The glistening silver steel of the ROOSEVELT BRIDGE spans the Little Missouri, over which US 85 passes, and just E. of which is the eastern entrance to the North Roosevelt Park (see Tour 4). US 85 is the eastern boundary of the northern park.
CHARLIE BOB CREEK (R) drains the area N. and W. of the Killdeer Mountains (see Side Tour 8D). Here the buttes R. of the river rise 500 to 600 ft. above the stream bed, and the noonday shadows cast by the scattered groves of cedar on the northern slopes are cool and inviting. A climb to the butte tops reveals their precipitous, barren southern slopes.
The wide valley (L) of CHERRY CREEK (good overnight camping place opposite mouth), together with Tobacco Garden Creek (see Tour 6), which drains N. into the Missouri, in preglacial times was probably the bed of the Little Missouri, the present valley of which was formed when the glacier blocked the former course and diverted the waters in an easterly direction.
At about a half-day's journey below Cherry Creek a climb to the high river bluffs, through thickets of red birch, aspen, and oak trees, leads to a superb view. Southward from the butte tops a blue haze outlines the Killdeer Mountains, from which the Sioux fled after the Battle of Killdeer Mountains (see Side Tour 8D) to take refuge in this very section of the Badlands, the rough terrain of which prevented the army from pursuing. It was in this vicinity in 1886 that young Theodore Roosevelt and two of his ranch hands captured three thieves who had stolen a boat from his Elkhorn Ranch and had plundered almost every ranch house along the river. Roosevelt and his men pursued the three for several days before surrounding their camp and taking them completely by surprise. He then sent his men home and took the culprits overland to Dickinson, where he preferred charges against the two leaders, who were tried and subsequently served their sentences; one was later hanged for horse stealing in Montana. The third marauder, an elderly man, Roosevelt said was the "kind of person who was not capable of doing either much good or harm." When the old man thanked him profusely for thus befriending him, the future President remarked that it was the first time he had been thanked for calling a man a fool.
Between ELK and JIM'S CREEKS (R) the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation lies to the L. (Good camping places bet. Elk and Jim's Creeks.)
LIGNITE STRIP MINING, VELVA
Courtesy Truax-Traer Coal Co.
ARIKARA WOMAN POUNDING CHERRIES