Day 17

Looks like we'll violate the rule about cross-country trips ending with a kamikaze drive home. Because we're making good time and would like to see something besides pavement markings stretching off to the horizon, Scott and I are taking some time off today and tomorrow to see a little bit of his old North Dakota stomping grounds. Before leaving Saskatchewan, however, I had the chance to visit with some of the residents of Davidson, a small town between Saskatoon and Regina. The town was pretty quiet, as most everyone is busy in the fields with the fall harvest. Crops and prices are on everyone's mind, including one 80-yr-old gentleman who gave up farming years ago and now lives in the town's old folks home. He was excited that the price for wheat would be pretty good this year. Interestingly, the main drag through Davidsonville is named Washington Street.

The scene was quite different across the border in Fortuna, ND. The map says the town has 53 residents, but that seems to be stretching it. It was almost too quiet there. One resident had set out a picic table and chairs for sale on one of the town's few side streets (every street is a side street in Fortuna). Wonder who he thought would see them. We also saw an abandoned military facility of some kind that surely must date back from the cold war. There was a huge concrete silo with several air units in the side, surrounded by a number of smaller buildings. We figure it was somehow related to the missle defense and training systems up here. Hard to believe that people spent years working here and other remote places preparing for a holocaust that fortunately never came. At least things weren't all bad; the resident staff had some pretty nice houses on site, and amenities such as a baseball field compelte with grandstand.

Our tourist trip took us to another quiet part of this big state, but one that was the hub of activity 150 years ago: Ft. Buford and Ft. Union, located at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone near Williston. The latter was began by the American Fur Company in the 1820s and served as an important trading post for 40 yeas before being replaced by Ft. Buford, another outpost for guarding settlers and traders. While only a few buildings remain at the site of Buford, the Park Service has partially reconstructed the post at Ft. Union. There, a seasonal employee told us everything we wanted to know about the post and its history, a refreshing change from the experience we had at Knife River.