2. Left from Velva on a graded dirt road to a junction with another graded road at 4 m.; R. here to another junction at 8 m.; L. here to a STRIP MINE which is one of the larger lignite operating units in the United States, 10 m. Here, in order to reach a vein of coal averaging 14 ft. in thickness, great shovels strip the 40-to 50-feet overburden and pile it into fantastic high mounds and ridges resembling the work of a giant mole. Nearby is a small community of some 40 homes of miners.
Northwest of Velva the route follows the foot of the hills bordering the valley to SAWYER, 128.5 m. (1,525 alt., 206 pop.), believed to have been named for a Soo Ry. official.
MINOT, 144 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 a junction with US 2 (see Tour 6), which unites with US 52 to 150 m. At 4th Ave. and 2nd St. SW. is the junction with US 83 (see Tour 3).
Left of the junction at 150 m. is a large tourist camp.
BURLINGTON, 152 m. (1,590 alt., 150 pop.), named for Burlington, Iowa, under the North Dakota Rural Rehabilitation Corporation became the scene of the State's first Subsistence Homestead Project. Here, in the wooded valley at the confluence of the Mouse and the Des Lacs Rivers, a model village of comfortable homes arose (1937) to replace the former dwellings of the miners who have part time employment in the lignite mines of the vicinity. When completed the project will provide homes and irrigated garden-land for more than 50 families. The cost to each owner, including land, house, barn, garage, and chicken and hog houses, will be approximately $3,500. A concrete dam and bowl spillway on the Des Lacs River will irrigate more than half the 600 acres included in the project.
A camp fire unwittingly built upon an outcropping of lignite at Burlington in the spring of 1883 is credited with first having acquainted pioneers here with the possibilities of developing the fuel on a large scale. Three men camped at the fork of the Mouse and Des Lacs Rivers were surprised one morning to find their camp fire of the previous night still burning. Upon investigation they learned that their wood fire had ignited a blackish mineral—lignite—in the earth beneath it. All lignite mines in the Burlington vicinity are underground (open on application at mine office in Burlington).
Northwest of Burlington the route follows the Des Lacs River valley to FOXHOLM, 163 m. (1,657 alt., 200 pop.), named for Foxholm, England, and CARPIO, 171.5 m. (1,696 alt., 344 pop.), which touches the hills on both sides of the narrow valley. One story has it that Carpio was named by the wife of one of the railroad officials; another that the name was suggested by the fact that the first post office was a freight car on which was posted the sign "P. O."
Right from Carpio on a graveled county road to the UPPER SOURIS MIGRATORY WATERFOWL PROJECT, 7 m., one of the largest of its type being undertaken in North Dakota by the U. S. Biological Survey. Here a marshland along the Mouse River has been purchased and a large dam constructed to impound a lake 26 m. long. A series of smaller dams farther down the river will control the flood waters of the Souris and will aid in restoring the marshes to suitable breeding and nesting grounds for migratory waterfowl. The low, chalky white, red-roofed buildings E. of the dam are Project Headquarters.