FESSENDEN, 36 m. (1,610 alt., 738 pop.), named for Cortez Fessenden, surveyor general of Dakota Territory from 1881 to 1885, was originally settled by a group of Welsh farmers, though the population is now predominantly Scandinavian. Fessenden was platted in 1893, and in the election of 1894 was named Wells County seat. Its citizens journeyed by teams and wagons in the still hours of the night to Sykeston, first county seat, seized the county records, and hauled them to the new location. Each year (March) Fessenden holds an agricultural exposition culminating in the coronation of an Alfalfa Queen.
HARVEY, 59.5 m. (1,596 alt., 2,157 pop.), named for Col. James S. Harvey, a former director of the Soo Line, is on the banks of the Sheyenne River. It is a division point on the Soo, and is the largest town on the route with the exception of Minot.
Right from Harvey on ND 3, a graveled road, to junction with a dirt road at 4 m.; R. on this road to BUTTE DE MORALE, 7 m., an ancient landmark rising 300 ft. above the surrounding prairie. It was to this vicinity that the metis, or French-Indian half-breeds, came in the 1840's on their buffalo-hunting expeditions (see Side Tour 5A). It is said that on one occasion a party of 1,390 people with 824 wagons and 1,200 animals camped here and slaughtered 250 buffalo in a single day. In 1853 the surveying expedition of Gov. I. I. Stevens passed the hill, and in 1862-63 Capt. James L. Fisk led two expeditions of Montana gold seekers through the vicinity.
MARTIN, 72.5 m. (1,589 alt., 211 pop.), known in early days as Casselman, was later renamed for a Soo official in order to avoid confusion with other towns of similar names. A group of Rumanians from Regina, Sask., settled here in 1893, but the population is now predominantly German, as is that of ANAMOOSE (from Chippewa uhnemoosh, dog), 80.5 m. (1,620 alt., 495 pop.).
DRAKE, 89 m. (1,634 alt., 644 pop.), named for an early settler, Herman Drake, is on the watershed between the Mouse and Sheyenne Rivers in a diversified farming and dairying area. A small railroad center, it has become a wholesale distribution point; a $20,000 cooperative creamery is operated here.
Northwest of Drake the route traverses rolling tree-dotted hills that begin to slope toward the Mouse River valley.
BALFOUR, 97 m. (1,613 alt., 197 pop.), named by the town site company, and VOLTAIRE, 116 m. (1,587 alt., 61 pop.), believed to have been named for an early settler, are both young villages incorporated in 1929.
The road makes an abrupt descent into the flat, trough-like Mouse River valley at VELVA, 122 m. (1,511 alt., 870 pop.), which is at the southwestern point of the loop of the river, near a camp site of the Sully expedition of 1865. The park-like little town is on the flood plain of the river which flows through it. First known as Mouse River Post Office, it was given its present name after organization of the town site in 1891-92. A park in the northern part of the town offers recreational facilities, and contains the First Dwelling in Velva, a log hut built in 1885.
1. Right from Velva on a dirt road winding down the Mouse River valley is VERENDRYE, 11 m. (1,554 alt., 100 pop.). First known as Falsen, the town was given its present name in honor of Pierre de la Verendrye, earliest known white explorer in the region. Right from the town pump 0.5 m. to the globular masonry DAVID THOMPSON MEMORIAL, erected by the G. N. Ry. in 1925 on a high point overlooking the river valley. On the base of the monument is the inscription: "1770—David Thompson—1885, Geographer and Astronomer passed near here in 1797 and 1798 on a scientific and trading expedition. He made the first map of the country which is now North Dakota and achieved many noteworthy discoveries in the northwest." Thompson made his explorations while an employee of the North West Fur Co.