1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (77 page)

No celebration is complete without food, and powwows are no different: Elk burgers, Indian tacos, and fry bread always make an appearance. Vendors representing dozens of cultures from across the country offer their arts and crafts for sale, and don’t miss the crowning of Miss Indian Nations.

W
HERE
: United Tribes Technical College, 3315 University Dr. Tel 701–255-3285;
www.unitedtribespowwow.com
.
W
HEN
: early Sept.

Pax, Pace, Salaam, Shalom, Shanti

Dunseith, North Dakota

It all started in the mind of Canadian horticulturist Henry J. Moore, who, in 1928 envisioned a grand garden straddling the U.S.-Canadian border, dedicated to the two nations’ long and peaceful coexistence.

Moore’s plan was approved, and the site he chose was dedicated three years later, on July 14, 1932. There, amid low, undulating hills bounded by the American prairie and Canada’s Manitoba Forest Preserve, the Peace Garden has grown steadily over the decades. Many of its roads, bridges, and shelters were built in the 1930s by the New Deal–era Civilian Conservation Corps, and its formal garden, reflecting pools, rock walls, and flagstone terraces were completed in the 1950s—the gap in construction caused, ironically enough, by WWII.

Today the Peace Garden boasts 2,339 acres of gardens, forest, manicured landscapes, fountains, walking paths, and several monuments and memorials. The central Peace Tower consists of four linked 120-foot pillars symbolizing the coming together of people from the four corners of the world. The Floral Clock works; its arms revolve around a 14-foot hillside planted with 2,000 to 3,000 flowers in a new design each year. At the Peace Chapel, there’s a memorial list of all who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, while nearby several girders salvaged from the wreckage at the World Trade Center form a stark memorial cairn.

Stroll down the International Peace Garden’s terraced walkway amid a colorful blanket of 150,000 flowers.

W
HERE
: 200 miles northeast of Bismarck; Rural Rte. 1. Tel 701–263-4390 in the U.S.,
204-534-2510 in Canada;
www.peacegarden.com
.
W
HEN
: daily year-round, but interpretive center and some other facilities only open June–Sept.
B
EST TIMES
: mid-July–Aug, when summer programming features music, art, and dance performances.

All You Can Eat—at 20 Below Zero

Fargo, North Dakota

Ayearly institution since 1958, the Fargo Kiwanis Pancake Karnival is a triple treat. It’s your best opportunity to meet thousands of Fargoans, enjoy a super-hearty breakfast, and contribute to local youth groups
, organizations, and community projects all at the same time.

It takes place the second Saturday in February in the Civic Center auditorium. On the menu every year: all-you-can-eat buttermilk and/or buckwheat pancakes, sausages, coffee, milk, orange juice, and all the usual accompaniments. Crowds begin lining up early: With an average attendance of more than 10,000 and only about 800 seats, the wait can stretch to 45 minutes.

Inside, the operation is run with a friendly but military precision, with 250 volunteers doing duty as infantry (ticket sellers, batter mixers, pancake flippers, sausage pit workers, juice servers, coffee makers, and table servers) or top brass (pancake grill sergeant, shift colonel, and line supply major). Out on the floor, politicians, news anchors, athletes, and other public figures act as floor captains, adding a touch of local celebrity. In an average year, 60 indefatigable flippers make more than 30,000 pancakes.

Pancakes are serious business in Fargo, but this “pancake grill sergeant” is having a good time.

You’re probably not going to go to Fargo in February
just
to eat pancakes, so take a tour of downtown while you’re there. After breakfast, head to the Plains Art Museum, the region’s largest fine arts center. Housed in a former International Harvester warehouse built in 1904, it houses a 2,600-piece permanent collection—a mix of regional, Native American, and folk art. End your day with a movie at the amazing art deco Fargo Theatre built in 1926. Weekends September through May, there’s live intermission music played on its classic Wurlitzer pipe organ, which rises majestically from the orchestra pit via hydraulic lift.

W
HERE
: Fargo Civic Center, 207 4th St. N;
www.fargokiwanis.org
.
When:
2nd Sat in Feb.
P
LAINS
A
RT
M
USEUM
: Tel 701–232-3821;
www.plainsart.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
F
ARGO
T
HEATRE
: Tel 701–239-8385;
www.fargotheatre.org
.

A Sea of Grass

North Dakota

The great prairie grasslands once covered North America like a whispering blanket a million square miles wide, home to bison, elk, and dozens of Native American tribes. So it was for thousands of years, but in 1862 the
Homestead Act granted heads of households the right to claim tracts of government-owned land as their own, provided they settled it, cultivated it, and stayed for at least five years. Almost 6 million settlers headed west, intent on transforming the prairie into farmland. What they didn’t know was that the grass, sometimes growing as high as 8 feet, was what protected the fertile topsoil from the prairie winds. Once the dry winds began to blow, they took the soil with them, leading to the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. By then, the great buffalo herds that had sustained Plains Indians were gone, victims of a planned campaign of extermination. The sea of grass, which had seemed limitless and eternal to Indians and explorers alike, was almost completely gone.

Fortunately, beginning in 1933, the federal government began buying and restoring damaged prairie lands, and in 1960 Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson established a system of national grasslands. There are now almost 4 million acres of intermingled public and private lands in 20 states. The largest and most ecologically diverse—the million-acre Little Missouri National Grassland—is located in western North Dakota.

The Little Missouri Grassland surrounds the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (see next page), encompassing rolling mixed-grass prairie, stark canyons and buttes, and stands of forest. Antelope, deer, coyotes, bighorn sheep, and buffalo make their home here, along with myriad birds and grazing cattle. Visitors come to hike, camp, and explore the Medora Ranger District, which includes the national park’s South Unit. More adventurous souls hike, ride horseback, or mountain-bike along the 96-mile Maah Daah Hey Trail, which connects the South Unit with the North and is the longest continuous single-track mountain bike ride in the country, and one of the best. In the Mandan Indian language
maah daah hey
means “a venerable place,” entirely appropriate to the Badlands and the prairie landscape. The route winds from Sully Creek State Park (south of Medora) to the edge of the national park’s North Unit, at elevations of 2,000 to 2,700 feet.

Little Missouri National Grasslands’ scenic bike routes offer spectacular views of North Dakota country.

W
HERE
: from Watford City in the north almost to the South Dakota border.
Forest Service:
Medora Ranger District (south), tel 701–225-5151; McKenzie Ranger District (north), tel 701–842-2393;
www.fs.fed.us/r1/dakotaprairie
.
M
AAH
D
AAH
H
EY
T
RAIL
:
www.nps.gov/thro/tr_mdh.htm
.
H
OW
: Dakota Cyclery in Medora (tel 888–321-1218 or 701–623-4888;
www.dakotacyclery.com
) offers drop-off/pick-up shuttles at the trailheads and will transport your gear to spots along the trail.
Cost:
shuttle from $125.
When:
mid-Mar–mid-Nov. The ride takes about 5 days.
B
EST TIMES
: May and June can be wet, but they’re also the most beautiful, with cool temperatures and spring flowers. Sept offers cool nights, lovely fall colors, and daytime temperatures in the high 60s to mid 70s.

The Badlands That Inspired a President

North Dakota

Teddy Roosevelt first arrived in North Dakota at age 24, with the simple aim of seeing the prairie and shooting a bison. He did both, but the latter might well be the last destructive act the future president perpetrated in
the North Dakota Badlands, a place he grew to love and respect, and which he credited with fostering his belief in conservation. (For information on South Dakota’s Badlands National Park see p. 652.)

Formed by millions of years of sedimentation, volcanic activity, and erosion, and with weather that can range from 100-degree summer heat to heavy blizzards even in late spring and early fall, the landscape is not what most people think of as “pretty.” The Sioux called this area
mako shika,
or the “bad lands,” a name that stuck in English as well. In the 1860s, U.S. General Alfred Sully described it as “hell with the fires burned out,” and Roosevelt himself noted its “desolate, grim beauty,” with some areas “so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth.” In 1947, Congress set aside a national park in Roosevelt’s honor, incorporating his own ranchlands, in order to offer all Americans a glimpse of what so inspired America’s first environmentalist president: rugged, surreal beauty, abundant wildlife, and opportunities to live the outdoor life.

The 70,000-acre park is divided into three widely separated sections, all located within the bounds of the Little Missouri National Grassland (see previous page). The South Unit, near Medora, is the “baddest” of the bunch with the famous Painted Canyon. The canyon is wide and shallow, with wind-and water-sculpted formations that glow in a kaleidoscope of colors.

A 36-mile scenic drive circumnavigates the South Unit’s central section, with many astounding views and opportunities to see wildlife—bison, prairie dogs, mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, wild horses, and coyotes. Hikers can explore about 60 miles of trails, including the 10-mile Petrified Forest Trail.