Indians, a Missile, and a Golden Lake

8/7/2019

Our first stop for today was Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site.

Sculpture combined with architecture as we approached the visitor's center.  Inside we found an interesting museum at this national historic site.

An aerial view of the site today, gives a glimpse into the past. In the 1500's, each of these circles would have been an earthlodge housing from ten to thirty people.

A reconstructed earthlodge was the highlight of our visit. Many of the places we've stopped are the "site of" a village. This is one of the first places where we can get a feel for the lodging.

Bedding, cooking tools, and furniture showed how the indigenous people lived.

Back in the museum, artifacts were artistically displayed.

A circular calendar depicted the seasons on deerskin.

Food was dried and buried for preservation.

Here's a key to the materials and food used in the cut-away above.

The museum has a small theatre where we enjoyed a movie about the life of Buffalo Bird Woman. Her son, Edward Goodbird, wrote a book, published in 1917, to share the methods of gardening preserved by his mother. A small garden at the historic site demonstrates traditional plants and farming methods.

Knife River is well worth a stop.

Our next stop was the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, ND. Lewis and Clark overwintered here at Fort Manden during 1804-1805. It was here they met Sacagawea.

Continuing east, we stopped to refill our pantry at Leever's Foods in Carrington, ND. Passing through this traditional midwestern downtown, we couldn't resist walking around their courthouse square.

An hour down the road, we noticed a sign for N-33 as we approached Cooperstown.  Turning into a small empty parking lot we walked down to this four and a half foot thick cement and metal door on rails.

Once home to a Minuteman Missile installation, the surface site is preserved as it was during the cold war. This particular site was decommissioned in 1997. The launch control support facility, six miles away, is also open to visitors.

There was a ring of these sites around my home town of Plattsburgh, New York, but this was the first time we had actually been up close to one. The round access hatch was for maintenance workers. No one was stationed on-site as the missile was controlled from a remote location. Before leaving, I said a silent prayer in the hope that weapons like the one housed here will never be used.

On a more peaceful note, we reached the quiet shore of Golden Lake. We had this campground, and lake, all to ourselves. Surrounded by agriculture and a few cottages, the lake had some algae blooms floating in the summer heat.

A short bridge led from the campground to a small residential area. Restrooms are in the large maintenance building.

Checks are a useful item to carry for spots like this one. We dropped one for $15 into the Golden Lake Tenting drop box before settling in for dinner and a rest.

247 miles of easting across North Dakota today