North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State

by Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota

TRANSPORTATION

When in 1738 the intrepid French-Canadian, Pierre Verendrye, his three sons, and his nephew set out on foot to trudge weary miles across the prairies to the Mantannes on the Missouri River, they did not dream that some day man-made birds would flash their silver wings against the sky and glide smoothly to rest on the level plains. Less than 200 years were to pass before this miracle of transportation progress would become so commonplace that a native North Dakotan would think nothing of a trip from Montreal to Bismarck by plane, but would be astonished at the thought of anyone's walking that distance.

Verendrye, the first white man known to have touched North Dakota soil, and other explorers who followed in those early years, came on foot to visit the Indians. They found the Mandans, who lived beside the Missouri, in possession of unusual means of water transportation. The dugout canoe, made of a log, was found on all the rivers of North Dakota, but only in the Missouri Valley did the Indians use the bullboat, a circular craft of the coracle type which the Indians made by stretching a buffalo hide over a willow frame. Before the introduction of the horse, Indians used the dog train for hauling heavy loads overland, but when the Sioux migrated into this territory from the south and east they brought the horse with them. Of all tribes the Sioux were the most graceful and daring riders. The horse travois, a rather crude means of hauling baggage devised by the Indians, soon gave way to the white man's wagon as settlers began to pour in.

The covered wagon served to move the immigrant family to its new home, and furnished immediate living quarters. In the Red River country before 1820, the oxcart, made entirely of wood with cross sections of a round log for wheels, was introduced at Pembina. Long creaking trains of these carts drawn by oxen made their way slowly across the country carrying settlers and supplies.

Before the coming of modern means of transportation, the Missouri River formed the most important avenue of entry into what is now North Dakota. The ascent of the river by the steamboat Yellowstone to Fort Union in 1832 was an event of importance, because the Big Muddy had never before been navigated through this territory.

The Indians who witnessed the coming of this first boat found great significance in it also. According to George Catlin, the artist, who was aboard the steamer, some of them shot their dogs and horses in a sacrifice to appease the Great Spirit, whom they thought to be offended; some ran frightened to their homes; and some among the Mandans cautiously approached the ship, "the big medicine canoe with eyes", which in some mysterious way could see its own way to take the deep water in the middle of the channel.

The frequently changing channel and swift current of the river proved a severe test for the hardy and resourceful pilots who followed in the wake of the Yellowstone. As the Sioux City (Iowa) Register stated in 1868, "Of all the variable things in creation the most uncertain are the action of a jury, the state of a woman's mind, and the condition of the Missouri River."

The humorist George Fitch, as quoted in Edna LaMoore Waldo's Dakota, describes the stream in these words:

"There is only one river with a personality, a sense of humor, and a woman's caprice; a river that goes traveling sidewise, that interferes in politics, rearranges geography and dabbles in real estate; a river that plays hide-and-seek with you today, and tomorrow follows you around like a pet dog with a dynamite cracker tied to his tail. That river is the Missouri."

A pilot familiar with the river, and able to foresee its vagaries, often received—and was easily worth—$1,000 a month, fabulous as that salary may now seem.

The Red River was also a highway of traffic in the heyday of the steamboat. Supplies were carried down it to Grand Forks, Pembina, and Winnipeg (then Fort Garry). The steamboat could be employed only during the summer months, however, when the river was open. During the winters in the 1870's, messages, supplies, and mail were carried by pack horse and dog sled. Regular mail routes were established between Fort Abercrombie and Fort Totten, and from St. Paul to Winnipeg, by way of Pembina.

As news of the vast untouched, wealth of the new Territory drifted back to eastern capitalists, they turned their eyes westward. Soon survey parties mapped the projected courses of railroads. By 1871 the Northern Pacific Railway had been completed as far as Moorhead, Minn. The next year it crossed the river, and in 1873 reached Bismarck, halting at the Missouri. It was no easy task to span this treacherous river; and, with the interruption of the panic of 1873, not until 1879 was there any further westward extension. Construction work to the Montana border was finished in 1881, two years before the Northern Pacific became a transcontinental line. So great was the influence of the railroad in bringing new settlers to Dakota that in the period from 1870 to 1875 the population of the western half of the Red River Valley doubled.

General Custer's expedition returned from the Black Hills in 1874 with glowing tales of gold. There was a rush for the Hills, and Bismarck, the nearest railroad terminus, became temporary headquarters for parties leaving by stage for the gold fields. The route that Custer had taken to the Hills from Bismarck was long known as the Territorial Highway.

Although James J. Hill was one of the first to sponsor steamboat traffic on the Red River, it was not until 1880 that he began building the Great Northern Railway down the Red River Valley to Grand Forks, and thence westward to Minot in 1887. Other lines of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern, main and branch lines of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie, and branches of other roads soon entered the State. In order to build permanent business for their lines, they brought in new settlers, gave special rates on household and farm equipment, and in every way encouraged settlement. It was because of the railroads that bonanza farming, an important phase of North Dakota history, was introduced. The State is now served by seven railroads, with more than 5,000 miles of trackage. The Dakota Division of the Great Northern, with its 1,800 miles of main-line track, is the largest railroad division in the world.

With the railroads came the telegraph lines, the first of which was established between Winnipeg and Abercrombie, with offices at Fargo and Grand Forks, in 1871. Soon all of the young Territory was in communication with the outside world.

The colorful era of the steamboat had ended with the coming of the cheaper and speedier transportation by rail, but methods of local transportation remained unaltered. The horse still furnished the power, although fashions in wagons and buggies might change.

It was left for the twentieth century to usher in the age of speed. In the first decade, the wheezing steam automobile chugged with difficulty over sticky gumbo roads in the Red River Valley, and over scoria trails in the west. Automobiles were rare, and possession of one marked the owner as an aristocrat or a public nuisance, according to the point of view of the observer.

When the internal combustion motor vehicle was improved, road building began in earnest. Bus companies, established to fill a need for north and south transportation facilities not provided by the railroads, opened a campaign for better roads. They were joined by an ever increasing number of car owners, and as a result road conditions have been steadily improved since the early 1920's.

The first bus line in the State was begun in 1922, between Bismarck and Minot. Although the next two years saw the introduction of many bus and truck lines, these were not regulated by State law until placed under jurisdiction of the board of railway commissioners by legislative act in 1925. Immediately, operating permits were required from all companies, one of the first being granted to the Northland Transportation Company, forerunner of the Northland Greyhound Line. Today a network of bus and truck lines covers the State.

The airplane proved admirably suited to this part of the country. The clear dry atmosphere afforded ideal flying conditions, and almost every part of the State was suitable for landing fields, even without improvement. Municipalities became interested in the new mode of transportation, hangars were built, and runways laid out. Now all of the larger cities and towns have airports, and almost every small town has its landing field. Private planes are found at the airports, and here and there ships are seen on farms, where mechanically minded lads pilot them in leisure hours for their own pleasure. All planes and pilots must be licensed under a State law of 1929, as well as conform to the regulations of the Department of Commerce.

Cheering crowds at Fargo, Grand Forks, and Pembina greeted the pilots of the first air mail between the Twin Cities and Winnipeg in 1928. Hundreds of letters and cards were carried on this flight for collectors who desired copies of the special commemorative cancellation stamp. North Dakotans' air mail letters now reach Washington, D. C. or Los Angeles 12 hours after mailing. Daily service on the original line is still maintained, and two other regular lines have been extended into the State, one between Chicago and Seattle which stops at Fargo and Bismarck, the other from Bismarck to Tulsa, Okla.

Transportation has advanced with amazing rapidity since the Territory of Dakota was organized in 1861. Nevertheless, a severe winter such as that of 1935-36 is capable of halting communication almost completely. But even then, with automobile traffic at a standstill because of blocked roads, trains delayed because of mountainous snowdrifts, and planes grounded because snow and ice made landing too hazardous, the radio still kept the State in constant touch with the outside world.