Days 28 and 29 - Across the Wide Missouri

It's time for another history lesson and then lots of birds. Of course, this means Phil has been in his element for the past two days, with good sport Mary right with him as another history buff and designated backroads driver. Leaving Theodore Roosevelt behind, our first stop was in Mandan, North Dakota, on the western shore of the Missouri River - known locally as The River.

Phil at The River

Mandan has intrigued us for awhile, since it was another stop for Lewis and Clark on their epic journey. It was here that they found a deserted Mandan Indian village before staying with Mandans for the winter of 1803 at another village upstream. The tribe already had been decimated by smallpox spread from Native-American trading partners. At Fort Lincoln State Park in Mandan, we toured the reconstructed On-a-Slant Village along the banks of The River. Mandans had small round boats similar to Celtic curraghs, some tribal members were pale and red-headed. These and a few word similarities have led to speculation that they encountered the legendary Prince Medoc, other 13th century Welsh adventurers or their descendants - unlikely but why not.

Mandan Bull Boat

Fort Lincoln also was the headquarters for General Custer's Seventh Cavalry when they set out for the Little Big Horn in 1876. A private in the unit gave us a tour of the reconstructed home of the general and his wife, and we learned that Custer was not a man people liked to get close to - he loved to eat onions at every meal. An earlier infantry fort was located at the same site, but foot soldiers sent to protect Northern Pacific railroad workers could not keep up with Sioux on horseback. Custer was able to keep up with them, but . . .  As we know, superior numbers ultimately prevailed.

General Custer's Headquarters

If you like birds, the next section of this blog chapter is for you. If not, skip to a new genealogy installment at the end, or just look at the pretty pictures.

After lunch at Fort Lincoln, we crossed the wide Missouri and headed to the area around Jamestown, North Dakota. Surrounding Jamestown are several national wildlife refuges. The area has countless  marshes, ponds and lakes that teem with migratory waterfowl in the spring and provide excellent breeding habitat in the summer as well. On Tuesday afternoon, our goal was Chase National Wildlife Refuge, which has the largest breeding population of American White Pelicans.

American White Pelican

We would like to tell you that Chase is an amazing place. We hear that it is, but we never actually got there. To reach Chase, you have to travel through a maze of both paved and unpaved roads, some of which are not always passable. What's more, we found so many small marshes and ponds, and so many birds along the way, it would have been nearly dark before we ever got there. It was not a place to get stuck, even if you had a cell phone with service. Anyway, Phil found 36 species, including the pelicans.

American Avocet

We saw far more ducks than expected: Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Common Goldeneye, Ruddy Duck. There also were American Avocets, Black Terns, Franklin's Gulls and the hawk pictured below; all in breeding plumage, too. Phil is leaning toward Krider's Red-tailed, but is it a Ferruginous?

Krider's or Ferruginous?

Somehow we did navigate back to our motel safely. After some local brews, bison burger and a good night's rest, we headed out in the morning to Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge. We found lots more dirt roads, but the birding trail map was better and there is a nice auto tour drive through part of the refuge. Far fewer ducks were here, but Phil added a new bird to his life list (Clay-colored Sparrow). Sedge and Marsh Wrens were singing, and Mary especially enjoyed watching the colorful Bobolinks, Eastern Kingbirds and Yellow-headed Blackbirds in a spectacular setting. North Dakota is a beautiful state at least in summer.

Sedge Wren

 Yellow-headed Blackbird

Earlier, we stopped at the western North Dakota town of Amidon, which was named after Mary's great-great uncle Charles Fremont Amidon. On Wednesday afternoon, a visit to his gravesite in Fargo on the eastern border provided a good bookend for our time in the state.

 Mary Pays Respects to Judge Amidon

Tonight we stop in Minnesota nearing an end to our month long journey.