SIDE TOUR 3A
Junction US 83—Garrison—Nishu—Elbowoods—Shell Creek—Van Hook—Stanley. ND 37 & 8, county and reservation roads.
Junction with US 83 to US 2, 117 m.
Dry-weather, dirt, reservation roads most of route. Gravel 28 m. W. of junction with US 83, and 28 m. between Van Hook and Stanley.
Limited accommodations on reservation.
ND 37, which runs through the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, branches W. from US 83 (see Tour 3) midway between Max and Coleharbor.
GARRISON, 7 m. (1,920 alt., 1,024 pop.), named for nearby Garrison Creek, was formerly the center of a large wheat area, and is now a primary turkey market. Lignite is mined in the surrounding country.
At 20 m. is the junction with ND 28 and a county graveled highway. Straight ahead on the county highway to a small store and filling station, where is the junction with an unimproved dirt road, 29 m.; L. to enter the FORT BERTHOLD INDIAN RESERVATION at 33 m. Established in 1870 with an area of more than 2,000,000 acres, it has now been reduced to 625,000. The region is principally rugged and broken—typical Badlands, best suited for grazing, although the eastern portion of the reservation contains some good farming land. The population figures for 1936 list 600 Arikara, 711 Hidatsa, and 337 Mandans (although few of the latter are of pure blood), remnants of the three agricultural Indian tribes that once occupied the Missouri River Valley.
At 38 m. is the junction with a dirt road, not suitable for trailers.
Left on this road to the junction with another dirt road, 3 m.; R. on this road to another junction at 4 m.; L. to another junction at 5 m.; R. to a fence gate, 5.8 m.; R. through the gate, pass a small farmhouse to the SITE OF FORT BERTHOLD, 6 m. Above the river bottoms, overlooking a bend in the Missouri's course, are the ruins of a trading post built in 1845 by Bartholomew Berthold, a Tyrolese. He had traded in the river country for many years, and his success at this new fort named for him made it one of the most important Missouri River posts. Harassed by the warlike Sioux, the Hidatsa Indians left their village at the mouth of the Knife River and came to live at Fort Berthold, where, because of the bend in the river, they named their new home Like-a-fish-hook Village. The Mandan Indians later joined the Hidatsa at this site. From the first the history of Fort Berthold is a tale of many assaults by wandering parties of Sioux. In 1864 a portion of the second Sully expedition was sent to protect the outpost, and the following year Fort Berthold became a military post. It was garrisoned until 1867, when Fort Stevenson, 12 m. E., replaced it. The rough-hewn log buildings which Berthold and his men erected were later replaced by frame buildings, the dismantled remains and cellars of which are all that mark the site today.