ND 21 branches E. from US 85 (see Tour 4), 23.5 m. S. of Belfield (see Tour 8). Dominating the landscape immediately E. of the junction are the two high, flat-topped, coffin-shaped RAINY BUTTES (R). At 6 m. the highway passes 2 m. N. of West Rainy Butte, and at 8 m. passes East Rainy Butte, which appears to be only a short distance from the route, but actually is 6 m. S. The tops of these twin heights are sometimes clouded in a faint gray mist, and according to Indian lore they get rain at least once a day, despite the weather. Although this is an exaggeration, it is nearly true, for at times when warm currents of air strike the cold surface of the sides of the buttes the moisture in the air is condensed, resulting in fogs or mists that usually veil the heights. This phenomenon is also common to other buttes in this area. There are evidences of Indian burials on the Rainy Buttes.
NEW ENGLAND, 14 m. (2,593 alt., 911 pop.), its seven grain elevators standing like sentinels overlooking its level site N. of the Cannonball River, was founded in 1887. It was named and first settled by the New England Colony Association, an organization from the New England States headed by Thomas W. Bicknell (1834-1925), who was the author of several histories dealing with Rhode Island. Streets of the new town were laid out by plowing furrows in the prairie. Before the end of the first summer 50 families had arrived, but from 1888 to 1911, when the Milwaukee R. R. came in, New England was little more than a trading post. Although originally founded by New Englanders, today it is predominantly Scandinavian.
ND 22 forms the main street, at the southern end of which, in St. Mary's Catholic schoolyard, is a Shrine to the Virgin Mary, made of huge slabs of petrified woods, scoria, odd rock formations from the Badlands, and "cannonballs" (see Side Tour 8C) from the river. The shrine was built by school children. Midway between the two schools on Main St. is a modern, stuccoed Memorial Building, a community center completed under the Works Progress Administration in 1936.
Between New England and 23 m. ND 21 unites with ND 22.
At 18 m. is the junction with a graveled county road.
Left on this road along the north bank of the Cannonball River is HAVELOCK, 6 m. (2,566 alt., 118 pop.), named for an English stockholder in the Milwaukee R.R. In 1915 a small group of Moravians settled here and erected a church, but by 1924 the colony had dwindled, and the church was sold to the Congregationalists. The Moravians held their immersion baptismal ceremonies in the Cannonball. Right from Havelock (inquire directions at post office), 1 m., to a BURNING COAL MINE, operated until 1934, when it was discovered to be afire. At times smoke, accompanied by an unpleasant odor of sulphur, is emitted from the mine.
At 23 m. is the eastern junction of ND 21 and ND 22; L. here on ND 21. Rising ahead (R) is a series of conical hills, the TEPEE BUTTES, resembling a giant Indian encampment. The highway parallels them their entire length between 25 m. and 28 m.
At 36 m. is the junction with a graveled county road.
Left on this road is REGENT, 0.8 m. (2,461 alt., 308 pop.), named by the railroad company when it was believed that its situation in the center of the county would make it the county seat. The town is on the south bank of the Cannonball. Richard Tooker (1902-), one of the State's successful fiction writers, attended high school in Regent, and had his first story published when only 15. He wrote more than 150 stories before his first novel, Day of the Brown Horde, appeared.