MELVILLE, 142 m. (1,597 alt., 50 pop.), was originally laid out as New Port, but because of a disagreement over the price of the site the railway company moved the town one-half mile W. and called it Melville.
At EDMUNDS, 149 m. (1,594 alt., 100 pop.), is the junction with a graveled county road.
Left on this road to ARROWOOD LAKE, 6 m., the largest of the chain of three lakes through which the James River flows. Before white settlement the Indians came here from great distances to obtain Juneberry shoots for their arrow shafts. On the southeastern shore is a CCC Camp, and on the western shore the buildings of the Arrowood Migratory Refuge. This reserve is highly valued by the Biological Survey as a summer breeding ground, and is an important feeding place for pelicans.
PINGREE, 155 m. (1,547 alt., 266 pop.), was named for Hazen Senter Pingree, who, with a rack and wagon and a team of oxen, came to Dakota Territory in 1880 to start a potato plantation. His venture was a failure, so he went to Michigan, where he became an important shoe manufacturer, was made mayor of Detroit, and twice served as Governor of the State (1897-1900).
BUCHANAN, 163 m. (1,546 alt., 150 pop.), was named for its founder, James A. Buchanan, a prominent early settler.
South of Buchanan the route continues over rolling terrain toward the valley of the James River, a steep-sided, flat-bottomed trough, approximately a mile wide.
JAMESTOWN, 176 m. (1,405 alt., 8,187 pop.) (see Tour 8).
Points of Interest: Jamestown College, State Hospital for the Insane, Fort Seward State Park.
At 5th Ave. and 3rd St. is the junction with US 10 (see Tour 8).
The area L. of the route here was once the scene of one of those devastating prairie fires that terrorized and impoverished the early farmers of the Plains States. This blaze, which began Sept. 25, 1888, swept the entire region from near Jamestown to LaMoure.