1. Right from Ray on a graveled county road to the WILLIAM SIMPSON FARM HOME, 8 m., where there is an unusual Collection (open) of South African oddities, collected by Simpson, a Scotchman, who during several years there obtained animal skins, beads, heads, and horns from the natives.
2. Left from Ray on a dirt graded county highway to the junction with another road, 10 m.; L. here to the first Well and Derrick of the Big Viking Oil Company, on the Nesson Flats, 17 m., a level bench just above the Missouri River opposite the mouth of TOBACCO GARDEN CREEK (see Tour 10). Interest in a prospective oil field here led to a 40-day $25,000 survey and the expenditure of $195,000 in test well drilling by the Standard Oil Company of California in 1937. More than 200,000 acres in oil leases were taken up in the vicinity, and the company plans (1938) to expend another $200,000 before completing the test drilling.
Opposite Nesson Flats near the mouth of Tobacco Garden Creek an attack upon a river steamer was made by a Sioux war party July 7, 1863. The Sioux, goaded to hostility by repeated violations of treaties and corrupt handling of annuity goods by governmental agencies, had met the Robert Campbell at Fort Pierre, S. Dak., to ask for the goods due them. When Samuel M. Latta, Indian agent in charge of distribution of the boat's cargo—a newcomer in the Indian service, arrogant and none too scrupulous—withheld one-third of the goods, the Indians vowed to follow the boat up the river to Fort Benton, its destination. For 600 miles they harassed the steamer, pouring shots into it at every vantage point, attacking the crew at each woodyard, and making life miserable for all on board.
At that time the river at the mouth of Tobacco Garden Creek was quite narrow, and the Indians chose this spot for a massed attack. Joseph LaBarge, captain of the Robert Campbell, realizing the hazards of steaming through this point, made his boat fast to the opposite bank to prepare for a parley. The Sioux sent word that they wanted no trouble, only the annuity goods due them. Latta, however, refused to give up the goods, and suggested sending a yawl ashore to negotiate with the Indians. The Sioux consented, provided Latta came ashore. He, in turn, agreed to go, but when the yawl was ready he became conveniently ill in his cabin.
The yawl went ashore and had hardly landed when the Indians, angered by Latta's perfidy, attacked the crew. Three were killed and another wounded before the crew of the steamer opened fire, killing 18 Indians and 20 horses. The slain white men were buried next day on a bluff opposite the mouth of the Little Muddy Creek, where the city of Williston now stands (see below).
WHEELOCK, 342 m. (2,387 alt., 115 pop.), named for Ralph W. Wheelock, an editorial writer on the Minneapolis (Minn.) Tribune in the early 1900's, is the highest point of elevation on the G. N. Ry. in North Dakota.
Left from Wheelock on an improved dirt road to the junction with an unimproved dirt road, 5 m.; L. here 3 m. to HUNGRY GULCH, a pleasant ravine on Tobacco Garden Creek. From the base of one hill bubbles a spring of clear water, and level areas under clumps of trees invite picnic spreads on the banks of the creek. Along the stream is a deposit of "fool's gold", or pyrite, which in 1902 had gold prospectors agog in anticipation of wealth. The story is told that, in the rush to stake claims here, James Moorman, on whose land the "strike" was made, was the only person to benefit. He made a substantial profit selling the hungry prospectors his small stock of flour, in the form of pancakes, at exorbitant prices. When the supply was exhausted and appetites still were not satisfied, Moorman told them he would peel bark from the trees for them to eat. The ravine has since been known as Hungry Gulch.
South of the junction with unimproved road to SEVEN MILE HILL, 7 m., a large, fairly level elevation over which passed the old trail used by fur traders, soldiers, and travelers between Bismarck and Williston. Blue Buttes, prominent peaks in the Badlands across the Missouri, are visible in the SE. on a clear day; N. and E. is an expanse of prairie; and to the S. and W. the Missouri, with its wooded banks and lowlands, winds to the horizon. Near the foot of the hill is Cusac Springs Farm (R), where a skirmish apparently unrecorded in military annals—possibly between Indians and soldiers—took place near a spring. Rifle pits are still visible, and rifle shells and human bones have been found in them.
EPPING, 348.5 m. (2,224 alt., 183 pop.), named for Epping, in England, lies on the southern slope of one of the many rolling hills of the prairie.