4. EARTH LODGE (open weekdays 9-5 June 15-Oct. 1), N. of the Roosevelt Cabin, is a reproduction of the dwellings of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa, the agricultural tribes who inhabited the valley of the Missouri previous to white settlement of this region. (For description of the earth lodge see Indians and Their Predecessors.) The lodge was built by the State historical society under the direction of Scattered Corn, a Mandan woman, the daughter of Moves Slowly, last of the Mandan Corn priests.
The women of the Indian tribes built the lodges in the river villages, although the men gave them assistance in placing the heavy timbers which supported the thick earth walls. A Mandan legend relates that when the first Mandan village was built under the leadership of the tribal hero, Good Furred Robe, the First Man told them how to build the earth lodges.
5. GOVERNOR'S MANSION (private), 320 Ave. B, has been the residence of North Dakota Governors since 1893, when the house was purchased by the State from Asa Fisher, wealthy brewer. Governor Eli C. D. Shortridge was the first chief executive to occupy the mansion. Typical of the architecture of the Territorial day in which it was built, the two-story white frame building, with its spacious, high-ceilinged rooms and four fireplaces, has remained unchanged except for the addition of a front porch. The large elm and box elder trees were planted in 1900. During early statehood many important social functions were held in the mansion.
6. CAIRN (private), 912 Mandan St., home of Mr. and Mrs. Clell G. Gannon, is a small house built largely of native boulders, and designed by its owners.
7. HOME OF ALEXANDER McKENZIE (private), 722 5th St., a large white frame house built in the indeterminate, unpedigreed style typical of North Dakota's architecture of the nineties, remains unchanged from the days when it was the home of Alexander McKenzie (1856-1922), spectacular figure of early Bismarck and State history, master politician, ally of the railroads.
Arriving in Bismarck as a young man in the early 1870's, he soon rose to a position of civic and Territorial importance, becoming an unofficial representative of the Northern Pacific Railway. How much McKenzie had to do with moving the Territorial capital from Yankton to Bismarck will perhaps never be known. However, the fact that a Capital Commission was named and given power to move the capital, and the fact that McKenzie secured for himself a place on the commission, are credited to him as among his most able political maneuvers.
Although he held only one public office—sheriff of Burleigh County for 12 years—his influence and the so-called "McKenzie ring" survived all attacks by political reformers. He was active in State politics until his death in 1922.
8. BURLEIGH COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Thayer Ave. between 5th and 6th Sts., is a three-story modern-type building designed by Ira Rush of Minot and constructed of North Dakota concrete-brick faced with Bedford limestone, with a base of pearl pink granite. In the main floor vestibule, wainscoted in marble, is a series of murals by Clell. G. Gannon, Bismarck artist, depicting early county history. A further native note appears in the balustrading of the stairways, where grilled nickel silver forms a graceful design using the stalk, ear, and slender leaf of the corn as motif.
This is the third Burleigh County courthouse to stand on this block. A marker on the west lawn designates the site of the first, a log building built in 1873. It was replaced in 1880 by a brick structure. The present building was erected in 1930.
9. BISMARCK PUBLIC LIBRARY (open weekdays 10:30-9; Oct.-May Sun. 2-5), 519 Thayer Ave., a Carnegie institution, is a vine-covered, red brick Georgian Colonial style building. In addition to having a large and varied selection of magazines, newspapers, and fiction and non-fiction books, it maintains a separate children's division with loan service, reading room, and story hour.