Branch of G. N. Ry. touches at Walhalla.
Graveled roadbed except for 0.5 m. outside Leroy.
Accommodations in Walhalla.
This route runs through the Pembina Mountains, a scenic region rich in historical associations. From Walhalla, one of the oldest towns in the State, the route turns east to the settlement of the metis, descendants of those French-Chippewa who conducted the famous Pembina hunts of the middle nineteenth century.
ND 32 branches N. from ND 5 at Oak Lawn Historic Site (see Tour 5), 0.0 m.
At 8 m. the graceful wooded PEMBINA MOUNTAINS are visible on the horizon. The nearest elevation, 250 or 350 ft. higher than the country to the E., is known as Second Pembina Mountain, and is a portion of the Pembina Escarpment, a high ridge extending from Canada through North Dakota into South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota. In the southern part of North Dakota it is known as the Coteau des Prairies. First Pembina Mountain, lying SE. of Second Mountain, is the prehistoric delta of the Pembina River, formed when that stream drained the melting ice sheet into Lake Agassiz (see Natural Setting and Tour 1). First Pembina Mountain has an average height of 150 ft., and its eastern edge shows the various shore lines of Lake Agassiz as it receded in post-glacial times.
To the first white explorers and trappers the Pembina Mountains were known as the Hair Hills, coveted hunting ground held by the Chippewa, whose ownership was often hotly contested by the Sioux. During the early nineteenth century white and half-breed hunters roamed the hills, gathering furs to be loaded on lumbering, squeaking oxcarts and sent to eastern trading posts.
It was in this vicinity that Charles Cavileer (see Tour 5), one of the most prominent settlers of the State, in the 1860's while making a trip with a party from Pembina to Devils Lake, saw a herd of buffalo like a black cloud on the horizon. The party immediately arranged their carts in a semicircle and prepared for an onslaught. The bison came on with a rumble like thunder, the rumble became a roar, and the earth trembled; but when they reached the carts the herd parted and swerved on either side, upsetting only the outside row of the improvised stockade. Not until the second day could the journey be resumed, and even then there were buffalo in sight for another day. The herd was believed to number two or three million, and in its wake was an area, several miles in width, entirely devoid of vegetation.
At 9 m. (L) are the SAND SLIDES, where steep sand and gravel slopes form a precipitous funnel-shaped valley down to the PEMBINA RIVER. This stream once drained prehistoric Lake Souris into Lake Agassiz, and its rushing waters cut into the Pembina Mountains, creating the present canyon 350 to 450 ft. deep.