundred residents remain in what is otherwise a partial ghost town. The runway remains in use as Glasgow Industrial Airport (FAA LID: 07MT), a test site for Boeing aircraft. The nearby city of Glasgow, Montana has dropped in population by half (from 6400 in the 1960s to 3250 in 2010) after the base closure.
Beginning in 2012 the community became embroiled in a series of legal and political conflicts with an anti-government group called the “Citizens Action Committee of Valley County,” part of the larger Sovereign Citizen movement, with a similar philosophy to that of the Montana Freemen. The group intended to take ownership of the community through buying and seizing up a large amount of mostly vacant properties through bogus liens and litigation, while ostensibly planning a handful of investment schemes to redevelop them. The situation led to a number of St. Marie property owners being sued and a community backlash against the group followed.
The post office and town hall are still in operation along with a small handful of local businesses, but the school and a majority of businesses have closed. St. Marie has gained some interest from ghost town enthusiasts and back road explorers in recent years for its uniquely Atomic Age appeal, being much more intact and modern than most vacated locales and containing a fair number of larger buildings. In 2024, the town was used as a filming location for the short film “Orchards of a Futile Heaven.”
The population was 264 at the 2010 census. It is located at the site of the former Glasgow Air Force Base.
This was 17 miles north of the highway. From the outside, see many duplexes and quadriplexes with attached garages, all with crumbling paint, broken windows and open doors. I drove into the central area where it almost looked like a small “normal neighborhood) with houses painted, cars in the driveway and bicycles laying on the ground. All streets are gravel. I didn’ t explore more to see if any businesses were open.
Bizzarium
When looking at the map, it was shorter to continue north to the West Poplar entrance into Saskatchewan so I drove the 33 miles. I stopped in the village before the border and bought gas ($1.47.9). The old fashioned station had a couple of guys sitting on chairs. I couldn’t help myself but start a conversation about MAGA knowing that there was a 99% chance they were strong trumpers. They didn’t buy anything that I said including that he was mentally ill. While I stressed inflation and the economy, harm done to education systems etc, their only coming back “what about Hunter Biden” and “I don’t want those trans people in my bathroom”. OMG that is what they thought was important. I told them to stop only looking at FOX News and find some more reliable source of information.
Surprisingly, due north of St Marie was Glentworth, a tiny village of about 100 people that I had lived in from 1953-60. So I drove through the hills of Grasslands NP and fields of hay, cattle and bales.
Glentworth was a pleasant surprise. Our house was now a new faux log insurance agency. There was an impressive school with an attached gym and a “new” ice and curling rink. I stopped at the municipal office to see the book about pre-2005 residents. Our name wasn’t in it.
I continued on the paved road to Shonavan to see my cousin and his wife.
