The Bismarck area has some very interesting museums and we were only able to see two of them. On Saturday Bob and I visited the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum, across from the State Capitol.
This photo looks old because of the antique Monte Carlo parked in front. This is the Capitol Building.
The Heritage Center is the largest museum in North Dakota and it is free to visit. It shows the history of the area from prehistoric time to the present. This is the skeleton of a mastodon that was 8 feet high at the shoulders and weighed about 8,000 pounds at 40-45 years of age. The tusks are 7 feet long.
The Indian exhibit features the local tribes: the Mandans, Hidatsas, and the Arikaras. This is a finger-woven sash, which was worn by a male.
Plains Indians believe eagles are supernatural beings. Eagle feathers and claws are sacred items. To trap an eagle, a pit was dug on a ridge top and hidden by brush. A dead jackrabbitwas tied on top for bait while the hunter waited inside the pit for an eagle. Then the hunter reached through the brush and grabbed the bird's legs (note the hands around the eagle's legs.)
Note: we've seen that out west the term "Native American" is not used. It apparently is an eastern, politically correct term, not used by actual Indians.
I loved seeing this chuck wagon, used during cattle drives through the area.
The area was settled by Norwegians, and this doll dressed in Norwegian folk costume was made for a traveling puppet theater group, the Woman's Division of the WPA in the 1930s.
A Norwegian loom, ca 1880-1889, made by Ole Solberg.
Other exhibits included displays about oil production in ND and wind farms.
On Sunday, we visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center & Fort Mandan, to learn more about The expedition to the Pacific ocean. Bismarck was the edge of unknown territory back in 1804, and was the spot for departure into the west. The members built Fort Mandan and wintered here. Above you can see 12 foot tall sculptures of Lewis and Clark, meeting an Indian.
The fort was much smaller than I imagined. It slept about 50 men, women, and children.
Inside the walls of the fort were rooms that served as storage areas, an office for mapping, a smokehouse, a woodshop, and a metal shop. The privy was located about 100 yards away from the fort, per Army regulations. Our guide told us that the way modern archeologists find the site of old forts is to use technology to find the area with the most mercury in the soil. That would be the spot where the privy was located. Since people in the 1700s used mercury for a variety of ailments, their waste was full of it. And mercury contamination in soil never dissipates. The researchers then search in a 100 yard radius to find the fort.
Ranger Juan really knew his history!
In this display we saw how the members of the Expedition made dugouts to navigate the waters of the Columbia River.
How is the name "Sacagawea" pronounced? Apparently, the correct way to say her name was Sa-Cog-A-We-A, and I've been pronouncing it incorrectly my whole life.
We learned a lot about Lewis and Clark, which has inspired me to learn more on my own. Fascinating subject!
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