When Barney was planning our trip, he realized that we’d be spending the 4th of July in the Bismark/Mandan cities that are separated by the Missouri River. Since the expedition spent a long winter here, we realized that we’d be spending more time here than at other places. In this post we’ll show you where we stayed at a KOA campground and then how the cities celebrated the 250th birthday of our country.
As we were driving to North Dakota, we kept seeing these fields.
Online we found: “The term “canola” is actually an acronym that stands for “Canadian oil, low acid.” It was coined in the late 1970s to differentiate the newly developed rapeseed variety from traditional high-acid rapeseed oil. Canola oil has the lowest saturated fat content of any commonly used cooking oil. It contains both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, making it a heart-healthy choice when used in moderation.”
This KOA campground has an area that can be used during the cold winters. For the winter water pipes, they’re underground 8′ so they won’t freeze. We met a young man from Georgia who travels all over for his job and spent last winter in this part of the campground and did just fine.
another museum
One day it was really raining in Bismark, so we went to North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum and saw the following information that we thought you might find interesting. Some of this information we learned on our North Dakota trip in 2020.
Events in Europe influenced North Dakota’s development, and Europeans were part of a great cultural shift. In many countries, farming was running out, cities were overcrowded, and wars, along with religious persecution and political unrest, made life uncertain. Immigrants hoped for a better future here.
The earliest European homesteaders in Dakota Territory came primarily from the eastern United States who had come to America from England, Scotland, and Ireland. Later European immigrants—Germans, Scandinavians, and German Russians—tended to settle among their own ethnicity so didn’t have to learn to speak English. They created tight-knit communities like those they left behind and blended new and old traditions that remain today,
In 1915, about 80% of North Dakota’s population were immigrants or descendants of immigrants. You can still see their influence across the state from popular local foods to architecture and cultural events.
homesteading
The promise of homesteading brought more than 100,000 settlers into northern Dakota between 1879 and 1886. (Remember Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family?) The Homestead Act offered people 160 acres of free land, but with a catch. To own the land, homesteaders had to improve it, build a house, and live there for 5 years. Immigrants first had to become U.S. citizens. Satisfying the many requirements was called “proving up.”
Breaking the sod [that had been trampled on by bison for years] and planting crops was difficult. Families lived together in cramped dwellings, often not much bigger than a bedroom today. Many who filed claims failed to prove up and left North Dakota.
railroads
Immigrants, adventures, and others seeking new lives traveled west by train. Starting in 1872, different rail lines brought newcomers starting in the eastern part of Dakota Territory.
Railroads used their extra lands to start farms and towns, sell acres to businesses and local companies, and help people build homes. New communities meant more train travel, and these railroad companies created a boom economy.
The Northern Pacific Railway started the nation’s first massive bonanza wheat farms in eastern Dakota Territory to showcase the region and attract farmers to areas near railroad lands. They also partnered with marketing agencies in Europe to attract new people.
During the 1880s, the Great Northern Railway also pushed through the region. It built an extensive network of branch lines in rural counties, allowing farmers and merchants to access services. Soon the state’s landscape was defined by railroad water towers and depots, coaling facilities, and grain elevators. [This is what much of the state still looks like.]
bullboats
We’ve already heard about bullboats from our Lewis & Clark posts, but here’s some more information. They were made by stretching bison hides over a framework of pliable wood, such as willow or ash. The Mandans, Hidatas, and Arikaras [tribes in this area] used bullboats to transport goods and people along waterways. Bullboats were usually paddled by one person kneeling in the front of the boat.
As we traveled over the bridge between Bismark and Mandan, the Missouri River was finally low enough that we got to see our first sandbar like what the men had to work around as they worked at getting upstream.
4th of July weekend rodeo
Have you ever gone to a rodeo? We’d only see them in movies, so we were excited to go to this one. Mandan’s first rodeo was in 1879, ten years before North Dakota became a state! Now it’s in its 147th consecutive year. (But when I looked online, Prescott, Arizona, wants to claim the fame of the oldest rodeo in 1888.)
We got an informative booklet as we walked in to the stadium that I’ll be quoting from for this post.
“Unlike any other sport, rodeo traces its roots to real ranch work—skills honed not in stadiums but on the open range. The first rodeo known to award price money was held on July 4, 1883, in Pecos, Texas. The prize? A ribbon and $40—worth about $1308 today.”
When we were sitting in the stands, we got to talk with an older couple (younger than we are) who has family in the area. One of their grandchildren was going to be participating in the mutton-busting competition. We really enjoyed talking with Cay and her husband.
“Think 8 seconds isn’t long? In that blink, a bareback rider can absorb as many jolts as an NFL player takes in a whole game. And no, spurs aren’t sharp. PRCA [Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association] rules ban sharpened spurs outright; they’re dull tools used for grip and balance, not pain. Riders strap into protective vests of ballistic, foam, and leather, a design born out of tragedy after bull rider Lane Frost was killed in 1989.”
“Rodeo bulls are no ordinary livestock. American bucking bulls are bred and born to buck, and they work less than you’d think—the average bucking bull or horse sends under five minutes a year in the arena. Their hide runs about seven millimeters thick, several times thicker than human skin, and the best of them stay active into their teens.”
“The PRCA enforces more than 60 rules covering livestock care and requires a veterinarian on-site at every competition, and the numbers back it up: a survey across 148 rodeos logged an injury rate of just four -hundredths of one percent.”
“That fast, furious barrel-racing pattern you love? Those aren’t just circles—it’s called a cloverleaf, and the barrels sit in a triangle. There’s nothing simple about nailing the perfect run.” And these horses showoff how well they can change direction like they have to do on the ranch.
More than what you ever wanted to learn from Wikipedia:
Mutton busting is an event held at rodeos similar to bull riding or bronc riding, in which children ride or race sheep. In the event, a sheep is held still, either in a small chute or by an adult handler while a child is placed on top in a riding position. Once the child is seated atop the sheep, the sheep is released and usually starts to run in an attempt to get the child off. Often small prizes or ribbons are given out to the children who can stay on the longest. There are no set rules for mutton busting, no national organization, and most events are organized at the local level.
The majority of children participating in the event fall off in less than eight seconds. Age, height and weight restrictions on participants generally prevent injuries to the sheep, and implements such as spurs are banned from use. In most cases, children are required to wear helmets and parents are often asked to sign waivers to protect the rodeo from legal action in the event of injury.
Mutton busting was first introduced by Jack Daines at the Daines Ranch Pro Rodeo, near Innisfail, Alberta, Canada, in the early 1960s. He wanted an event that would keep the younger children from riding the rougher stock. He brought some of the family sheep to the bucking chutes.
The practice has been documented as having been introduced in the United States at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado, at least by the 1980s when an event was sponsored by Nancy Stockdale Cervi, a former rodeo queen. At that event, children ages five to seven who weighed less than 55 pounds could apply, and ultimately seven contestants were selected to each ride a sheep for six seconds. There are no statistics about the popularity of the sport, but anecdotal reports suggest thousands of children participate in such events every year in the U.S.
Supporters consider the event both entertaining and a way to introduce young children to the adult rodeo “rough stock” riding events of bull riding, saddle bronc, and bareback riding, and may liken its rough-and-tumble nature to the way youth sports such as football are played. Organizations such as the ASPCA discourage the practice on the grounds that it does not promote kindness to, or respect of, animals.
The practice was banned in New York City in 2012 and in Alameda County, California, in 2019.
the Misfit Cowboy (from the brochure)
Brian Patton—the Misfit Cowboy—brought his one-of-a-kind western act to this weekend’s rodeo. Equal parts daredevil, showman, and comedian, Brian has built one of the most original specialty acts in a professional rodeo—a western variety act of whips, ropes, gun spinning, and fire, with a four-legged co-star at the center of it all. The centerpiece is Django, a saddle-broke teick-trained American Red Brahman bull pulled out of the swamps of southwest Louisiana and into the bright lights.
Brian’s story started on a seven-acre farm in the Mississippi delta, where Patton grew up with six brothers surrounded by row crops. He still calls Epps, Louisiana home.
His act gives his father time to set up the next act.
4th of July fireworks
See the woman in the shadows to the right of my chair? She was a lovely lady who lives in Bismark, and we chatted before her family came to join her.
What a great weekend!
Now we get to go where the Lewis & Clark expedition stayed over the winter and where the Mandan Natives lived who helped them out and became their friends.
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