Junction with US 81 to Montana Line, 329 m.
Soo Ry. branch roughly parallels route from Flaxton to Montana Line; G. N. Ry. branches touch route at intervals between junction US 81 and Lignite, and branch parallels route between Lignite and Crosby.
Graveled roadbed entire route.
Usual tourist accommodations in principal towns.
This route, paralleling the international boundary 10 to 15 miles to the north, passes through some of the oldest and some of the newest towns in the State. In the eastern section, where the country is more productive and settlement first began, are towns established in the 1870's, while in the western area, where occupation was slower, are a number of towns founded in the twentieth century. The route begins in the low, level wheatlands of the Red River Valley, at one time the bed of glacial Lake Agassiz, and soon doubles its altitude by rising 800 feet upon the broad, rough, less thickly settled Drift Prairie, which stretches away approximately two-thirds of the distance across the State. This wide section, which includes the wooded Turtle Mountains and the level bottom of another glacial lake, Lake Souris, was once a hunters' paradise—a prize which involved the Chippewa Indians, who long held it, in frequent conflict with their enemies the Sioux. With the coming of the whites the region saw new rivals, as the XY, North West, and Hudson's Bay Companies struggled savagely and often bloodily for domination of the fur trade. Most of the Chippewa in the State now live on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, through which the route passes.
Over the bed of ancient Lake Souris, west of the hills, once roamed hordes of buffalo; later, during early white settlement, this region was the feeding ground of great numbers of horses and cattle. After crossing the Souris (Mouse) River twice and the long, narrow Upper Des Lacs Lake, the route ascends 300 to 400 feet to cross the Missouri Plateau, an open, rugged country, marked here and there with the homes of ranchers and farmers, and pitted by the strip mines extracting the huge lignite coal deposits that underlie the plateau.
HAMILTON, 0.0 m. (see Tour 1), is R. of ND 5 where it branches W. from US 81 (see Tour 1).
At 5 m. is the junction with ND 18, a graveled highway.
Right on this highway to the junction with a graveled spur, 5 m.; R. on this spur is BATHGATE, 8.5 m. (828 alt., 292 pop.), pleasantly situated in a bend of the Tongue River. At the southern side of town on a 40-acre tract of meadow and hayland are the buildings of the State School for the Blind, established in 1908. Thirty-five to forty children attend each year for a nine-month period.
CAVALIER, 9 m. (894 alt., 850 pop.), Pembina County seat, was named for Charles Cavileer, one of the first white men to make a home within the borders of the present State. Usage has changed the spelling of the name. The town was established in 1875 by settlers who came overland from Missouri in a train of 10 covered wagons. The members of the train intended settling in Manitoba, Canada; but, not liking the country there, they returned to the United States, two of the families founding the Tongue River Settlement, which later became Cavalier. They came from Canada by way of Pembina over the old Fort Totten Trail, which ran where Main St. now passes and was one of several trails used by trappers, hunters, and traders as they journeyed between the hunting grounds and the trading posts. Over these trails often moved long caravans of creaking, fur-laden Red River oxcarts, on their long trek to St. Paul. Some trains are said to have contained as many as 1,500 carts.