MORNING AT FORT BENTON'S AGRICULTURE MUSEUM

FORT PECK DAM AND LAKE ONWARD TO FORT UNION TRADING POST INTO

 NORTH DAKOTA 

August 5-6, 2015

JR and I stumbled upon an interesting story the morning before departing Fort Benton in an obscure little museum in Fort Benton by happen stance. At the Agriculture Museum the executive director welcomed us inside early as our watches were an hour off too early in the time zone.. He allowed for an early entry and gave us a private VIP behind the scenes tour as a startup.  Leading us into a large conference room with several enormous wall paintings featuring Montana’s important eras of the native Indians, the buffalo, the steamboats, the homesteaders, and the railroad, he proceeded to enlighten us with a historical narrative perspective about each painting.

In the Hornaday Buffalo Gallery stands a prize small group of six buffalo on exhibit. Dressed like a plain farmer, the museum director proudly explained how the buffalo collection for seventy years was once on display at the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian. Apparently a custodian complained about how hard always dusting the buffalo taxidermy had become. So the collection was dismantled, separated and lost for nearly fifty years. A search went out for the whereabouts of each buffalo from the original collection. As each one became rediscovered, it was fitting that the buffalo be returned home to its native homeland in Montana. Standing together reunited permanently on display in the Ag Museum was the perfect answer.

We were cut loose to self tour the rest of the building and Homestead Village on our own.  Full of farm equipment starting from early civilization tools to homestead tools, household appliances to assorted tractors, seeders, thrashers, combines, etc. the Fort Benton Ag Museum is a repository preserving the past worth exploring,

And of course, how can one ever forget such a beautiful Fort Benton sky like this at sunrise right outside their doorstep starting off a day

Heading east on Hwy 2 along the Missouri River the RTT crossed 180 miles of grassland prairie plains and several Indian reservations in Montana. The land is expansive reminding us of prior travels across the Province of Saskatchawan, Canada several years ago. Fort Peck along the Missouri with its huge Dam Project and Lake built during the Great Depression in 1933-1938 expanded waters for thousands of acres to the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge in the area. The Corps of Engineers built Downstream Campground which provides travelers a great place for a respite and showers.  As the odometer was registering 1800 miles JR became ready for some down time from behind the wheel.

One who knows JR can only imagine traveling the Missouri River as a steamboat captain might have been his true preference. At least driving Montana’s northern scenic byways and back roads has been relatively smooth at least until we cross the state border into North Dakota, a place where dinosaurs in the past roamed in North America.

Reaching  Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, once a trade compound but never a military post on the Missouri River, a knowledgeable history buff shared an overview about the reconstruction of the remote trading post and some perspectives about North Dakota.  The politics of oil fields, boomtowns, Indian reservations are an ongoing topic of discussion in general. Folks in North Dakota say there are just two seasons “winter,winter, still winter, and road construction”.  

Some real excitement down the road occurred which became JR’s albatross and driving nightmare for 30+ miles. 

Passing oil fields and through miles of off pavement, single narrow lane, dirt road construction detour zones with a motor home triple tow is the North Dakota mother of all mother adventures. From the ravaged countryside of boomtown Watford City, ND to New Town road construction detours sent the GPS off the map. The surroundings were hellacious at best, as desolate as if the RTT had landed on the moon.

In hindsight it all seems almost laughable, jarring and bumping along over endless miles of North Dakota dirt road construction praying the hinges of ones motor home interior cabinet hinges don’t bust loose.  Do BEWARE and STAY OFF Hwy 23 E at all cost. Road construction is almost as bad there at the moment as winter is in Fargo, North Dakota. Traveling through construction detours it was New Town or Bust with no turning back

Oil fields line the prairie plains of North Dakota

Bugs on the windshields and passing trucks kicking up rocks are part of North Dakota travel

We survived the ordeal as road warriors and definitely plan to check ahead for alternate routes. The maze of unsightly oil fields and mass zones of yucky road construction detours we’d say are the real badlands in this nifty state