Fort Mandan
Wednesday - 23 June 2004 - Bismarck, North Dakota:
It was so windy yesterday, we couldn't even leave our motorhome. It
was time to head south.
Anyway... after watching the election results last night on Winnipeg
television - what a hoot, with the Victory going to Mr. Katz (pronounced for
some reason, Cates) we were able to rise early and left the campground at 7
o'clock (in the morning, people!) as we had a long drive ahead of us today -
440 miles! Last night, besides the hotly-contested Mayoral Race, there
was a frost-warning in Winnipeg and when we left town this morning, the
skies were black and our thermometer read 45-degrees! Time to leave The Peg!
Here is a broad generalization about Winnipeg: Quite lovely and surprisingly
cosmopolitan, considering it is in the middle of nowhere and 80% of the time
it is too cold to go outside.
We drove west on the Trans-Canadian Highway. By 9 o'clock the weather had
taken a nasty turn. It became colder and colder, the skies turned blacker
and it rained and rained and rained. At Brandon, 140 west of Winnipeg, the
sun came out and the temperature climbed to a balmy 50-degrees. Realizing we
would soon leave Canada, Brandon was the perfect opportunity to spend our
last Loonies at
Tim Horton's. Always clean and friendly, Tim Horton's is the Dunkin
Donuts of Canada. DT bought an apple fritter and I had old-fashioned donut
holes. Both treats were warm, so were quickly devoured. As Tim says "Un
regal san egal"! (Can't beat the treat!)
At Virden, we left the Trans-Canadian Highway and took Highway 83 south to
the U.S. border. 83 is not a well-traveled road and maybe the U.S.
immigration guys were bored. One officer looked at our passports while the
other wrote-down our vehicle license numbers. Both went inside the building,
while we "remained with our vehicle". About 10 minutes later, one officer
returned and asked us if anyone else was with us. We said no, and without
asking our permission, he entered Our Intrigue! DT and I were both outside
and I gave DT "the look" so he went in. We were curious at what he was
looking for! The official looked under the bed and then asked us to unlock
the bays outside. He opened every compartment outside the RV, but barely
glanced inside. Then he asked me to unlock the Honda! The entire process
took just a few minutes and we have no idea what he was looking for, but it
wasn't Cuban cigars. (No, we DID NOT have contraband cigars!) One look
through our passports - with stamps from Greece, Spain, UK, Indonesian,
China, Vietnam and Mexico - could possibly make a customs official at the
North Dakota border curious. He opened the passports again, handed each of
us our passport and walked back into the immigration office. No explanation.
No "you can go now", no "thank you", no "welcome to the US". Nothing. We
started the RV and entered The Land of our Birth.
We were greeted immediately by a border-ignorant deer and her days-old fawn.
Just adorable! We are seriously in the Plains now. Grassland everywhere,
very pretty as the long grass blows in the wind. One hour north of Bismarck,
we visited the
North Dakota Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and
Fort Mandan - the Fort Clatsop of the East - where the Corp of
Discovery spent the winter of 1804-05 on their way west. The fort
is, of course, a replica. The site of the original fort is now gone due to
natural course-changes of the Mighty Missouri River.
Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center
Fort Mandan, named for the local Indian
tribe, was hastily built as winter was setting-in. To make it quicker to
build, it only had three walls and is, in fact, triangular. The fort was
built with local cottonwood and had 10 rooms and eight stone fireplaces! The
Corp also used the fort on their return trip - but found it mostly burned.
It was August, so they slept here anyway and in total stayed in Fort Mandan
146 days - longer than any other place on their adventure. It was at Fort
Mandan where Charbonneau was hired as a guide and
interpreter. He moved into the fort with his wife, Sacagawea - and the rest
is history. The Explorers kept such good records, it was easy for the
historians to completely re-create the fort, down to the last detail. It was
even noted who occupied each room, the location of the store-rooms and the
black-smith shop.
Fort Mandan, on the shore of the Missouri River in North Dakota
A view inside the fort
Lewis & Clark's quarters
RV Park:
Bismarck KOA
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