North of Devils Lake US 2 passes SWEETWATER LAKE, 105 m., once a large body of fresh water that attracted pioneers. Today, like that of Devils Lake, its shore line has greatly receded.
CHURCHS FERRY, 123 m. (1,460 alt., 295 pop.), developed from a ferry established by Irvine Church across Mauvaise Coulee (Fr., bad streambed) in 1886, so named by French explorers because it was difficult to cross, the channel once drained a large territory into Devils Lake to the S. Although it has been dry for several years, in the 1870's and 1880's, until Church began his ferry, all goods for the area NW. and W. of Devils Lake had to be boated across or hauled around the southern shore of the lake.
At 124 m. is the junction with US 281, a graveled highway (see Tour 2), which unites with US 2 from this point to 131 m.
LEEDS, 135 m. (1,514 alt., 725 pop.), with a predominantly Scandinavian population, was established in 1884. It has paved streets and a park (swimming pool). Because many stockholders in the G. N. Ry. were Englishmen, several of the towns along the railroad, including Leeds, were given names of English towns. One of the first newspapers in this region, the Leeds News, founded in 1903, boosting the new community in the customary manner, lauded it with this characteristic humor: "A man died and entered heaven. On his first walk about his new abode he noticed several men fettered in ball and chain. His inquiry of a passer-by brought the reply, 'They came from Leeds, N. Dak., and if they weren't chained they'd go back.'"
Left from Leeds on a county dirt road to LAKE IBSEN, 2 m., named for Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet and dramatist. It is said that about 1858 a peace agreement between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians was made at this lake, a treaty well observed by both tribes. Small islands in the lake were known to explorers of the region as Petites Isles Aux Mortes (Fr., small islands of the dead), owing to the fact that the Indians had buried many victims of a devastating smallpox epidemic here. They placed their dead on scaffolds, the wooden frames of which were visible from the lake shores.
YORK, 142.5 m. (1,612 alt., 250 pop.), is another town with an English name and a predominantly Scandinavian population.
KNOX, 150 m. (1,605 alt., 177 pop.), is named for John Knox, the Scottish religious reformer.
PLEASANT LAKE (good camping, tourist accommodations, spring water), 155 m., is a small tree-fringed body of water which was called Broken Bones Lake by the Indians who camped on its shores to dry their buffalo meats. They broke the buffalo bones to remove the marrow, which they sewed into sacks of skin and preserved for winter use. Evidences of an Indian burial ground are found on a hill to the N. These burials are not in mounds, and the only excavations are those made accidentally by farmers plowing the land.
At 156 m. is the railway station of PLEASANT LAKE (1,603 alt., 33 pop.), where tribal dances were performed on the town site by a group of Indians as recently as 1883. Some of the settlers feared that the ritual was a war dance, but the Indians did no harm.