Friday, November 2

     Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.

      Happy birthday, North and South Dakota! On this day in 1889, Dakota Territory was divided into two states. If I had had a hand in drawing the boundaries, I would have made an East and a West Dakota for the sake of consistency of terrain and outlook, But we'll just have to live with what we have.
     I love both the Dakotas, but I'm especially fond of the northern version since I've travelled its bounds so many times more than the southern. Also, our three sons were born in Grand Forks. I remember reading an article in the Grand Forks Herald a few years back bemoaning a survey that showed North Dakota to be the least desirable of state destinations among American travelers.
     There was a move after this to drop the "North" from the state's name to make the place sound more appealing. Ridiculous, I say. Revel in what you have: no crowds. North Dakota has lots of beauty, especially in the west. but there's too much competing beauty in states closer for the typical tourist on his short break from work.
       This makes it tough for people in the Office of Tourism. The PR people there tend to romanticize the four famous transients who have passed through the state. Lewis and Clark arrived in 1804, under orders from the president to find an easy route to the west coast.
     In late October, having reached the area just north of Bismarck (which wasn't there at the time), they noticed it was getting very cold and decided to stop and spend the winter. They built a fort and relied on supplies from the local Mandan Indians to survive.  It was during this stay that Sacagawea joined the expedition. In early April they were able to continue on the their way. Poling and towing their boats up the Missouri River, it took 20 days to get out of North Dakota. Nowadays, you can drive that distance in three hours.
      After the Civil War, settlers started moving into the area. The Indians were happy to host tourists, but considered permanent residents a nuisance. General Custer was sent west to calm things down. His base was not too far from Lewis and Clark's winter fort, which by this time had been swept away by the meandering Missouri.
    Custer and his cavalry left their fort just west of a very rudimentary Bismarck on May 17, 1876, headed for the Little Bighorn River. They moved faster than Lewis and Clark, but it still took several days to get out of the state. Like so many modern tourists, Custer ended up spending more time in Montana than in North Dakota.
     The fourth North Dakota icon is Teddy Roosevelt, who came here in 1884 after the death of his wife, and with his political career in disarray. He was forced to leave two years later after blizzards wiped out his cattle herd and almost bankrupted him. Roosevelt said his time in North Dakota turned him from an "ineffectual intellectual" as his opponents called him, into "a herdsman of stern and manly qualities." While out West, Roosevelt saw that the land was being abused and degraded. It took his large brain and the bully pulpit of the White House to persuade his fellow Americans that conservation is a no-brainer. Some of North Dakota's most beautiful badlands are enshrined in a national park named in his honor.
      The development of fracking has led to an oil boom in the last several years and the state is now more interested in attracting competent oilfield workers than hard-to-please tourists.

Bison love North Dakota