Fort Stevenson State Park

We did some sightseeing in the area.  There is a state park just south of Garrison on the lake.  It is on the site of where an old fort was in the 1800's.  The fort was active from just after the civil war until the late 1800's.  They have rebuilt the old guard house and turned it into a museum.  It is a great place to learn about the history along the Missouri River.  Before the dams were put in  -- the river was usually too high or too low.  They used keel boats to get up river and then finally steamboats.  The survivors (mostly wounded soldiers) of the Battle at Little Bighorn (Custers disaster) fled by steamboat and Fort Stevenson was the first safe place they went. 

The fort was originally built to protect the native Americans in the area.  This is the opposite of why most forts were built.  The government put three tribes together on reservations that were mortal enemies of each other.  The museum had artifacts from the natives as well as the military.   There were paintings that depicted fort life painted by a self taught native American artist.  All kinds of guns and cannons used by the military were on display.   When the fort was decommissioned in the late 1800's everything was auctioned off.  Many locals bought up the stuff and over the years have donated it back to the museum.  For its small size it was packed with lots of informative stuff.  Well worth the entrance fee of five dollars plus we checked out the campground.  Very nice paved, level sites with water and electric. 

Lake Views

Its hard to believe you can find scenery like this in the heart of North Dakota.  The lakeshore is very pretty because the Missouri River has cut so deep into the land creating beautiful hills all along the "lake".  Fishing has been tough close to the resort.  Many fishermen are taking their boats 20 or 30 miles up the road to some warmer waters.  They have been pulling out really nice walleyes.  We don't want to go because its 3 miles of washboard gravel road before you get to the highway.  The boat takes such a beating traveling across country that we just don't want to subject it to more abuse.  They tell us that by July the fish come down river closer to the resort and then the fishing here will be on fire.  Can't wait!

We drove to Minot -- about 80 miles one way - to hit the Walmart.  I had to get my Walmart fix.  We've been exploring more and more of the lake but there is still so much more to explore.  We don't dare go too far when there is a chance of the wind kicking up because the waves get to dangerous.  The water is still rising -- there is still so much snow in the mountains that the snow gauges are still buried. 

Nice Fish

Jim finally caught his first walleye.  It was 22 inches long a very nice fish but not a great picture.  I caught this huge 17 inch smallmouth bass.  Its hard to find warm water which is where the fish are biting.  The snow in the mountains is still melting and the melt water runs into the Missouri River.  The water has been coming up over a foot or two a week.  They are saying it will come up another 5 feet before the melt is over.  They seem to take the changing water levels in stride here.  The boat ramp is very long so it can be used as the water continues to climb. 


We were looking at the webcam at Northern Lights Resort in Minnesota where we were last year.  The water has risen so high there that it is up over all of their docks.  We are glad not to be there facing that mess.  I hear some of the resorts on Lake Kabetogama have had docks damaged from the high water.   We seem to be above the rain line here at Indian Hills in North Dakota.  The rain has all been pretty much south of us.  Its only rained (very lightly) here about three times since mid-May.  

First Walleye

Jim may have caught the first fish ( a northern ) but I caught the first walleye.  This beautiful fish was 19 inches long so a little over two pounds.  He was delicious on the grill!  I caught it right offshore from the resort.  On the hillside up by the top there is a square patch -- hard to see but Indian Hills is spelled out in rocks. 

There was a fishing derby this past weekend.  The winning team caught almost 80 lbs of walleye in two days.  Most of the fish were 4 pounds each.  You can keep five walleyes any size here and use two rods.  The last several days people have been coming in with their limits of very nice walleyes and throwing back lots of small fish.  We hope to start catching fish as fast and furious as all the locals -- we'll see. 

The Last Round Up

 

Next to the resort is a ranch owned by the parents of the owner of the resort.  They have been busy the last several weekends branding all the newborn calves.  All of the local ranchers get together and go from one ranch to the next rounding up the cows and calves so they can get branded.  We drove out to the field where they had a corral setup.  We watched as the ranchers brought the herd to the corral.  The cows were bellowing the whole time.  They were not happy being forced to go to the corral.  Once they had them all penned the adult riders cut the cows out and moved them out of the pen so just the calves were left.  The cows then surrounded the pen bellowing loudly, calling for their calves, clearly upset about being separated.  The boys on horseback were then allowed in the pen and got to be the ones that roped the calves.

There was a four person team that worked on the calves.  One person rubbed the area to be branded with an orange substance, then another gave an immunization, the branding was done and as a last insult they were castrated.  All of this took less than four minutes per calf.  The calves didn't bellow during any of the procedures.    It was interesting to watch the process.  The owners son (in the picture) is such a good roper that he is going to Washington DC to be in the junior national championship competition for roping.