The expedition moved 10 m. the next day, and when it broke camp the morning of September 3 a large box of poisoned hardtack was purposely left behind. The Indians swooped down and hungrily devoured it, and it is said that 25 died from the effects of the poison, more than were killed by the expedition's bullets. That day the wagon train advanced only 3 m. before going into corral and beginning to throw up a defense, which they called Fort Dilts. Oxen and plows were used to obtain sod with which a dirt wall 6 ft. high and nearly 2 ft. thick was built outside the ring of wagons. The cavalry was stationed between the wall and the wagons. That night 16 volunteers slipped through the Indian lines and after 3 days and nights of hard riding reached Fort Rice, whence Col. Daniel J. Dill and a detachment set out at once. They arrived September 17, but by that time the Hunkpapa had departed for Cave Hills, S. Dak., where they had learned a large herd of bison was running. They had lingered only a day or two after the fortification was thrown up, sniping at it occasionally, before their interest waned.
The State park, which contains approximately 9 acres belonging to the State historical society, was dedicated to Jefferson Dilts in 1932. Within the fenced area are the remains of the sod fortification, and eight Government grave markers have been placed inside it in memory of those who lost their lives in the episode.
MARMARTH, 87.5 m. (2,709 alt., 721 pop.), is at the confluence of Little Beaver Creek, Hay Creek, and the Little Missouri River. Known as the "city of trees", Marmarth is almost an oasis in the treeless Badlands country. Its name is derived from the mispronunciation of her own name, Margaret Martha, by a small granddaughter of the president of the Milwaukee R. R. The town had its inception in 1902, and grew rapidly following the advent of the Milwaukee R. R. in 1907 and the establishment of a railroad division point here the next year. Proximity to the Little Missouri and its tributaries has not always been advantageous; the town has been flooded five times—1907, 1913, 1929, and twice in 1921. To prevent another flood a dam has been built on Little Beaver Creek W. of town, and dikes have been put up around the town adjacent to the streams.
Theodore Roosevelt killed his first grizzly bear a short distance W. of Marmarth on the Little Beaver, and just N. of the town on the Little Missouri he shot his first buffalo. Many years later, when he was campaigning for the Presidency, on an appearance in Minneapolis he met a Marmarth pioneer. When informed the man was from Marmarth, at the mouth of Little Beaver Creek, the President exclaimed, "A town there? Do you have boats tied to your back doors?" He had visited the site only at times of high water.
Marmarth is a shipping point for cattle brought overland from range grounds in this State, Montana, and South Dakota. The stockyards, which cover an area of 45 acres, and contain 86 pens and 15 loading chutes, are built on the site of the old O-X (O Bar X) ranch. Nearby, on Hay Creek, still stands the squat old ranch house in which Theodore Roosevelt was once a guest.
Activity in the Little Beaver Dome, an oil field near Marmarth (see below), brought the town a boom in 1936. Business buildings and residences that had long stood idle were quickly occupied.
At 88.5 m. is the junction with ND 16, an unimproved road.
Left on this highway to the junction with a country trail, 2 m.; L. here 1 m. to THE WOMAN IN STONE, a 50-foot rock which shows the head and face of a woman, even to the hairline, clearly outlined against the sky. The form of the sandstone is the result of countless years of weathering.
On ND 16 to a junction with a well-defined prairie trail, 16 m.; R. on this trail to the NUMBER TWO WELL of the Little Beaver Dome, 21 m. Work has not advanced far on this well, but results of the Number One Well, just over the State Line in Montana, show a crude oil apparently high in gasoline and kerosene content, very light, but darker in color, and with a somewhat different odor from that usually associated with mid-continent crude oils. The Little Beaver Dome is part of the Cedar Creek Anticline, a geologic formation of arched rock strata extending from eastern Montana into southwestern North Dakota. It is one of the greatest natural gas fields in the United States.
US 12 crosses the Montana Line at 94 m., 95 m. E. of Miles City, Mont. (see Mont. Tour 17).