Not so quicksand
Quicksand found near Bottineau not considered true quicksandBy KIM FUNDINGSLAND, Staff Writer, kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com
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BOTTINEAU The mere mention of quicksand conjures up images of search parties finding nothing but a missing person's hat sitting atop a mushy bog. Merciless and undetected, quicksand is the stuff that has been sucking up unfortunate movie actors for decades.
Just east of Bottineau on the south side of N.D. Highway 5, a broad and level ditch is marked with ominous signs warning of the presence of quicksand. It appears that if a vehicle was to leave the roadway and careen into the marked area, its occupants would soon sink away and disappear from view. Such a scenario would fit the reputation of unforgiving quicksand.
But wait a minute. How did those signs get there in the first place and why haven't they sunk out of sight? That very question was asked of Ron Horner, Bismarck, materials and research engineer for the North Dakota Department of Transportation.
"I've never heard of that," responded Horner. "I didn't think we had any in the state. I have never heard of it being encountered in our work."
Routing a highway through an area of quicksand would certainly require the knowledge of a clever engineer to insure proper construction through such a soggy spot. And wouldn't there be extreme risk to state residents who might have the unfortunate experience of leaving the roadway and plunging into a bottomless pool of mush?
The whole quicksand thing doesn't really seem to add up. Yet there is the unmistakable presence of those signs and few people would be foolish enough to ignore them. Knowing quicksand's reputation, a discovery venture might just result in a fatal mistake and the sinking away of an unfortunate explorer. Still, there's no unsolved mysteries of missing people for which the quicksand is believed to have have been responsible.
"I've lived here all my life and that's 62 years," said Dale Simon, Bottineau County deputy sheriff. "I've never heard of anything out there or noticed anything sink out of sight there. I caught a guy walking through it several years ago and nothing happened to him. I've never known anybody to get lost there. I don't know who ever came up with the idea it is quicksand."
Well, it must be quicksand because the signs say so.
But then there's the matter of those occasional four-wheeler tracks going right past the warning signs. Sometimes there are large rocks in the ditch as if people tossed them there much like they would to test the thickness of ice on a pond. It is also common to see sticks stuck in the ground, presumably placed there by people probing for evidence of the quicksand that certainly must be present.
"Those signs have been there as long as anyone can remember. They've been there since I've gone to school in Bottineau and I really don't know why," said one Bottineau native who asked not be identified.
The oldest sign marked "quicksand" that anyone can remember at the location was a small white sign with letters too small to be read from the roadway. At some time, and even the Department of Transportation doesn't have the answer as to when or even who erected them, the yellow signs of today were presumably pounded into the ground.
Lyle Lunde, now retired and living in Bottineau, was the Bottineau County sheriff from 1955-1987. He remembers just a single incident in the area marked quicksand.
"We had a guy tip over in there years ago. He was up to his waist when I got there," recalled Lunde. "We used a rope and got him out and got the vehicle out with a wrecker. I think it was in the spring maybe 35 or 40 years ago."
According to Lunde, a small sign marking the area was there when he began patroling the area as a member of the Highway Patrol prior to his election to sheriff in 1955.
"There was never a fatal in the quicksand area, but it was a little more active at that time," said Lunde.
Charles Lura teaches biology and botany at nearby MSU-Bottineau. Lura thinks he knows why the signs were placed where they are, but disagrees with the identification of quicksand.
"It's not quicksand. That's a safe statement," stated Lura. "I think what you've got is a saline lowland with some lateral flow. That's not uncommon at the base of the Turtle Mountains. You'll see some of those alkaline spots where there's a big change of elevation in a short area."
According to Lura, water that perculates through the Turtle Mountains flows downhill until reaching the more level plain below where it sometimes travels laterally and often flows very near the suface. When the flow passes and the remaining water evaporates it leaves salts behind, which is the reason that the area is sometimes covered with a white crust.
The area is most likely to be soft during times of spring runoff. Heavy rainfall could activate the area at other times during the year, making it mushy much like a yard after a sprinkler had been accidentally left on for a few days. So, while the area along Highway 5 is not true quicksand, there are times when it can become extremely saturated just below the crusty surface.
"If you put a car in there at the right time of the year it would probably sit down on its frame," said Lura. "It could get pretty spongy and pretty mucky in there."
