Bismarck, North Dakota

Day 18, We stayed at the Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park and were able to tour the park on our own. We started out in the Visitor’s Center where there was a museum with a lot of artifacts and information on the Mandan Indians and General George Custer.

One very interesting fact was about Mrs. Nash, the laundress for the troops at Ft. Lincoln. Married 3 times, it wasn’t discovered until her death that she was not a she, but a man!

The ruins of On-A-Slant Village were given its name because of its slope toward the river. The Mandan Indians occupied the village from 1575 until 1781. They were an agricultural tribe and their village contained about 86 round earthlodges.

On the grounds, we toured 4 or 5 of the reconstructed earthlodges.








The Mandans were reduced from 200,000 to 2,000 in the first smallpox epidemic which caused them to abandon their village and a second epidemic reduced them to 200. They traveled north and joined other Indian tribes (they believed there is strength in numbers) so there are some Mandan Indian ancestors today.

Back at the Custer Prarie Mansion we were given a tour by a wonderful guide, who played her part well. Once we walked passed the sign to announcing the year 1875, she knew only about that era and it was quite fascinating to carry on a conversation with her. She was excellent, and we found out after the tour she is a drama student.
Custer and his Cavalry arrived at Ft. Lincoln in 1873. Custer and his wife lived at the Fort for 2 ½ years. The first house built for them burnt down, due to a faulty brick in the fireplace, 6 months after they moved in. We toured a reconstruction of the second house.
The Custer Mansion was very stylish and kept up-to-date, even though it was in the middle of nowhere. They often entertained and when guests came to visit, they often stayed for months at a time.










They were given a bedroom, as well as a closet to store their trunks.

The Battle of Little Bighorn occurred in 1876 in Montana where the Plains Indians wiped out Custer and most of his men. In 1891, the fort was ordered abandoned. Portions of the fort have been reconstructed for tours today.

We drove up to the lookout area of the Fort, where we found the graveyard.

It was interesting to read that most of the men died of a gun shot wound from a civilian. There were a few interesting deaths, such as asphyxia as a result of intoxication, suicide by opium, frozen to death, a lot of gun shot wounds, not necessarily as a result of a battle.

Day 19, we boarded our luxury tour bus at Ft. Abraham Lincoln State Park and headed off for Bismarck. We started at the North Dakota State Capitol Building, known as the “Skyscraper on the Prairie.”
The inside of the building had a lot of unusual décor and designs. Like the sculptures above the doors and elevators and the wooden wall in the corridor to the Lt. Gov. office, which they called the “Monkey Room” because the designs in the wood are of monkey faces.

Even the elevator doors were interesting. We were just in time to be able to view the State Supreme Court. They were in session on the day we visited and if we were 15 min. later, we would not have been able to tour it.

Then we saw the Senate and House. The lighting was very modern and seemed strange in such an old building.

The building is 19 floors high and on the 19th floor WHAT A VIEW! Below we could see the mall where thousands gathered to make snow angels in 2007. CAN YOU IMAGINE?

From the top, you can see as far as 35 miles from every direction.

Across the street was the North Dakota Heritage Center, which was more like a museum. We found another horse effigy dance stick, but we are unsure whether it was genuine or a reproduction. One very interesting exhibit was called the eagle catch. If you look closely at the picture, you’ll see a pair of hands grabbing the eagle as it attempts to swoop up its prey. How ingenious the Indians were when it came to hunting.

There was a lot of information on Sitting Bull in this museum. Pictured below is a dress that belonged to Sitting Bull’s daughter. Sitting Bull’s nephew and adopted son, One Bull, fought in the Battle of Little Horn. He is pictured as a young warrior and at 87 years old.

Outside of the museum was a statute of a buffalo made out of steel rebars.! We finished our day onboard of the Lewis & Clark Riverboat. What a beautiful ride up and down the Missouri river. We saw one of the most unique decks on a residential house that we had ever seen. It looked like a ship as we were approaching it. This is the best picture I could get of it.