DAY #8 - FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA - BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA - A BIG BUFFALO AND FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN - 229 -MILES ( 2,415)

(BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA) Well, Day #8 of this Adventure begins my second week of travel. I am well over 2,000 miles traveled and quickly working my way toward 3,000 which should come sometime this weekend. I spent the Night in Fargo, North Dakota and got a late start as I didn’t check out of the hotel until a little past 9:30 a.m. But this was by design. There was one more thing I wanted to see in Fargo before heading west and it didn’t open until 10 a.m. So, right at 10 a.m. I walked into the West Acres Mall and quickly found the Roger Maris Museum. The word museum may be stretching it a little as it is only a large glass display case that stretches about 70 or 80 feet inside the mall. But the display is packed full of artifacts from the career of the Yankee great, including Jerseys from the teams he played for, several homerun baseball and bats from that historic 1961 season and hundreds of photos from the life of Fargo’s favorite son. I’m glad I waited around; it was so worth it. Now it was time to put Fargo in my rearview mirror and head due west on Intestate 94. About 100-miles later near Jamestown, North Dakota, I spied a huge Buffalo of to the north. While it wasn’t a brown sign, I was still curious, so I took the next exit and found my way to the National Buffalo Museum and frontier village. The museum detail the many uses Native Americans and the Mountain Men had for the Buffalo. There were once millions of buffalos roaming in the west but over time the buffalo were hunted for sport and today there are less than 500,000. The Giant Buffalo that I saw from the Interstate bills itself as “The Largest Buffalo in the World. It stands more than 25-feet tall and weighs almost 60-ton. In 2010, the City of Jamestown named its second most famous resident, Dakota Thunder. Who is Jamestown’s most famous resident, you ask? Well, Jamestown is the Birthplace of noted author, Louis L’Amour. He lived here in Jamestown until he was 15. Then he moved west to California with his parents and there he developed his interest in writing and the rest is history. Back on the road I continued my westward trek across North Dakota arriving in Mandan in the early afternoon. I headed down to the banks of the Missouri River to the site where Fort Abraham Lincoln once stood. In 1873 the 7th U.S. Cavalry moved into the fort to ensure the safety of those working on the Northern Pacific Railroad. The first post commander was Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Although he preferred the title of General, a rank he obtained during the Civil War, his actual rank while stationed here a Fort Lincoln was Lieutenant Colonel. Fort Lincoln would be his last assignment. In 1876 he departed the fort to roundup the Native Americans so they could be relocated onto reservations. He confronted the Native Americans at the Little Big Horn in Montana. Colonel Custer and more than 200 soldiers under Custer’s direct command were Killed. Fort Abraham Lincoln was eventually abandoned in 1891 and over the years residents and travelers destroyed its building, using the wood, nails and even the shingles to build their own structures. Many of the buildings including the Barracks, Stables and the Custer House have been rebuilt on their original foundation. I spent most of the afternoon at Fort Lincoln before heading back to Bismarck and a quick stop at the North Dakota Capitol I had wanted to take the elevator ride up to the observation deck, but it was closed this afternoon for a special event. So, I settled for walking around the grounds before heading over to my hotel. Tomorrow the adventure continues, stay tuned, same time, same station.