2020 North Dakota - part 23: automobiles change everything - Travel With Us

Once the automobile came to North Dakota, life changed forever. This post finishes off our time at the museum that covers the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. At the end of this post, we’ll see actual pictures of the rivers. But for now, let’s look at the changes that came about with the automobile, growth of businesses that happened in NW North Dakota, and how electricity finally made it here.

This 1904 Cadillac, Model A runabout, had its first home in North Dakota. But it lacked enough power to climb the local hills so the owner sold it and bought a *locomobile* (what’s that?). This Cadillac had a 1-cylinder engine that made 8.25 horsepower, about half the power of our modern riding lawnmower.

So what’s a locomobile? It’s a cross between a locomotive and automobile. The Locomobile Company of America was a pioneering American automobile manufacturer founded in 1899 in Watertown, Massachusetts. The company was known for its dedication to precision before the era of assembly-lines and was one of the earliest car manufacturers in the advent of the automobile age. After moving production to Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1900, it made cars until 1929 when it closed down (along with many other companies).

The company manufactured affordable, small steam cars until 1903, when production switched entirely to internal combustion-powered luxury automobiles. The steam Locomobiles were unreliable, finicky to operate, prone to kerosene fires, had small water tanks that were able to get only 20 miles per tank, and took time to raise steam. Initially, they were offered with a single body style only, an inexpensive runabout at $600 (equivalent to $18,439 in 2019). Nevertheless, they were a curiosity and middle-class Americans clamored for the latest technology. Salesmen, doctors, and people needing quick mobility found them useful. More than 4,000 were built between 1899 and 1902.

But back to the Cadillac. It sold new for $750 ($20,557 today). When North Dakota began issuing license plates in 1911, the most common cars registered were manufactured by Cadillac, followed by Ford.

improvement in transportation

With more people moving into the area and new means of transportation being introduced, roads and bridges had to keep up.

On a smooth, well-constructed highway, cars could travel at 24 miles an hour—or more! In the early 1920s, the county where we are was quickly funding its road construction.

State funds were appropriated to build bridges across the Missouri River at Bismarck and Williston. The League of American Wheelmen (bicyclists) had been sponsoring a “Good Roads” promotion since the 1890s.

Why bridges at these 2 cities first? Bismarck has been the capitol since it became a state in 1889 and was admitted into the Union. Williston was important because it was close to the center of trade because of being close to the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.

Once the grading was completed on the first North Dakota highways, the first public transportation companies—the bus lines—were created to help people move around.

On March 2, 1922, a Williston auto dealership announced the inauguration of a “first-class daily motor stage” starting on April 1 between Willison and Grenora, with stops at villages along the way. The distance was 45 miles one-way, and today it takes just over 1 hour to make the trip.

McKrill’s livery provided a shuttle service from Williston to Mondak. The taxi is a 1905 Brush. The spare tire is on the front of the car, and the dirt road looks pretty rough.

draw of alcohol

So why was a shuttle needed to go to Mondak since it is now only a ghost town? While most Western boomtowns depended on mining, Mondak was put on the map in 1903 as the border town between “dry” North Dakota and “wet” Montana. It had 12 saloons on its main street, and many more businesses that supported them. One saloon actually had rooms on both sides of the states’ border. Once patrons legally purchased booze on the Montana side, they could sit and drink anywhere, even on the North Dakota side.

In the early 1920s, Prohibition stopped the partying at Mondak, and all of the saloons closed. The final blow came in August 1927 when a prairie fire, reportedly started by a train carrying John Philip Sousa’s band to a performance in Glendive, burned down what was left of downtown.

Now the area around the Montana/North Dakota area is known as MonDak.

ferries and bridges

As we began a new century, more people wanted to settle in this area than the steamboats could handle with their seasonal limitations. The river routes meandering all around were too slow anyway.

ferries

From 1900 to the mid-1920s, ferryboats were extremely active on both the Missouri and the lower Yellowstone Rivers.

Private ferrymen finally were able to operate after the Fort Buford Military Reservation was dissolved in 1900. The operators had to obtain a “franchise,” or license from each county where they landed.

The cable ferry at the Sioux Crossing started operating in 1902 at a spot 6 miles east of Buford. The cables ran from tall masts constructed on both sides of the banks and allowed the un-powered ferry to cross using pressure from the current. However, the cables were in constant danger of being snagged by passing riverboats.

The Missouri River Bridge Company was formed to build this pontoon at Williston featuring 22 wooden pontoons.

Completed in August 1916, it was ready to carry people to the Williams County Fair. The fee to cross ranged from $.50 per “rig” ($12 today) to $.10 ($2.40 today) for each pedestrian. This bridge didn’t survive more than a couple of seasons, probably because of the harsh winters.

Floating bridges were a popular means of providing a semi-permanent river crossing as the frontier moved west. Between ND and Montana at Mondak and Wolf Point, pontoon bridges were installed in 1915.

Not a new concept, floating bridges date back to Medieval Europe and are often associated with military action. Dozens were used during our Civil War.

About 1922, Charles Woodruff, a homesteader, built a gas-powered ferry boat named the *Fort Buford* and began carrying passengers, vehicles, and livestock across the Yellowstone just east of Sidney, MT, that’s on the border with ND.

He also transported lignite coal from a mine he owned on the east side of the river, making as many as 25 trips a day to sell coal to Sidney-area residents. No wonder he wanted his own ferry boat.

bridges

Because of the advent of automobiles, people wanted ribbons of steel straight across the open prairie, crisscrossing the hills with highways and roads. Rivers were now just something that had to be crossed with ferries or spanned with bridges.

The 4-span, 318-foot long Lewis and Clark Bridge was west of Williston and was dedicated on July 1, 1927. Its construction cost was nearly $600,000 (almost 9 million today).

North Dakota’s 1st bridge for cars across the Missouri connected Bismarck with Mandan that was just across the river. Completed in early August 1922 as part of the Red Trail, it later became known as U.S. Highway 10.

Success of this first bridge meant legislative approval for other “wagon bridges” across the Missouri River at Williston (the bridge in the picture) and Sanish in 1925. The bridges were completed 2 years later.

In addition to speeding up highway traffic, they helped open up McKenzie County that was known as the “Island Empire” because it is surrounded by water on three sides. The Missouri River forms the northern and part of the eastern border, the Little Missouri also runs along part of the eastern and southern borders, and the Yellowstone River forms the western border. Between 2010 and 2018, according to Census Bureau estimates, McKenzie was the fastest growing county in the United States, growing at a rate of 114.3%.

In 1925, the Great Northern Railway opened 2 of its bridges for vehicle traffic by planking the decks of a bridge crossing the Missouri River (known as the Snowden bridge) and another bridge crossing the Yellowstone River (known as the Fairview bridge). Originally the railway charged a toll for crossing but eliminated it in 1937 when the state agreed to an annual maintenance payment. Regular highway bridges were eventually built at both locations.

This photo, probably taken in the early 1920s, shows the Snowden lift bridge that crosses the Missouri River that allowed a steamboat pass underneath. The lift span was again used in 1935 to allow large boats to pass underneath on their way to help construct the Fort Peck Dam. The 1-lane bridge was used for car traffic until 1985.

In 1956, this bridge was completed that allowed ND highway 23 to cross the Yellowstone and return the Fairview railroad bridge to its original status.

The bridge was replaced in 1998, and the Snowden bridge was finally closed to auto traffic in 1985 when a new vehicle bridge was opened downstream.

water, wood, and clay

First let’s look at how water was harnessed and provided to farmers and ranchers in the Williston area.

In January 1906, the newly created U.S. Reclamation Service authorized the Williston Irrigation Project to water 26,000 acres near 3 towns in the area.

Although the project was ready to deliver water in just 2 years, the project didn’t work because the law required each user to pay off sizable chunks of construction costs, as well as water fees. The program closed in 1925. I wonder why they ever thought these farmers could pay such large fees all at one time?

So how was it supposed to work?

A state-of-the-art system for delivering water depended on a large electric power-generating plant to be built, fueled by lignite coal, to pump water into a large settling basin and from there to the irrigation ditches.

When Williston’s locally owned electrical plant failed in 1911, the U.S. Reclamation Service agreed to sell power to the city at bargain-basement prices. When the project was sold in 1925, the Montana-Dakota Power Company took over the power plant, but the city continued to own and operate the distribution system until 1929.

The original irrigation powerhouse was just 2 miles north of Williston and started operating in 1908. A lighting strike in May 1929 started a fire that serious damaged the structure. While it was repaired, it only operated on a standby status until it was demolished in 1942.

The barges had to be moved annually for storage over the winter since the Reclamation Service didn’t have its own towboat.

wood

Cottonwood trees were once abundant along the riverbanks and were a source of wood on the northern Plains. Because seeds from these trees are dependent on annual flooding cycles to sprout, building dams to control flooding has severely impacted the trees’ regrowth.

Today the river that is east of Williston is called the Little Muddy River. I tried to find out why the name changed or if we’re really talking about 2 rivers, but I couldn’t find an easy explanation. Anyway, we crossed the Little Muddy River numerous times while we were driving in the countryside around Williston.

clay

John and George Bruegger were early residents of Williston who helped the city grow. They established businesses in lumber, livestock, and grain, as well as built the brickyard. Their brother Zeno opened branch businesses in nearby Montana.

This photo from 1896 shows 2 updraft “beehive” type kilns under construction at the Bruegger Mercantile Company’s brickyard in Willison. The business operated until 1913.

rail lines around Williston

In 1887, the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway (that would become the Great Northern) established “freight division points” every 100 miles along the track to house crews and service equipment. Towns like Williston often grew up around these maintenance centers. However, many of these railroad towns have disappeared.

This photo is of the Great Northern maintenance facilities at Williston around 1912.

From left to right are the rail yards, an early ice house, the brick roundhouse, a brick warehouse (in front), and a brick machine shop and powerhouse with a smokestack. These well built facilities replaced the original frame depot and a 10-stall roundhouse.

This photo is of a cattle being shipped to market around 1898 on the Great Northern Railway. The lantern in front of the smokestack is similar to a steamboat lantern, showing how changes in transportation depended on what had been used before.

oil in the Williston basin

The search of oil in ND started back in the early 1900s. While those wells weren’t successful, interest continued to focus on the Williston Basin, a geological region across parts of the Dakotas, Montana, and several Canadian provinces.

In 1951, after the technological advances of WWII made deep drilling possible, ND’s first commercial oil well came in on a farm near Tioga at a depth of about 2 miles. We saw that location in *part 20*. More strikes in the following years helped improve the economic growth in the region.

The Williston Basin is a large, bowl-shaped depression that encompasses an area of more than 300,000 square miles. Since around 500 million years ago, it has mostly been subsiding so that more than 16,000 feet of sedimentary rocks from different time periods have accumulated at its center that is near Williston. Many of these rocks contain oil and gas reserves that fracking released.

The present landscape of the Missouri-Yellowstone confluence area came from the action of water, glacial ice, and erosion. Rivers flowing from the west 60 million years ago deposited clay, silt, and sand in the river channels and floodplains of the rivers.

Huge swamps also existed in this area where mats of vegetation built up; after millions of years, the vegetation was transformed into lignite coal. These 60-million-year-old rocks are now exposed in the bluffs along the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers and in the badlands next to the rivers because of thousands of years of erosion by rivers, streams, rain, and wind. Erosion continues today by these processes.

During the last great Ice Age, from about 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago, glaciers advanced several times over the Confluence area from Canada. These glaciers altered river courses and molded the landscape, creating the gently rolling hills topography outside the river valleys.

This variety of crude oil comes from different rock formations in ND.

harnessing the resources

Over the past 100+ years, resources from this area have fed and fueled today’s society. Now we come full-circle to tap the oil deposits deep underground by prehistoric rainforests. With irrigation the land can produce the bounty of fields enriched by glacial till. The rivers are not only transportation corridors, but also prized for their beauty and hydropower.

One of the nation’s first major efforts to conserve our environment came in the make-work program during the Great Depression. Between 1933 and 1941, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted trees and shelterbelts to prevent erosion, built roads, stocked fish, and developed parks.

Local project include a city park in Williston, dam maintenance and road work in nearby Montana, and the development of the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park that we’ll be visiting next. We’ve seen work done by the CCC during the 1930s in numerous posts since these young men worked all over the U.S.

another look at the 2 rivers

Just a few hundred feet from where we’re standing, the meandering Yellowstone River empties its mountain-sweet water into the Missouri. Together they form a mighty river that crosses the heart of the continent on its way to the Mississippi and then to the Gulf Coast.

This aerial view of the Confluence in 2002 shows the many trails that the rivers have cut on the prairie. Flowing from the top of the photograph, the Yellowstone empties into the Missouri and continues its flow east.

Early in the 1800s, the area was clear-cut to provide wood for the insatiable steamboat engines. Now the trees have returned, and what we’ll see at the end of this post is similar to what Lewis and Clark described in 1805.

Interesting. According to Meriwether Lewis, more timber was where where the 2 rivers came together than on any other part of the Missouri between here and where the Cheyenne River meets it in South Dakota.

Large fish like this Paddlefish species are only found in the Confluence area. Another species of paddlefish lives only in China.

This distinctive fish is easily identified by the paddle-shaped snout that makes up about 1/3 of the fish’s length. This snout functions as a food-finder and is covered with thousands of tiny electro-receptors so that it can detect the very small electrical field of a water flea.

light in the darkness

By 1939, most homes in urban areas across the Northern Plains (9 out of 10) had electricity, but only 1 out of 10 farmers had the same power to feed their families and make a living. Something had to change, and the rural North Dakotans had to make it happen for themselves.

They formed electric cooperatives to harness the strength of individuals. Their shovels cut through the soil, and neighbors hoisted red cedar poles. When the first current surged through the prairie, life on the farm changed forever.

The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) formed on May 11, 1935, to power the countryside. But the REA needed at least 3 customers per mile. In sparsely populated ND, farmers had to work together to receive long-denied power.

Grassroots organizers drove from farm to farm, pitching their vision across a fence post of a co-op that would be a different way of doing business. The last person in line had a voice as strong as the one in front, Rather than being profit-oriented, members of the cooperative worked for their community and for their land. The promise of electricity was finally within reach of all.

Before electricity came to the farms, work could only be done by muscle and sweat during daylight. A 1919 study by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture found that it took 10 hours each week just to haul water to the farm.

Since the farms were the last ones to receive electricity, they lagged far behind the cities and towns. But as the poles were put in place and the lines were strung, the gap between the urban and rural families began to close. “For many, electricity was a dream come true; a moment to remember for the rest of their lives.”

The same folks who put faith in making a living off of a family farm built the first rural electric network in the Northern Plains. They had to set thousands of poles and miles of wire to make this happen. In just 10 years after the Rural Electrification Administration began, North Dakotans formed 21 electric cooperatives across the state.

At first, electric cooperatives had to buy power from investor-owned utilities, or IOUs, that controlled the cost of transmitting energy to substations near cities and towns. The result was that the newly formed electric distribution cooperatives didn’t have a voice in the future of their power supply.

As the need for more power grew in the rural areas, members formed Generation and Transmission Cooperatives (G&Ts) so that member-owners began planning for a power supply system where they controlled the grid—and the price of their power.

Here’s what 1 kilowatt hour meant for a farming family.

What an interesting museum that covered so many topics and so many years.

the rivers

Outside of the museum were the 2 rivers that we’ve been talking about so much: The Yellowstone and the Missouri. The cottonwood trees were so numerous and so tall that we had to look for places where we could take pictures of the rivers.

The Yellowstone is coming around the left and right sides of this piece of land in the middle to join the Missouri.

A better look of the Yellowstone meeting the Missouri and traveling east.

After walking around the museum for a couple of hours and then seeing the rivers, I finally agreed with Barney that continuing on with our trip probably wasn’t a good idea because of the broken bones in my ankle. I realized I wouldn’t be able to see as much as I’d like to and Barney probably wouldn’t go exploring by himself. So we began planning our trip home, choosing some interesting places to see along the way.

2020 North Dakota – part 23: automobiles change everything

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