Nomads, day 5 and 6 (9/8/2023)

Days 5 and 6 of our Lewis and Clark adventure was really when it felt that the rubber hit the road. Here is a quick summary of our trek these two days:

Day 5: North Sioux City, ND – Vermillion – Spirit Mound – Yankton – Chamberlain (Dignity of Earth and Sky) – Gettysburg

Day 6: Gettysburg – Bismark, ND – Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (in Washburn, ND) – Fort Mandan – East Totton Train Campground (on Lake Audubon near Coleharbor, ND)

What were the significant events on these two legs of our journey? Day 5 was eventful from a Lewis and Clark viewpoint. We initially wanted to stay in Vermillion; however, the heat-dome prevented this. Camping at 105 degrees in a van without air conditioning (when you are parked), with two dogs seemed unwise. The logic result was that we stayed in North Sioux City. We did want to visit Vermillion, a small college town in the middle of nowhere. Vermillion is a charming town, but we had an ulterior motive, our reason was: Spirit Mound.

Lewis and Clark learned of Spirit Mound from the Indians within a large radius of the Vermillion area. They had been warned to avoid it, because of spirits that supposedly lived on or near it. They were shorter, according to the native American legends, with big heads and had sharp spears with which they would hurt or even kill anyone approaching the mound. The hill was 12 miles north of the river from what now is Vermillion; and the explorers decided to go look for themselves. They climbed the hill and never found the angry spirits. Spirit Mound is now an historic landmark, that also includes a native Minnesota prairie. This was enough for us to also explore the mound. Since it was 95 degrees, we did not hike up the Mound, but we did spend a short time there walking through the prairie. To tell you the truth we were enchanted by what we saw; however, it was too hot to spend a lot of time there with our dogs.

Subsequently we drove to Yankton and had a good look at the Missouri. After that we took off for Chamberlain. The welcome center there has a great statue entitled Dignity of Earth and Sky. Altogether a fun trip through central South Dakota. Mostly a land with corn and soybean fields. However, there were patches of grasslands and to our surprise fields of sunflowers. The sunflowers had finished flowering and we were imagining how beautiful this could look when the flowers were in full bloom.

We arrived in Gettysburg around 5 pm. Our plan was to stay at the city park, where the community had established a number of camp sites. They had electricity and even showers. The camping is free, but a donation was appreciated. We were the only campers that night; it was all very acceptable; the showers were clean. In the middle of the night we were hit by a major thunderstorm which heralded the change of weather; from heat to more agreeable temperatures.

After breakfast at the local coffee shop in Gettysburg it was time to move further north. South Dakota (and parts of North Dakota) has numbered two roads along the river Route 1804 and Route 1806. Lewis and Clark moved upriver in 1804 and returned in 1806. You can therefore imagine that the route on the east side of the river is 1804 and on the west side is 1806. We decided to take 1804 and ended up on these dirt country roads during a steady cold drizzle with very strong winds. It was now 55 degrees and with a 40 or so mph wind, it was darn cold. Once in Bismark I was finally able to sample a beer at a local brewery for lunch. Unbeknownst to us, Bismark had its worst and actually, the country’s worst air quality, courtesy of the Canadian wildfires.

After a visit to Fort Mandan, we went to our campsite at Lake Audubon. The fort and visiting center were the first real thing we did since the start of our trip. While impressive, the fort was disappointing to me as well, since it was not re-build at the exact location or at least near the location of the old fort. The original site was 20 miles further north. However, the original site was most likely flooded caused by the damming of the river. Another item was that the walls were constructed by logs that were placed vertically. It seems that this might not be historically correct, and the logs might have been stacked horizontally, although there are no details in the historical accounts.

The campsite was great, it was on a lake and just a wonderful site. At night we were able to see the milky way and we witnessed a coyote chorus. The temperature dipped to 42 at night and we finally had to use our small space heater. In all an interesting two days of contrast, extreme heat followed by a chill that heralds the beginning of autumn.

Spirit Mound as viewed through a group on sunflowers on the native prairie in South Dakota.

The Missouri seen from the bridge in Yankton, SD

Dignity of Earth and Sky

Camping in Gettysburg

Need I say more?

Driving the back roads in cold, rainy South Dakota

Fort Mandan.  The party overwintered their first year near the Mandan tribe in what is now near Washburn, North Dakota.  William Clark reported in his journal that in the first few days of January they were invited to what was a huge three-day party, something like a pow-wow, to launch a buffalo hunt.  He described how young warriors would lead their nude wives to the old men of the tribe for their pleasure, in the hope that the knowledge, wisdom and hunting skills of these older men would be transferred the younger husbands.  The older men would lead the young (married) women to the side and have intimate relations with them.  Boy, that is what you can call rubbing off.

According to Clark the enlisted men that were part of the expedition were also in high demand for this type of knowledge transfer.  Clark mentions that one private was particularly lucky and had sex with four different young ladies during the three-day fest.  According to accounts, sexually transmitted diseases were endemic in the native population, in particular syphilis.  In the book by Ambrose there is a discussion on whether syphilis and gonorrhea were endemic to the North American population or not, very unlike small pocks which was definitely spread by the European colonizers to the New World population.  I am not sure if there was a native cure for the ailment; however, treatment of the STDs among Europeans wasn’t pleasant.  It consisted of ingesting mercury as in mercurial chloride, known to cause mad hatter disease.

As all you readers know, I am older. I have white hair and also claim to be somewhat wiser (a little arrogance is good for the soul, I guess). In other words when we visited the Fort Mandan and the Mandan area, I was full of hope that I might be asked for some knowledge infusion. Although the thought of catching STDs did not make the thought very appealing.

Camping on Lake Audubon near Coleharbor, SD.  The temperatures dipped into the low 40s at night and we had to bring out the space heater.