North of Regent at 1.3 m. is the junction with a county road; R. on this road to REGENT LAKE, 2.8 m. (camping, picnicking, swimming).
East of Regent on ND 21 the route proceeds for a few miles over a level plain lying S. of the almost treeless Cannonball River valley.
MOTT, 51 m. (2,399 alt., 1,036 pop.), is in the valley of the Cannonball. On an elevation to the NW. the strikingly modern Hettinger County Courthouse overlooks the river valley. The town is the terminal of an N. P. Ry. branch, and is also on the Milwaukee. Central Park (tourist camp, tennis courts), is between 3rd and 4th Sts. Its recreation facilities were built as an FERA project.
BURT, 58 m. (2,358 alt., 125 pop.), originally known as Alton Post Office, was named by the N. P. Ry. to honor A. M. Burt, superintendent of the Dakota division. More than 500 poplars and Chinese elms are planted in the town schoolyard.
At 63 m. the highway crosses THIRTY MILE CREEK, one of the larger tributaries of the north fork of the Cannonball.
At 68 m. is the junction with a side road.
Left on this 0.1 m. to a LIGNITE STRIP MINE, the largest of several in this vicinity. It produces 8,000 tons annually, and rough hummocks of earth are thrown up in the stripping process.
NEW LEIPZIG, 69 m. (2,311 alt., 433 pop.), is a Russo-German community, named for Leipzig in Germany, and is on both the Milwaukee and N. P. branch lines where the two roads run parallel only 200 ft. apart.
Several years before the establishment of New Leipzig the territory to the S. was settled by a large group of Finns, of whom about a dozen families now remain. Because the settlement has dwindled in recent years, many native customs have disappeared, although a few of the older people retain a superstitious belief in witchcraft, and there are five or six saunas, or steam baths, in which water is poured on hot stones in a tightly closed shelter. At butchering time each autumn, rye and wheat flour are hulled, ground oats are mixed with the blood of beeves, and baked in round, thin rings similar to doughnuts. These rings are placed on long sticks, 30 or 40 at a time, thoroughly hardened near a fire, then stored in barrels, with lime as a preservative, for use throughout the winter and coming summer.