Sheyenne- Goodbye, Hello - Day 235

  Today, I said goodbye to the Sheyenne River. I should count how many times the trail crosses it, but not tonight. The bridge you can just see at the bottom of the road on the hill is Ranes Bridge. I walked across that, crossing for the final time, and continued east while the river swings north at Big Bend, to head for Fargo and the Red River.


But, don't worry. Everything out here is Sheyenne. I'm ready to say hello to the Sheyenne National Grassland.


In between are a lot of new (since I was here last) off-road miles that are pretty special. P.S. they are also well-maintained by the Dakota Prairie Chapter of the NCTA.

The new-to-us miles go through an area that is being described as one of the richest archeological areas in North Dakota. For one thing, there are a number of Native American mounds. Most of them are not as high as they once were because they were plowed and planted for years. But many are still recognizable.


One area that is new, not only to our trail, but has recently been preserved as a National Histoic Site by the Archeological Society, is called the Biesterfeldt Site (named for the previous property owners). At the current time, there isn't much to see. It's a flat area on a low bluff above the river. The trail curves around the edge and you can sometimes make out the remains of a low dike.


But ground-penetrating radar has identified this as the location of a Sheyenne village in the 1700s. There were about 50 earth lodges here, and a map drawn in 1908 has been located that shows that the site had previously been studied. This is an image of what the earth lodges would have looked like.


There are several excellent interpretive signs of other landmarks as well. I can't do a long post tonight. It's already late and I have to get to sleep.

And guess what! I ran into friend Tom, out mowing the trail.


Miles today: 14.7. Total miles so far: 2835.6.

See Lisbon