One Day - Two Capitols

Thursday - 24 June 2004 - Murdo, South Dakota: We had a very full day - and though we drove less than 300 miles, we really had a big day of tourism! We were up and into downtown Bismarck for the 9 o'clock tour of the Capitol Building. It is the strangest Capitol we have ever seen. Called the "Skyscraper of the Prairie", the Capitol Building in North Dakota looks like an office building!

North Dakota Capitol Building

Built in the mid-thirties, this high-rise is one of four sky-scrapers serving our Nation as State Capitols. The others are in Nebraska, Louisiana and Florida. They were all built about the same time and are all in the same Art-Deco style. The tower is 242 feet in 19 floors. There is much symbolism incorporated in the design and decoration of the State House. Much of it represents the main industries of the state - agriculture and coal. There are 30,000 farms in North Dakota. The light fixtures in the photo below represent a stalk of wheat. Each light has 109 bulbs and are only lit on very dark morning and important State events occurring in the hall! North Dakota has many of her most famous citizens portraits hanging in a gallery: Louis L'amour, Eric Sevareid, Peggy Lee, Lawrence Welk, Warren Christopher, Angie Dickinson and Phil Jackson. Though the interior of the State Capitol is lovely, North Dakota wins as the ugliest Capitol Building we have yet visited. (Minnesota is still in the lead as the best.)

 
Governors Hall and a statue of Sacagawea on the Capitol grounds


Art on the Capitol grounds

We went back to the campground, hitched-up and left town - stopping to fill-up on the way south ($122, 71 gallons). We followed the Missouri River along Route 1806 (The Lewis & Clark Trail, mysteriously having the same route number as the year they traveled through this area). The Missouri River begins in Montana where three other rivers come together, and flows all the way to the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. It was a beautiful drive. We saw deer playing and buffalo roaming. We saw so many baby cows and sagebrush for the first time in weeks. Our drive took us through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and past the Prairie Knights Casino.

We entered South Dakota and took a side-trip to visit the final resting place (he has been moved!) of Sitting Bull, 1831-1890. I think he received a bad deal from the US Government, but what do I know? His grave looks out over a vast valley across the Mighty Missouri River. A beautiful place.

Sitting Bull gravesite

While we were here, we put the dish up into the sky, located the satellite, uploaded, downloaded, and had a sandwich before heading south again on Highway 83. There were zillions of grasshoppers all over the roadway, which meant there were hundreds of birds all over the roadway - easy lunch for our avian friends! We also saw several deer and a Mommy Grouse with her little fluff-balls.

In Pierre (pronounced Peer), South Dakota, we stopped at our second Capitol Building of the day! Wow! South Dakota has a "real" Capitol Building - dome, rotunda, one wing for the House, another for the Senate - just as I like it!  The South Dakota House was completed in 1910, with a variety of material including native field stone, Indiana limestone, and Vermont and Italian marble.

South Dakota State House in Pierre


Grand staircase


Terrazzo floors laid by 66 Italian artists

Sadly, in April 1993, South Dakota suffered the terrible loss of their Governor and several government and civic officials in a plane crash. A Korczak Ziolkawski (the Crazy Horse guy) statue, Fighting Stallions, is on the Capitol grounds, serving as a Memorial to the loss of Governor George Mickelson and five others.

Fighting Stallions by Korczak Ziolkawski

The gardens surrounding the State House are beautiful - they even have a lake!  It was a warm afternoon - finally! - so we enjoyed the shade of the huge trees. This was a very enjoyable Capitol - nicely sited on a hill in a pretty town. It is a friendly town too - the sign outside the Days Inn read "Imaginary Friends Stay Free"! We left town, crossing the Missouri and entered the Mountain Time Zone, continuing south on 83 through the Fort Pierre National Grasslands. It was splendid! Beautiful shades of green and yellow grasslands, dotted with cattle, below perfectly blue, cloudless skies.

We joined I-90 west for twenty miles and have stopped for the night at Murdo, South Dakota where we are watching the NBA Auction... er... I mean... Draft. What a humiliating way to get a job paying millions, eh? Why are high school kids allowed in the NBA?

RV Park: American RV Park in Murdo