SEARCHING FOR “THE TONIC OF WILDERNESS” IN THE DAKOTAS, PART II

Theodore Roosevelt's Maltese Cabin in the Dakota Badlands

Carol writes:  Our last stop in the Dakotas was at the Bismarck KOA,

where we had few ideas for visiting anything of interest other than the North Dakota State Capitol Building.  With other structures blocking the complete view from a distance, the tall 18-story Capitol tower structure wasn’t much to rave about… until we got closer and actually saw the complete complex framed at the end of the Capitol Mall.  That was one of those unexpected “wow moments!”

The Capitol Building’s clean lines, simple yet efficient use of space, and classic Art Deco design that incorporated building materials from many sources impressed us at every turn.  Inside, architectural decisions were impeccable and truly captured the deep symbolic meaning of everything a state capitol building is supposed to represent.

The Art Deco lighting in the House chamber, dubbed “Stars and Moon at Night,” was extraordinary.

The view of the Capitol Mall with the Missouri River in the distance was simply grand.

The guided tour was first-rate, with lots of interesting emphasis on history and symbolism.  Once again, I was fascinated most by the history, which was nicely reflected in old photographs on the 18th floor observation deck.  In December 1930, a devastating fire destroyed Bismarck’s old capitol building. 

                                                                                      

The present-day structure was built in the very popular Art Deco style of the 1930s, which had become the rage of that era with its Egyptian-style influence following the discovery of the tomb of King Tut.

The halls of the Capitol displayed a large collection of portraits depicting North Dakota residents who have been granted places of honor in the North Dakota Hall of Fame.  The members seemed to be from almost every aspect of public life, a few of the notables being…

    

music director Lawrence Welk, baseball legend Roger Maris, and author Louis L’Amour.

The geologic and cultural history of North Dakota was beautifully presented in the first-rate Heritage Center and State Museum in Bismarck.  We expected to spend a couple of hours in the museum; instead, we ended up eating lunch there and spending half the day.

The frontier history of the Bismarck area was on full display at an excellent site at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park.  The house that Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer lived in with his wife for the last 2-1/2 years of his life has been fully rebuilt on its original plot.  

This was where Custer resided on the day in May 1876 when he rode out on an expedition that ended a month later with his death and the death of most of his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

After the fort was abandoned following Custer’s death, locals literally dismantled and salvaged materials from Custer’s original home board by board.

An exact replica of the enlisted men’s barracks displayed emotionally touching biographies of many of the men who once were stationed at the fort.  These short biographies included many who perished at Little Bighorn. 

Several CCC-era reconstructed Mandan Nation earthlodges (roundhouses) were also on the grounds of the state park at an historic site called On-A-Slant-Village, a Mandan community that once had 86 round earthlodges.  This is near where the Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered over in 1804-1805.  The writings of Lewis and Clark have documented that the expedition was treated well by the Mandans, an agricultural tribe who had lived there for the better part of two centuries.

The roundhouses had displays inside that were excellent representations of typical Mandan life.

And finally, with one more day in Bismarck, we decided to head over to the Dakota Zoo.  Animals are always entertaining and can be fun challenges to photograph.  We didn’t expect much but were pleasantly surprised…

I don’t know how the zoo handles bitterly cold North Dakota winters, but on this summer day the animals seemed healthy and content in large grassy enclosures.

We caught some of the large animals at very photogenic moments, such as…

• the white Bengal tiger snoozing on a very large rock in the sun,

• the grizzly bear that seemed to prefer lounging in a hole in the dirt

• and a rare Bactrian camel.

Downtown Bismarck has changed a lot from its early frontier days,  

when its name was changed to honor German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, in the hopes of attracting more German immigrants.  Four out of five of the residents of North Dakota in 1915 were immigrants or their children, and that turned out to be quite a success story for North Dakota.  We were highly impressed by the friendliness and tremendous work ethic of the people we met.  We even talked about the fact that Bismarck “might” have landed on our list of places to settle down, if it wasn’t for one unchangeable fact—its severe northern latitude.  North Dakota winters would be a deal breaker!

Nevertheless, Bismarck turned out to be a mighty interesting town for a visit… and a great venue for a late June birthday celebration.

Carol Galus

Photo-Blogger

                                                            Mandan Earthlodge