Left from Williston on E. Broadway on a graveled Scenic Highway, following the route of the old overland trail between Bismarck and Fort Buford (see Side Tour 3B), to the junction with a graded dirt highway at 2.5 m.; R. here across CRAZY MAN'S COULEE, 3 m. One day in the early 1880's Robert Matthews (see above), the first settler in the region, was seated on the steps of his ranch house just W. of the ravine when he saw a man, dressed in skins and with hair falling to his shoulders, come out of the thickets in the coulee. Matthews knew that no one lived in the country for miles around, and was interested in learning his identity. When the man saw the ranch buildings, however, he started away, broke into a run, and disappeared into the brush along the creek running through the ravine. About a year later a man similarly dressed, perhaps the same person, came out of the brush and repeated the performance of the previous year. Matthews remarked to his wife, "That is surely Crazy Man's Coulee over there. That's the second wild man who has come out of it."
Left from Crazy Man's Coulee 1.5 m. on an unimproved dirt road to MEDICINE LODGE SPRING (R), in the coulee farther to the E. An early homesteader bottled and sold the mineral water of the spring. However, the Indians had discovered its health-giving qualities many years before, and used to come long distances to camp here. One of their favorite camping places was MEDICINE LODGE HILL, visible about 1 m. N. of the spring, from whose height signal fires could be seen in all directions, and from which game or enemies could easily be sighted. Atop the hill are traces of Indian rings.
Southeast from Crazy Man's Coulee on the Scenic Highway to a junction at 5.5 m.; L. to 11.5 m.; R. to 13.5 m.; L. to 15.5 m.; R. to the Babcock Farm, 19 m. Right here on an unimproved trail to the Harm Arends place on SPANISH POINT, 22 m.
A short distance from the Arends farm is LAKE JESSIE (boating, fishing, swimming), an oxbow lake formed by the changing channel of the Missouri. The woods offer many natural camping places; the Upper Missouri District of the Great Plains Area, Boy Scouts of America, maintains a summer camp for boys here. Spanish Point was first known as the Spanish Woodyard, from the fact that two Mexicans in 1868 started selling fuel here to the steamers plying between St. Louis and the Montana gold fields. The Mexicans were joined by other woodcutters, and for a time the group prospered. A murder, two deaths at the hands of Indians, and other disasters, however, took their toll, and by 1870 the log cabin and stockade were deteriorating, and in a short time the river had washed away all traces of the woodyard.
West of Williston the MISSOURI RIVER (L) is bordered on the near side by timbered bottomlands, and on the far side by high, steep buttes.
At 375.5 m. is the junction (L) with US 85 (see Tour 4), and at 387.5 m. is the junction with a county graveled road (see Side Tour 6B). The route crosses the Montana Line at 390.5 m., 132 m. E. of Glasgow, Mont. (see Mont. Tour 2).
SIDE TOUR 6A
Devils Lake (city)—Camp Grafton—Devils Lake—Fort Totten Indian Agency—Sully's Hill National Game Preserve—Devils Lake (city). ND 20, ND 57, and Indian Service roads.
Devils Lake to Devils Lake, 33 m.