Chief Looking’s Village

By MARIA WITHAM

July 11 — Long ago there stood a village in the midst of the prairie. It was high on the hillside overlooking the great Missouri River Valley. From this place one could see for miles across the landscape. A landscape without pavement, car exhaust, or road signs — only marked by the rise and fall of the sun and the night stars. This place was home to the Mandan people, whose earth lodge village was part of the rhythm of the land. This was Chief Looking’s Village.

Flash forward about 350 years. The Northern Pacific Railroad is building a new line headed toward the western shores of North America, cutting across the Midwest. In 1872 its terminus is Bismarck, a city whose foundations share the very same bluffs as the Mandan’s village.

The new name for the young city of Bismarck came from thousands of miles away at the 1873 Vienna World Exposition. The Northern Pacific Railroad created a grand map for the Exposition boasting the reach of its rail lines. This map showed a great city called Bismarck, “very near the heart of the universe.” The renowned German leader Otto von Bismarck’s name was chosen by the industrious company to attract German investors and encourage settlement on the prairies.

Soon many homesteaders would be making their way to the Missouri River Valley. Hopes of a new life and a piece of rich soil brought immigrants from around the world to the Missouri River Valley.

One of these settlers was O. J. Simmons, whose homestead was located about two miles north of Bismarck. In July of 1873 upon examining his new homestead Simmons found some remnants of previous inhabitants. On the high bluffs there appeared to be traces of a well-fortified ditch, an embankment, and distinct “camping grounds.” Simmons also found pieces of pottery, bones, flint chips, and arrowheads. Simmons was impressed by the beauty and craftsmanship of the pottery, which was “hard as flint” and “fine,” probably made from the fine silt that abounds in the Missouri River bottoms.

The village that was once a part of the Simmon’s homestead is now preserved within Pioneer Park of Bismarck. It was excavated in 1934 by Bruce Wallace, and named “Ward Village” after William Oscar Ward, who donated his land to the city to create a public park. The village was studied again in 1997, but much of its history is still unknown. In May of 2003, the archeological site was renamed from Ward Village to “Chief Looking’s Village” in honor of the name it once held to the Mandan people.

Today one can still visit the site and learn about its deep history. Although the landscape and its name have changed slightly over the years, the view is still spectacular.

Battle of Fort Stevens

By CHRISTINA SUNWALL

July 12 — On this day in 1864, Gen. Jubal A. Early and 20,000 Confederate troops attacked Fort Stevens, just outside Washington, D.C. President Abraham Lincoln and the First Lady traveled to the fort to watch the battle.

On hand to witness the event was future North Dakota resident and politician Smith Stimmel. Serving as one of Lincoln’s personal bodyguards, he had been ordered that morning to accompany the president. “On arriving at the Fort,” Stimmel wrote, “the President left his carriage and took his position behind the earthworks.”

It was a short fight, ending by sundown with the Confederates in retreat, but not before sharpshooters had wounded an officer and a doctor standing next to Lincoln. The Battle of Fort Stevens, witnessed by Smith Stimmel, not only saved Washington, D.C., but also marked the only battle in which a sitting U.S. president came under direct enemy fire.

Battle of the Grand Coteau

By LANE SUNWALL

July 13 — On this day in 1851 a small Metis hunting party engaged Dakota warriors at the battle of the Grand Coteau, southeast of present-day Minot.

The Metis, largely the descendants of Ojibwa and Cree mothers and European fathers, were on a hunting expedition when they stumbled upon a large encampment of Dakota American Indians. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the Dakota were the Metis’ bitter rivals, and competed for the same land and food resources. At the Grand Coteau both groups engaged in fierce fighting. However, the Metis were able to successfully fortify their positions and suffered only one fatality, while the Dakota lost some 80 men, and nearly as many horses.

Although both groups lost their later attempts at independence from the Canadian and American governments, the Battle of the Grand Coteau ended major hostilities between the two peoples.

Heartbroke Hermit

By JAYME JOB

July 14 — A tragic “prank of fate” was reported from Mandan on this day in 1916. Christian Maier came to Morton County after his life took a horrible turn back in his mother country of Russia.

Maier had returned to Russia after fighting in the Russo-Japanese war. He found, to his horror, that his best friend had fallen in love with his wife and told her that her husband had been killed on the battlefield. The two were married, and when Maier returned to find his wife in the arms of his friend, he fled to the other side of the world.

Heartbroken, the poor man settled a homestead claim near New Leipzig, but became known as somewhat of a hermit in the area. Finally, neighbors went to check on him one day and found the man half-starved, talking to invisible persons. Maier did not even seem to notice the neighbors’ presence, and it was decided to send him to the state hospital for the insane at Jamestown for help.

Hudson Townsite

By LANE SUNWALL

July 15 — A few miles southwest of Oakes stands a lonely stone monument. Absent a few piles of stones, faint depressions in the ground and the prairie grasses, little surrounds the marker memorializing the first town site of Dickey County — Hudson.

Through the expansion of the railroads into Dakota Territory, a great influx of settlers migrated into the region, sparking the Great Dakota Boom of the 1870s and 1880s. Although short-lived, the boom years saw not only increased settlement, but the establishment of a great number of new towns. Laid out like pearls on a necklace of rail line, new communities rapidly materialized along the new tracks. Early speculators hoped to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the new railroads by establishing new towns to serve as rural hubs — shipping in manufactured products from out-of-state, and shipping out agricultural produce from the countryside. Hudson, in Dickey County, was such a town, and quickly sprang from the Dakota soil in 1883.

As plans went forth for the creation of the Dakota Midland Railroad to link the towns of Ellendale and Wahpeton by rail, a new town just west of the James River was planned. Lots were quickly divided up, streets with names like “Broadway,” “Grand” and “State” were laid out, and a large central square was opened as a public park, or perhaps later a splendid city hall. Before a single rail tie had reached the community, Hudson had already begun construction. Soon after its establishment, business was thriving in Hudson. The town enjoyed the services of two hotels, three stores, three real estate and loan offices, a printing office, livery stable, pump shop, blacksmith shop, post office and a town newspaper, the Hudson Herald.

Although Hudson was off to a promising start, the town built by railroad speculators folded just as quickly as it had begun. The Dakota Midland Railroad, which would have meant success for the small community, never materialized. Instead three other railroads pushed through the region, and all bypassed the small settlement, instead passing through the town of Oakes, just a few miles away on the east bank of the James River.

Hudson’s loss was Oakes’ gain. Realizing that their town was doomed without the financial benefits brought by the railroad, the people of Hudson closed up shop. As soon as the James River froze in the winter of 1886-87, the settlers loaded their buildings onto skids and moved virtually the entire town of Hudson to Oakes. In 1936 the North Dakota State Historical Society acquired the Hudson townsite and 20 years later on July 15, 1956, dedicated a stone marker to commemorate the town that, like many others in North Dakota, collapsed as fortune refused to turn its way.

“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from Humanities North Dakota.