North Dakota

We were on our way to a grocery store for some breakfast when someone observed that we were driving east in southwestern North Dakota. By the end of the day we would be in Fargo, and our schedule called for two major stops along the way.

Fort Mandan was the first winter camp of the Lewis and Clark expedition and it was here that they added Sacagawea to the team. The actual location of the fort is unknown today, but a reconstruction has been built in the area. We were given a guided tour of the site.

Fort Mandan reconstruction

Cabin of Lewis and Clark in Fort Mandan

Interior of Fort Mandan

From here we opted to skip the Interstate and travel the more direct route via rural highways to our next stop. I should have known that it’s never wise to pass by a gas station in rural North Dakota. The Lord answered our prayers and though the first gas station we stopped at was out of gas (!), we were directed to an unmanned pump in the next town over. We arrived on fumes.

Our next stop of the day was at a site of more recent historical import than we are accustomed to. The Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Site preserves an underground control center for launching missiles at Russia. Many of these sites are still operational, but some have been decommissioned because of the START treaty of 1991. This one was opened to tourists three years ago.

Underground control center for launching long-range nuclear weapons against bad guys

We spent the night in Fargo, a city which I’ve always pictured as cold, rural, and white. (I did not see the movie, but the movie posters may have influenced me.) In fact, it looks like a very ordinary, suburban US city, with every kind of store and restaurant you could want. One difference, however: North Dakota has the most strict “blue law” in the country. We discovered that when Kelli took an early Sunday morning grocery trip to Walmart and found it closed.