Washburn, North Dakota (Miles to date: 5550)
The Missouri River Lodge is a working farm, the owners are absent, now living in Las Vegas. They have put in place a young couple, Cyrena and Ross (together with their two children Ben – approaching 3 and Chris 14) to run the farm and bed and breakfast. The farm is partially arable and also has a herd of cows. The setting is wonderful with the farm set amongst rugged sandstone bluffs, some having been moulded into steep cliffs and sharp pinnacles by the effects of the elements over many years. Jack and Emily loved the chance to explore farm and they soon fell in love with the farm cats, in particular a Siamese cat, Bubbles.
The farm runs down to the Missouri River and is actually on the trail that the famous pioneer explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took across North Dakota. Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery (a party of 33) set out from St Louis, Missouri at the turn of the 19th Century under the commission of the President Jefferson to explore the newly acquired territories through the Louisiana Contract with Napoleon. They primarily followed the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains and then across as far the Oregon coastline. The main reason for visiting this area was to find out more about Lewis and Clark – which is a topic Jack and Emily studied at school.
Our first place to visit was the Lewis and Clark Interpretation centre in Washburn. This is a very impressive visitor centre and we spent a good hour and a half going through the exhibits covering the journey of Lewis and Clark, with a particular focus on the time they spent in Washburn, and the life of the native Americans who lived in the area. Lewis and Clark huddled up in the area to ride out the winter and befriended the local native Americans, the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. One of the Hidatsa squaws, Sacagawea, who was married to a local French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau, later joined Lewis and Clark and the Corps on their journey to Oregon. The story is that Sacagawea was from the Shoshone nation and was kidnapped by the Hidatsa. Her name in the Hidatsa tongue is Sakakewea – which confused Emily initially who had studied her story at school. Lewis and Clark chose to take her on their journey primarily because they planned to traverse Shoshone territory and required her help as a translator. Shortly before they left she had a baby which she carried with her whilst she journeyed with the Exploration Corps across unknown and sometimes hostile territory. All of this was documented in the diaries of Mssrs Lewis and Clark but what happened to Sakakawea in later years is less known, and this has all contributed to her mythical status.
After the interpretation centre we travelled two miles down the road to the Fort Mandan exhibition. We went into the visitor centre where we watched a film on the Lewis and Clark expedition and then were taken on a tour of the replica of the Fort. It is a small “A” shaped construction that was to protect the Corps during their winter stay in Washburn. It was simple structure with sleeping quarters, some storage room and a forge. The original fort unfortunately burnt down but the chronicles of Lewis and Clark and some of their party detailed the construction of the fort so they we able to authentically reproduce it.
On our way through Stanton the previous night we had noticed the Knife River Indian Villages National Monument – so we decided to stop by and see the exhibits. The Knife River joins the Missouri close to Stanton and is the spot where the main Hidatsa and Mandan villages were sited – and was the home of Sakakawea. As with all the National Park Service the centre is fantastic and we first of all get our bearings by watching an orientation film on the history of the Indian villages. There were something like 120 lodges in these villages with 10 to 30 people in each. Inside the visitor centre there is an exhibition on the lifestyles and cultural aspects of these Indian tribes. We even got the chance to try out some of the everyday items like a buffalo skin – which was amazingly heavy. After warming up on the inside we braved the outside – to be fair it was warm but 
blowing a bit of a gale. The outside exhibits included a earth lodge – which was surprisingly warm and cosy. Later we enquired about whether they did sleepovers but apparently there is a bit of a rodent problem. The lodge is a single room but included all the requirement for comfortable living including storage for the vegetables grown through the summer, which are stored in a pit under the ground. After viewing the recreated earth lodge we walked down toward the village – the original lodges were long gone but there were clear to see undulations in the ground where they had been. Being all alone in this space had a very spiritual affect on all of us.
We got back to the farm about an hour before sunset, and immediately set off to follow one of the trails to the top of one of the bluffs. These bluffs and made of sedimentary layers and are not
much more than compressed mud. Weathering has caused them to have steep, cliff like sides on some edges and flat tops. We climb to the top just in time for the sunset and to enjoy, in blissful solitude, the views across the farm down to the Missouri River. We seek out the turf carving of a turtle, set down long ago but the local Indians, but it is somewhat difficult to make out – never mind the view is worth the climb!! The day was quickly drawing to a close so we hurried down the hill back to the farm, where we shared a pizza with Cyrena, Ross and their family – plus one of the guests who was a contract worker on one of the local electric plants that line the Missouri. To end the day we went outside and climbed a hill – it was a wonderfully clear night and without the light pollution of civilisation we were able to admire the night sky, with its infinite clusters of stars and galaxies.
The Missouri River Lodge is a working farm, the owners are absent, now living in Las Vegas. They have put in place a young couple, Cyrena and Ross (together with their two children Ben – approaching 3 and Chris 14) to run the farm and bed and breakfast. The farm is partially arable and also has a herd of cows. The setting is wonderful with the farm set amongst rugged sandstone bluffs, some having been moulded into steep cliffs and sharp pinnacles by the effects of the elements over many years. Jack and Emily loved the chance to explore farm and they soon fell in love with the farm cats, in particular a Siamese cat, Bubbles.The farm runs down to the Missouri River and is actually on the trail that the famous pioneer explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took across North Dakota. Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery (a party of 33) set out from St Louis, Missouri at the turn of the 19th Century under the commission of the President Jefferson to explore the newly acquired territories through the Louisiana Contract with Napoleon. They primarily followed the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains and then across as far the Oregon coastline. The main reason for visiting this area was to find out more about Lewis and Clark – which is a topic Jack and Emily studied at school.
Our first place to visit was the Lewis and Clark Interpretation centre in Washburn. This is a very impressive visitor centre and we spent a good hour and a half going through the exhibits covering the journey of Lewis and Clark, with a particular focus on the time they spent in Washburn, and the life of the native Americans who lived in the area. Lewis and Clark huddled up in the area to ride out the winter and befriended the local native Americans, the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. One of the Hidatsa squaws, Sacagawea, who was married to a local French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau, later joined Lewis and Clark and the Corps on their journey to Oregon. The story is that Sacagawea was from the Shoshone nation and was kidnapped by the Hidatsa. Her name in the Hidatsa tongue is Sakakewea – which confused Emily initially who had studied her story at school. Lewis and Clark chose to take her on their journey primarily because they planned to traverse Shoshone territory and required her help as a translator. Shortly before they left she had a baby which she carried with her whilst she journeyed with the Exploration Corps across unknown and sometimes hostile territory. All of this was documented in the diaries of Mssrs Lewis and Clark but what happened to Sakakawea in later years is less known, and this has all contributed to her mythical status.
After the interpretation centre we travelled two miles down the road to the Fort Mandan exhibition. We went into the visitor centre where we watched a film on the Lewis and Clark expedition and then were taken on a tour of the replica of the Fort. It is a small “A” shaped construction that was to protect the Corps during their winter stay in Washburn. It was simple structure with sleeping quarters, some storage room and a forge. The original fort unfortunately burnt down but the chronicles of Lewis and Clark and some of their party detailed the construction of the fort so they we able to authentically reproduce it.
On our way through Stanton the previous night we had noticed the Knife River Indian Villages National Monument – so we decided to stop by and see the exhibits. The Knife River joins the Missouri close to Stanton and is the spot where the main Hidatsa and Mandan villages were sited – and was the home of Sakakawea. As with all the National Park Service the centre is fantastic and we first of all get our bearings by watching an orientation film on the history of the Indian villages. There were something like 120 lodges in these villages with 10 to 30 people in each. Inside the visitor centre there is an exhibition on the lifestyles and cultural aspects of these Indian tribes. We even got the chance to try out some of the everyday items like a buffalo skin – which was amazingly heavy. After warming up on the inside we braved the outside – to be fair it was warm but 
blowing a bit of a gale. The outside exhibits included a earth lodge – which was surprisingly warm and cosy. Later we enquired about whether they did sleepovers but apparently there is a bit of a rodent problem. The lodge is a single room but included all the requirement for comfortable living including storage for the vegetables grown through the summer, which are stored in a pit under the ground. After viewing the recreated earth lodge we walked down toward the village – the original lodges were long gone but there were clear to see undulations in the ground where they had been. Being all alone in this space had a very spiritual affect on all of us.We got back to the farm about an hour before sunset, and immediately set off to follow one of the trails to the top of one of the bluffs. These bluffs and made of sedimentary layers and are not
much more than compressed mud. Weathering has caused them to have steep, cliff like sides on some edges and flat tops. We climb to the top just in time for the sunset and to enjoy, in blissful solitude, the views across the farm down to the Missouri River. We seek out the turf carving of a turtle, set down long ago but the local Indians, but it is somewhat difficult to make out – never mind the view is worth the climb!! The day was quickly drawing to a close so we hurried down the hill back to the farm, where we shared a pizza with Cyrena, Ross and their family – plus one of the guests who was a contract worker on one of the local electric plants that line the Missouri. To end the day we went outside and climbed a hill – it was a wonderfully clear night and without the light pollution of civilisation we were able to admire the night sky, with its infinite clusters of stars and galaxies. We were thrilled when we we all spotted a shooting star!!
A perfect end to a perfect day.
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