Left on this graveled highway to the junction with a dirt road, 1.5 m.; R. here to the EATON DAM, 3.3 m., which irrigates 6,800 acres of meadowland. This water adds to the productivity of the heavy native grasses from which many hundreds of tons of hay are cut each year. At the close of the haying season the river bottoms are dotted with hundreds of small, mound-like haystacks resembling huge grain shocks in a field of giant wheat. In the time between haying and fall the grasses attain a second growth, and cover the meadowlands around the stacks with a luxurious green carpet that contrasts with the dingy brown of the autumnal stubblefields through which the Souris courses.
At 196.5 m. (L) are the DENBIGH REFORESTATION PROJECT HEADQUARTERS. The feasibility of growing trees in poor, sandy soil and semiarid climate is being tested on a 640-acre tract by the Northern Plains branch of the Lake States Forest Experimental Station. The results secured will serve as a guide for work in similar areas of other States.
GRANVILLE, 207 m. (1,513 alt., 450 pop.), named for Granville M. Dodge, G. N. Ry. civil engineer, is in a level agricultural area W. of the sand hills bordering the Mouse River. A condition common in homesteading days drew this worried comment from the Granville Record in 1904: "It is a great wonder this country has advanced and is developing as rapidly as it is with so many old bachelors who do not improve their places and so many old maids holding down claims. It ought to cause a blush of shame to mount the face of every bald-headed old bachelor in the vicinity."
At 216 m. is NORWICH (1,529 alt., 100 pop.), named by the G. N. Ry. town site company for an English town.
West of SURREY, 222.5 m. (1,627 alt., 125 pop.), the route begins the gradual descent to a second crossing of the Mouse River. In the distance to the W. and S. of the river, the hills rise to the Missouri Plateau.
MINOT, 230.5 m. (1,557 alt., 16,099 pop.) (see Minot).
Points of Interest: Minot State Teachers College, Roosevelt Park and Zoo.
At Valley St. and 4th Ave. SE. is the junction with US 52 (see Tour 7), which unites with US 2 at 236.5 m. At 4th Ave. and 2nd St. SW. is the junction with US 83 (see Tour 3).
Just W. of Minot is the (L) HIGH STEEL TRESTLE (120 ft.) of the G. N. Ry., spanning Gassman Coulee. Early one morning in the 1880's a high wind blew down the wooden bridge which then stood here, and only the quick work of an engineer prevented an entire train from plunging into the deep coulee.
At 236.5 m. is the junction with US 52 (see Tour 7). A large tourist camp is L. The highway here makes an abrupt ascent to the level Missouri Plateau.