Hazelton Recreation Area - Hazelton ND

Hazelton Recreation Area - Hazelton, ND 

The Mandan Indian tribe established a village at the confluence of the Missouri and Heart rivers in about 1575. They built earthen lodges and thrived in their community by hunting bison and growing a number of crops. Two hundred years later, an outbreak of smallpox significantly decreased the Mandan population and the survivors resettled to the north.  During those years, the Mandan tribe had between seven and nine villages (all located along the Missouri River), with an estimated total population of 10,000 to 15,000. On-a-Slant was the furthest south of all these villages and consisted of approximately 86 earthen lodges. Its population numbered about 1,000–1,500. It was located near the point where the Heart River and the Missouri River come together and was named so by the Mandan because the village was built on ground that slopes towards the river valley. It was fortified with a ditch and palisade, to protect its wealth of food and trade goods.

The women of the Mandan tribe were completely responsible for building the earthen lodges, which were held up by a frame of cottonwood logs and covered with layers of willow branches, grass, and earth. These thick walls insulated the lodge effectively in both summer and winter. The top center of the earthen lodge contained a hole to let out smoke from the fire pit and to let in sunlight. The earthen lodges were placed close together with all entrances facing towards the village plaza in the center. Each lodge housed about ten to fifteen members of the immediate and extended family. The Mandan tribe lived on farming and hunting. The village became a center of trading because the Mandan were known for their ability to make pottery and prepare animal skins. In 1781, a smallpox epidemic ravaged the Mandan tribe, killing off a majority of the villagers. The remaining tribe members moved north to join the Hidatsa tribe along the Knife River.

The natives found a use for every part of the buffalo. The buffalo shoulder blades were used as hoe's in their gardens.

These Mandan Huts were built by the CCC as a replica of the villages that previously occupied this area.  The Mandan women built these in 5 days, which is a serious accomplishment.

On a Slant Village depicts what life may had been like for the Natives who lived in this area.

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is a North Dakota state park located 7 miles south of Mandan, North Dakota.

In June 1872, at the same location where the Mandan tribe had established their village, a military post named Fort McKeen was built by two companies of the 6th U.S. Infantry under Lt. Col. Daniel Huston, Jr. (1824-1884) opposite Bismarck, Dakota Territory.

The three-company infantry post's name was changed to Fort Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1872, and expanded to the south to include a cavalry post accommodating six companies. Among the 78 permanent wooden structures at Fort Lincoln, there was a post office, telegraph office, barracks for nine companies, seven officer's quarters, six cavalry stables, a guardhouse, granary, quartermaster storehouse, bakery, hospital, laundress quarters, and log scouts' quarters. Water was supplied to the fort by being hauled from Missouri River in wagons, while wood was supplied by contract.  By 1873, the 7th Cavalry moved into the fort to ensure the expansion of the Northern Pacific Railway. The first post commander of the expanded fort was Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, who held the position until his death in 1876.

In 1876, the Army departed from here as part of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, resulting in Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn, where they were to push the non-treaty Indians back to their particular reservations. Custer along with about half of his troops did not return to Fort Lincoln. The Fort was abandoned in 1891 after the completion of the railroad to Montana in 1883. A year after the fort was abandoned; local residents disassembled the fort for its nails and wood. In 1895, a new Fort Lincoln was built across the river near Bismarck. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the deed to the original fort's land over to the state as Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park.

These barracks at Abraham Lincoln State Park housed the enlisted men.

We visited Custer's home in Abraham Lincoln State Park.  This home was not the original one that Custer lived in but a replica built using the plans he used for designing his home.  

Lisa was standing in front of the Lewis and Clark artwork with Sacajawea.  These symbols are used all along the Lewis and Clark trail, just not to this size.

A model of the Keel Boat that Lewis and Clark used to get to Fort Mandan, which is now known as Bismarck.

The thunderbird is a legendary creature in particular North American indigenous peoples' history and culture. It is considered a supernatural being of power and strength.

It is especially important and frequently depicted in the art, songs, and oral histories of many Pacific Northwest Coast cultures, but is also found in various forms among some peoples of the American Southwest, East Coast of the United States, Great Lakes, and Great Plains. In modern times, it has achieved notoriety as a purported cryptid (an animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated), similar to creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Lisa and Karma are standing with the Thunderbird statue.

A replica of a sternwheeler on the Missouri River in Bismarck is on display.

We had never thought of Stern wheelers being used in the North Dakota territory as a means of transportation.  We had seen and read of their use on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers but never considered them being used on the Missouri River.

Lisa and Karma are standing in front of an example of a stern wheel.

Lisa and Karma standing with a Buffalo on the State Capital grounds

Lisa and Karma were standing with the memorial to Sakakawea.

The North Dakota Capital building is a very differently designed  capital building than the ones we have commonly seen in other states.

Lisa and Karma were standing with the pioneer family erected as a  tribute to the pioneers that settled in the Northwest.

A statue as a tribute to the Pioneers of the Future and where North Dakota will lead.

This was one of the more interesting Veteran Memorials we have visited.  The use of the Sun exemplifying North Dakota on Veterans Day,  was very Similar to the use of the sun shining on a specific spot through a hole in the wall that we saw in a Mayan Village in Tulum, Mexico. For the Mayans, it highlighted the Winter Solstice.

This is a tribute we have never seen in our travels.  Tribute to those lost and those that have served are common.  A special tribute to those who were wounded is very uncommon.

The French Gratitude Train, commonly referred to as the Merci Train, was one of 49 World War I era "forty and eight" boxcars gifted to the United States by France in response to the 1947 U.S. Friendship Train. It arrived in Weehawken, New Jersey on February 3, 1949.

The idea to send a "thank you" gift to the United States for the $40 million in food and other supplies sent to France and Italy in 1947 came from a French railroad worker, and World War II veteran, named Andre Picard. Donations for the Merci Train came from over six million citizens of France and Italy in the form of dolls, statues, clothes, ornamental objects, furniture, and even a Legion of Honor medal purported to have belonged to Napoleon were included as some of the donated gifts sent to the US.

The boxcars were "forty-and-eights" used during both world wars. The term refers to the cars' carrying capacity, said to be 40 men or eight horses. These boxcars were built starting in the 1870's as regular freight boxcars, they were originally used in military service by the French army in both World Wars, and then later used by the German occupation in World War II and finally by the Allied liberators.

In 1949, France sent 49 of those boxcars to the United States (one for each state and the Territory of Hawaii) laden with various treasures, as a show of gratitude for the liberation of France. This train was called the Merci Train, and was sent in response to trains full (over 700 boxcars) of supplies known as the Friendship Train sent by the American people to France in 1947. Each of the Merci Train boxcars carried five tons of gifts, all of which were donated by private citizens.

The Train and all 49 cars arrived aboard the Magellan on February 3, 1949, with over 25,000 onlookers in attendance. On the side of the gift-laden French freighter was painted, "MERCI AMERICA". Immediately the trains were distributed amongst the states.

 Neither of us were familiar with or had even heard of the Merci trains before. We stumbled onto these by chance while we were in Bismarck.  There are 43 boxcars still remaining that have not  yet been destroyed.  This was our first to see.  We have a new goal to visit the remaining 42.