Epping, Fort Peck - Lewis and Clark Caravan - Part 7 (STR-2022-8…

Wednesday, 2 June - Day 23

Today was another designated travel day - to travel from Bismarck, ND to the Lewis and Clark State Park near Epping, ND. The driving route generally followed the Missouri River. A 255-mile travel day with high winds in the forecast, everyone was eager to get an early start. About half the group departed before the official departure time.

Our first stop (enroute) of the day was the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center (www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/lcic/), Washburn, ND. After the many Lewis and Clark Interpretative Centers, one might wonder if it would be worth stopping at another one.

By gosh, it was. The Interpretive Center was very well done, and despite the other interpretive centers, we learned some more interesting info. An interactive exhibit had you push a button to hear actual journal entries.

One of the significant things about this Center was that Lewis and Clark wintered 1804-1805 nearby. They built their winter fort near five Indian villages. The Mandan inhabited two of the five villages; Hidatsa tribes the other three.

The villages had a population of over 5,000 people and were a hub of a well-known trade network.

Another exhibit had a map showing the progress of the expedition from here to Oregon.

Probably the most interesting exhibit was a room with an exhibit on Prince Maximilian and Bodmer, Maximilian's artist. From 1833 to 1834, Maximilian and Bodmer recorded the Upper Missouri River culture and landscape experienced by Lewis and Clark and other western explorers. They had the foresight to document the Native Americans before their way of life was dramatically changed by their interaction with the settlers.

Two miles away was Fort Mandan (www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/mandan/), a 1972 replica of the fort that Lewis and Clark built in 1804 to winter near the Mandan and Hidatsa. There was also a statue of Meriwether Lewis' dog, Seaman.

The actual location of where they wintered was several miles away.

The replica fort was built according to drawings and descriptions in the Library of Congress.

It was very compact for a party of 40+ people. We were fortunate to have an interpreter to explain the fort construction, the various rooms and how they would have lived that winter.

The enlisted barracks rooms were neat and seemed well laid out for rooms that likely had as many as 10 men assigned to them. Perhaps they slept in the lofts, leaving the downstairs area to gather when not sleeping, doing chores or standing guard duty.

One room was for Captains Lewis and Clark with artifacts they likely would have had at the time.

We proceeded on to the Knife River Indian Village (www.nps.gov/knri/index.htm), located at the site of a Hidatsa earthlodge village. The Visitor Center had a short video, nice exhibits, and a replica of a Hidatsa earthlodge.

After leaving the Knife River Indian Village, we battled fierce northwest winds as we made our way north and west. Winds strong enough to blow a dog off his chain. Sprinty's Electronic Stability Program threw in the towel early. Winds buffeted us as much as two feet over with strong gusts. At one point, the wind was lifting soil from a farm, reducing road visibility to about 50 feet.

The Approaching Dust Storm

Worse than Fog

The dust bowls of the 1930s immediately came to mind.

We crossed over the Garrison Dam near Riverdale, ND, (www.ndtourism.com/riverdale/attractions-entertainment/educational-attractions/garrison-dam-and-power-plant-tours). The Garrison Dam was completed in 1954 and holds back the waters of the Missouri River creating the third largest manmade reservoir in the United States. The reservoir known as Lake Sakakawea is 178 miles long and up to 14 miles wide in places. The Garrison Dam itself is 2.5 miles long and 210 feet high and .5 miles wide at its base. 

A dam tour was available at 2pm, but our schedule did not permit taking time out for the tour.

For the next three hours, we and the rest of our caravan mates dealt with white knuckle driving conditions.  Many said that were it not for the caravan schedule, they would have stayed put an extra day to avoid driving in these conditions. One couple had wind-induced problems including an awning that decided to deploy while making a turn, and steps that came loose in the wind.

Everyone was happy to arrive safely at the campground at Lewis and Clark State Park on Lake Sakakawea near Epping, ND.

Once everyone had arrived, we gathered for root beer floats and trip brief for tomorrows travels. The main topic of conversation was the wind adventures of the day.

Thursday, 3 June - Day 24

Today is another travel day from Epping, ND to Fort Peck, MT. After an overnight low of 30 degrees, we woke up to a sunny, calmer morning. The forecast was for a better travel day, wind-wise, with high temperatures expected around 70 degrees. Today also marks the calendar halfway point in the 47-day caravan. About an hour into the drive this morning, we passed the Google mile halfway point between the caravan start in Eureka, MO and end in Warrington, OR.

We started off by guiding John and Judy to the Walmart in Williston as the stores were not along the prescribed route. They have been struggling with deviating from the trip log, whereas Sprinty chafes at following the trip log.

Our next stop was the Missouri Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center. As an optional stop, we were on our own to pay the admission fee. As we arrived, Bob and Debbie were headed back to their rig, not willing to pay the $5/person admission fee. To which Darrell replied "Always buy the ticket, Always take the chance, Always make the memories". Unfortunately for them, it was not persuasive enough.

We paid the admission fee and learned that it also included Fort Buford, about 1/2 mile away. The Interpretive Center was different in that it focused on the historical significance of the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. There we learned about the formation of the confluence over the millions of years.

In the upper right is a map showing the geological history of North Dakota,
showing where glaciers once stood.

An interesting fact was the Missouri River which we have been following for the last 24 days, in the "footsteps" of Lewis and Clark, flowed into Hudson Bay 600,000 years ago.

The Center included a model of the "Far West", a river steamer designed for the upper Missouri river. The "Far West" as best remembered as a steamboat that brought back the wounded soldiers following Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn in June 1876.

Other exhibits were mainly focused on the fur trading days, and the developing commerce. An interesting fact was the area at the confluence was not developed because the Army established a fort at the confluence (Fort Buford), initially planned at 4 square miles, and at one time extended 30 square miles. As the Army owned the land, it was not available for settlement/development.

We walked out towards the river, and decided to walk to Fort Buford. Following a path along the bluff overlooking the river, we thought it might be a good way to get some exercise as Google Maps said Fort Buford was 0.5 miles away.

Alas, the path dead ended after walking about 1/2 miles, and the Fort was still well in the distance. We returned to Sprinty and drove to the fort.

Fort Buford was established in 1866 to safeguard the territory surrounding the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers and served as a supply depot for soldiers operating further west.

Fort Buford frequently served as a detention area for tribal leaders and their followers who had fought placement onto the reservation. Among the prominent tribal leaders held at the fort were Chief Joseph, Crow King, Rain-in-the-Face, Gall, and Low Dog. The last to be detained at the fort was Sitting Bull in July 1881. The fort was expanded twice, and was officially abandoned in 1895 after almost 3 decades of service.

One of the remaining original buildings was the Field Officers Quarters, constructed in 1871 as the post commanding officers quarters.

The single most important event that occurred in this building was the formal surrender of the Hunkpapa leader Sitting Bull. This event helped end warfare on the northern planes.

“July 20, 1881, Sitting Bull met in this building with major David H. Brotherton, Fort Buford's Commander. At Sitting Bull side was his young son Crow Foot. Sitting Bull gave his Winchester rifle to Crow Foot and then told him to give the rifle to Major Brotherton.”

Around the Fort, and the interpretive center, we saw what appeared to be small prairie dogs. We learned at the interpretive center they were actually ground squirrels. They were smaller than prairie dogs, but their behavior seemed a lot like prairie dogs.

Ground Squirrel 

We proceeded on to our next stop a few miles away, The Fort Union Trading Post.

Between 1828 and 1867, Fort Union was the most important fur trade post on the Upper Missouri River. Here, the Assiniboine and six other Northern Plains Indian Tribes exchanged buffalo robes and smaller furs for goods from around the world, including cloth, guns, blankets, and beads. A bastion of peaceful

coexistence, the post annually traded over 25,000 buffalo robes and $100,000 in merchandise.

The fort was built with a trading area around the front gate. This allowed trading with the Native Americans without having them enter into the main fort

While we were the first to leave this morning, we were now nearly the last rig as we "bought the ticket" to visit the interpretive center and added the visit to Fort Buford. As we left Fort Union, we entered Montana and Mountain Timezone.

We continued on, stopping in Culbertson, MT at the Culbertson Museum. During our trip brief, the Wagonmaster downplayed the stop. But we approached it that we "might never pass this way again" and stopped anyway. Culbertson is one of eastern Montana's oldest communities, named for American Fur Company Trapper and mountain man Alexander Culbertson who headed trading operations along Montana's upper Missouri River and at Fort Union, east of here, during the mid 1800s. His descendants settled and ranched in this area. 

Kris was museumed out and chose to read a book in Sprinty while Darrell checked it out. The volunteers were quite proud of their museum which seemed to have collection of artifacts back to the 1800s. For example, there was a 1927 Montgomery Ward catalog on the shop counter in one of the rooms. The museum reminded Darrell a lot of the Butterfield Trail Museum we visited last year in Russell Springs, KS. Lots and lots of artifacts important to the history of the town, not so interesting for a passerby unless one was interested in antique dolls, dresses, glasses and thousands of period household items.

What Darrell did find interesting was the pioneer wagon and stagecoach in the second building.

The exhibits were unmarked, so it was not clear if they were original or authentic looking replicas.

We arrived at the Corps of Engineer Down Stream Campground in Fort Peck, MT about 3pm. The campground is located right below the earthen dam.

Several of us gathered at Jack and Jodee's rig until dinner time.

The caravan had an evening event at the Fort Peck Theatre (www.fortpecktheatre.org). Tonight was opening night for their Summer Theater season. The Fort Peck Theatre was built as a temporary structure in 1934 to serve as a movie theatre. The theater was designed in a pseudo-Swiss-chalet style as an amenity for the 50,000 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers workers and their families at the Fort Peck Dam project. The interior features open-truss wood construction, with handcrafted light fixtures fabricated in Corps of Engineers workshops. The theater survived to become a permanent facility, and in 2008 was in use as a community theater.

The seats, if not original, were certainly reminiscent of theaters of the 1950s - hard, plywood seats that rewarded those carrying their own seat padding. As people gathered, we could tell the locals (just about everyone but our group) as they brought seat cushions ranging from foam stadium seat pads to full-blown bed pillow.

The show, Forever Plaid, paid musical homage to the close-harmony 'guy groups' that reached the height of their popularity during the 1950s. It follows a quartet of high-school chums in their cherry red '54 Mercury, and their earnest dreams of recording an album and appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. Very well done for opening night, the many innuendoes had everyone in stitches. A fun evening.

After we got back to the campground, Sprinty gave up his electrical connection for John and Kelly Ann next door. They were one of a couple of our rigs that could not get the electrical power to work - something about the use of Arch Fault-Ground Fault breaker in the electrical pedestal. The pedestal did not play nice with their motorhome electrical management system. After only a few minutes, the power to their coach would shut down. They borrowed a 30amp extension cord and connected to our pedestal without issue. John and a Kelly Ann's motorhome needed the power more than Sprinty did.

Saturday, 4 June - Day 25

Sprinty woke up to being able to claim his 46th state camped in since February 2017. A short, informal ceremony was conducted to put the sticker on the map we have on the freezer door.

The caravan itinerary seemed modest by comparison to previous days. The only thing listed was "Fort Peck Dam and Museum", which was located all of 1/2 mile from the campground. Shown as a rideshare, we initially assumed the interpretive center was the only event,of the day, and thought we would walk down and back.

Upon closer examination of the suggested rideshare route, we saw that suggested 16-mile driving route included driving to various overlooks on the dam, as well as driving across the top of the dam. We saw this as a perfect opportunity to break out the eBikes.

Like many, we left the campground around 9am and rode to the Fort Peck Dam Interpretive Center. We watched both videos, one on Lewis and Clark and the other on the building of the dam.

The Fort Peck Dam is the highest of six major dams along the Missouri River? At 21,026 feet in length and over 250 feet in height, it is the largest hydraulically filled dam in the United States, and creates Fort Peck Lake, the fifth largest artificial lake in the U.S., more than 130 miles long, 200 feet deep, and a 1,520-mile shoreline which is longer than the state of California's coastline.

To construct it, a railroad spur had to be constructed to the site, high voltage transmission lines had to be installed to Great Falls, MT, dredges and pump boats had to be built and launched. Dredge boats collected a mix of sand, gravel, rocks, silt, and water from the Missouri River and pumped it to the dam, where the materials of the dam settled out.

Four underground tunnels, each over a mile long, were built to move water around the dam. 

Two of the tunnels are used to generate electrical power. Hydroelectric power was an afterthought. Fort Peck Dam was not intended to produce hydroelectric power when it was originally designed in the early 1930s. After the dam was completed, powerhouses were added to help meet the nation's growing demand for electricity.

The resulting reservoir is enormous.

Other exhibits included the ancient course of the Missouri River.

And an explanation of the geology.

Many of the exhibits were about dinosaurs, which was not as interesting to us as the dam project. Things like the Corps of Engineers planned city of Fort Peck for the workers (including the movie theatre we visited last night). As the Corps incorrectly assumed the men would be single, the town of Fort Peck was originally designed for single men. The State of a Montana prioritized married men for depression-era public works projects, so many satellite towns sprung up nearby as the planned town was not built for families.

We left the Interpretive Center, riding past the surge towers, tunnel outlets and hydroelectric generators.

The road then climbed up - we stopped at one point and measured the grade at 7%. Easy peasy with the eBikes. At one point, Darrell put on max power and achieved almost 18mph pedaling up the 7% grade.

At the first overlook, we could see the entirety of the four-mile long dam.

The next overlook offered a different view of the dam and the reservoir.

We rode down the road to the spillway, also a major accomplishment.

The spillway has only been used five times in its history.

Jack took a picture from the overlook of us riding our eBikes up the gravel road.

As Lewis and Clark did pass through this point on the Missouri River, there were exhibits on their journey. We especially liked the exhibit on Sakagawea.

Readers might notice variation in the spelling of "Sakakawea" in the blog posts and various photographed exhibits. A blog reader shared a link to an article: "Sacagawea, Sakakawea or Sacajawea?"  (www.sacagawea-biography.org/sacagawea-sakakawea-or-sacajawea/)

We then turned back and rode over part of the Fort Peck Dam. Part way access, we took a gravel road down off the dam and rode through the town of Fort Peck. We stopped to view the Northeast Montana Veterans Memorial Park located in Fort Peck about a block from the theatre.

Back at the campground, we looked around for the Leisure Travel Van we passed on the bike ride. They were in the campground and we went over to introduce ourselves and talk about travel stuff. A nice couple from Alberta enjoying being able to travel again now that the COVID situation is better.

Darrell helped John with setting up his new Garmin GPS and diagnosed a water pump problem in Jack and Jodee's truck camper. Just a couple more educational opportunities. 😉

We provided ebike test rides to several caravan mates. As Jack and Joanne came back from their 4+ mile test ride, Jack remarked kept was a good thing

I was not a bike salesman.

Although the day was not devoid of any Lewis and Clark exhibits, I think many were glad for a break from Lewis and Clark. Or at least, enjoying an emphasis on a different major accomplishment in Montana.