Two Lanes, Top Down, Green Dots: Day 8: Williston to Fargo

DAY 8

Miles 463 (2604)
Two Lanes 223 (2113)
Top down 463 (2479)

Today we drove through rolling green Dakota farmland. It really was beautiful. We stopped at Theodore Roosevelt National Park where Teddy used to hunt. There were saw bison and pronghorn antelope. We then headed for central North Dakota.

In 1804 Lew and Clark had traveled 1800 miles up the Missouri River from St. Louis. It was the end of October and they decided to winter along the Missouri near current Washburn, ND. They found a suitable spot just above and east of the river, and explored the surrounding area. Twenty miles upstream they visited a village of natives known as the Hidatsa. They were welcomed and there met a French fur trapper named Charbonneau. He had explored the upper Missouri, so they hired him as a guide for the their travels the following spring.

In April, 1805 they set out. Along with Charbonneau came his sixteen year old wife and her newborn son. The spelling of name has been argued about, but no one argues that this young wife turned out to be a godsend for the explorers (the Corps of Discovery). Sakakawea (Bird Woman) is the official spelling of the Hidatsa tribe and of the state of North Dakota. She is also known as Sacajewea. Her infant son was Jean Baptiste Charnonneau. She carried him to the over 1500 miles on trip with Lewis and Clark.

Sakakawea was not Hidatsa, but was a Shoshone who was captured as a girl from western Montana near Great Falls. As Lewis and Clark and their guide Cahrbonneau went upriver in 1805, it was Sakakawea who recognized key landmarks. But her true value was yet to come. The Corps of Discovery knew they would need horses to get over the Rockies. The Shoshone had horses. The Corps did not. They would need to trade.

In a scene Hollywood could not outdo, as Lewis and Clark, along with Charbonneau and Sakakawea were meeting with the Shoshone chief, Sakakawea recognized that the chief was her brother. They reunited. Lewis and Clark had brought her home to her family. (Footnote: she chose to return with her baby and her husband to the Hidatsa, which had become her home.)

Needless to say, the horse trading went well. Historians agree that without Sakakawea, the Corps would likely not have been successful. Or as the North Dakotans says, "We are home to history's greatest female tour guide!"

Linda and I stood at Knife River Indian Villages at the confluence of the Knife River and the Missouri, where Lewis and Clark met Sakakawea 206 years earlier. It was awe inspiring. I had not had this feeling since we stood in the throne room of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain in 1978, the room where Ferdinand and Isabella sent Columbus across the seas.

We then drove about 25 miles downstream and visited the reconstructed fort on the site where Lewis and Clark wintered in 1804-05.

We were standing in the footsteps of one of the greatest American adventures.

We then drove south to Bismarck, the capital. Population 56,000. The State Museum was outstanding, tracing the prehistory and history of the state. And then we gave in...... and drove 200 miles on I-94 east to Fargo. The hotel we stayed in had over 100 movies to rent. "Fargo" was not on the list.

The Edge of the Badlands in western North Dakota