West of Dunseith for 50 m. the route has not a single curve or jog.
At 138 m. is the junction with a partly improved dirt road.
Right on this attractive road to BUTTE ST. PAUL PARK, 3 m., plainly marked by Butte St. Paul (2,500 alt.), highest point on the southern edge of the Turtle Mountains. A steep climb up the eastern slope leads to the 15-foot stone cairn commemorating the work of the Rev. G. A. Belcourt, missionary to the Indians, who on his first visit in 1853 placed a wooden cross where the cairn now stands. From the top of the butte a beautiful scene stretches away to the tree-covered plateau on the N. and E. and to the prairies on the S. and W.
BOTTINEAU, 148.5 m. (1,645 alt., 1,332 pop.), was named for Pierre Bottineau (c. 1812-1895), most noted of Dakota guides (see History). It lies beside tree-bordered Oak Creek on a gently rolling plain. Most of its settlers were of Scottish descent, but the western end of the mountains was long nicknamed Little Norway, and until recent years Norwegian was heard there more often than English. From 1883-84 a stagecoach line connected the town with the nearest railroad point, Devils Lake (see Tour 6), 120 m. to the SE., whence settlers hauled supplies with oxen.
Originally Bottineau was situated a mile farther N. When the G. N. Ry. survey was made, it became evident that the permanent site would be farther S. Business houses were soon moved, but the Bottineau County Courthouse could not be legally moved without recourse to legislation. Accordingly, one morning the building was found reposing in the new settlement. As no one was supposed to know how the transfer had been effected, no one could be prosecuted, and the expense of returning the building to its former site provided a convenient and practical argument against that action.
A catastrophe long remembered by the early residents of Bottineau was a huge prairie fire in 1886 that swept 500 sq. m. of territory NW. of town, destroying hay and buildings.
The Indians of the region were not hostile to the white settlers, but there were Indian scares now and then, and the white men were inclined to be cautious. An old French settler living near Bottineau tells the story of being lost with two companions. They asked some Indians for directions, and were invited to a meal, which they accepted to avoid giving offense. They were almost enjoying the meal, when an old squaw, who had been stirring the stew which they had been eating, urged hospitably, "Dig down deep; pup in bottom."
The State School of Forestry, in the northeastern part of Bottineau on Oak Creek, offers a two-year junior college course in forestry. In the botanical garden or arboretum are about 30 varieties of foreign trees, obtained on a reciprocal basis from other countries, to be tried out in this climate. Plantings established under direction of the school are found on farms in every county in the State. The annual output of the nursery at the present time (1938) is about 500,000 seedlings.
At Bottineau is the junction with a graveled highway called the Lake Road, which leads NE. into the hills to Lake Metigoshe, one of the State's best-known summer resorts.