mileage
487 WILLISTON station, 1 South Main Street. Elevation approximately 1855. Williston was named
for Daniel Willis James, a Board member of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, by his friend, railroad owner, James J. Hill. Williston has been a railroad, agricultural, and livestock center since its earliest days, and presently is also a petroleum center
due to its location within the Williston Basin (see MP 380 above). Williston is known as the ”Champion City,” for no apparent
reason, and is the home of the Rough Riders Art Show each May. Williston was also the home of basketball coach Phil Jackson.
From here through the end of this log, there will be very few additional bedrock exposures, except for the area between here and Stanley,
the next station. Most of the area through which we are yet to travel is covered by Pleistocene-aged glacial till deposits,
lake beds, or dune sand.
Williston is also the spot where we will say good-bye
to the Missouri River, if you are traveling eastbound, or hello to the river if you are traveling westbound.
488.5 Cross Little
Muddy River. Notice that this river is bermed for flood control. Along the sides of the river, you can see Pleistocene-aged terrace deposits, which were laid down during the Ice Age as the elevation of the river bottom changed through time.
489 There is a tank farm and small refinery north of the railroad here (left if eastbound).
491-492 Look for bedrock exposures
in the various creek beds we will be crossing in this area.
493 Avoca siding, and more bedrock exposures are visible
in bluffs on either side of the railroad.
495 Look for oil wells in one of the many Williston Basin oil fields on
either side of the railroad here, plus more exposures of the Paleocene Bullion Creek and Sentinel Butte Formations.
496.5 Cross
Stony Creek.
498.5 Pass through the town of Spring Brook.
500 By this point, most of the hills and topographic
features visible from the train are Pleistocene-aged glacial till deposits.
500.5 Just southeast of the railroad is a small
impoundment on Stony Creek, which is dammed by the Epping-Springbrook Dam. This dam was built in 1936 for the purpose of developing
a small campground and fishing area on its shores.
502 Now Highway 8 joins the railroad on the north (left if eastbound)
for a while.
504 To the south (right if eastbound) is the small town of Epping. Epping was named after an ancient
English forest. In its heyday, Epping was described as the “biggest little town on the great northern Railway” by railroad personnel
and salesmen. Epping is the home of the Buffalo Trails Museum, which features exhibits depicting life in the upper prairies. The museum contains several restored buildings, such as an old homesteader’s cabin, a photographic gallery, and a dentist’s office.
509.5 Pass through Wheelock. This town is almost a ghost town now, but likely reached its peak in the 1950’s. At one time in
the past, Wheelock was expected to grow into an area the size of Bismarck, but that never happened due to the loss of a Federal contract. The town is now a small agricultural town.
514 Cross McLeod Lake, a small impoundment built across an unnamed creek.
514.5 Cross U.S. 2 ands travel through Ray, another small agricultural town.
518 The topography is becoming much flatter
now as we continue to traverse Pleistocene-aged glacial till deposits.
521 Pass through the small agricultural town
of Temple.
525 Cross a small pond which is part of a wildlife area.
526-527 Pas through Tioga. Toga
is the Iroquois Indian name for “Peaceful valley.” Homesteaders from Tioga County, New York, settled here in 1902 and organized
the township, giving it the name of Tioga. Tragedy struck Tioga in 1907. A fire broke out in the hardware store and all
the buildings on the west side of the street were destroyed with the exception of the Simon Store. That burned in 1925 and the
present building was completed in 1926. The other buildings were reconstructed and it was not too long until the business section
of the town was again operating.
527.5 Note the refinery located north of the railroad (left if eastbound).
529 Enter MOUNTRAIL County. The county was crated by the 1873 territorial legislature, and was named for a Metis (Canadian with
mixed European and native heritage) voyageur, Joseph Mountraille.
532 Cross Paulsen Creek, which will be adjacent
to the railroad on the north (left if eastbound) for a mile or two.
534 Pass through the small agricultural town
of White Earth.
534.5 Cross White Earth River. Some final exposures of Fort Union Formation bedrock may be present in
the bluffs along the river here.
539 We are continuing to cross the rolling North Dakota prairies underlain by glacial
till.
542 Manitou siding.
544 North of the railroad (left if eastbound) is yet another wildfowl
protection area.
546 Pass through Ross, another small, almost abandoned agricultural town.
550 U.S.
2 again comes parallel to they railroad on the south. The intermittent lakes in this area were formed by stagnant areas in the
retreating glacial ice sheets at the close of the Pleistocene Ice Age. Most of the topography you can see is ground moraine.
553.5 STANLEY station, main Street and Railroad Avenue. Elevation approximately 2250. Stanley is another small agricultural
town. Within the Rexall Drug Store in Stanley, there is an old-fashioned soda fountain, and to the north of the AMTRAK station,
is the beautiful Mountrail County Courthouse. Stanley was founded in 1902. The city has gained media attention recently
as a large oil field, the Bakken Formation, is receiving new interest due to the price of crude oil and natural gas. The field
was discovered in the 1950’s, but the cost of extraction was too high to retrieve the oil profitably. With new technologies
in oilfield production and the rising price of oil, the field has now become economically viable.
558 Intermittent
lakes north of the railroad (left if eastbound) were formed within ground moraines as the Pleistocene Ice Age glaciers retreated to
the north.
561.5 Pass through Palermo. Palermo is an old grain loading point for local farmers to get their crops shipped
to potential buyers. It remains another of the many small agricultural towns in this area, and was named after Palermo, Italy.
564 There are more morainal lakes in this area, formed in low areas of ground moraines.
568.5 Pass through the small agricultural
town of Blaisdell. The rolling hills characteristic of this part of the state are all composed of irregular hills and mounds
of glacial till, left behind as the last of the Pleistocene Ice Age glaciers retreated to the north.
573.5 Yet another national
wildfowl production area is visible adjacent to the railroad on the north (left if eastbound).
575.5 The small agricultural
town of Tagus is visible north of the railroad (left if eastbound), This town was originally named Wallace, but after getting it confused
with Wallace, Idaho, officials of the Great Northern Railroad changed it to Tagus. Tagus is known for its frequent spooky para-normal
happenings, such as glowing lights from abandoned buildings, and disappearing horses and cars.
576 Enter WARD County,
named after Dakota territorial legislator Mark Ward. Ward County has less wasted land than almost any county in the state. It is estimated that 98% of the county is arable. Because of the abundance of free land and cheap land east of Ward County,
and also because of the financial and industrial depression which spread over the United States between 1893 and 1897, Ward County
was sparsely settled until about 1898, when an influx of settlers took place. Minot is the county seat of Ward County.
577.5 Another national wildfowl area is visible north of the railroad (left if eastbound).
581 Pass beneath U.S. 2 amid
several glacial ground moraine lakes.
585 Pass through Berthold. Berthold’s name came from Bartholomew Berthold
of St. Louis, after whom nearby Fort Berthold was named. Berthold became a village in 1902. Berthold made the headlines
in newspapers across the nation on Sept. 7, 1967, when burglars snuck into town in the middle of the night. They broke into
the post office and several stores. Not only did they steal a lot, they also left quite a mess. The safe at the post office
had the door peeled off and the burglars scattered records, papers, and stamps.
588 Cross Lonetree Coulee.
590 Pass through the community of Lonetree, a ghost town.
593.5 Cross Des Lacs Reservoir, and pass through the town of Des Lacs. The town was named for both the Des Lacs River and nearby lake, which the French explorers called Lax Aux Mort (The Lake of the Dead). the name is literally translated from the French as “the lakes.” The town was incorporated in 1911.
596 Cross
Larsons Coulee.
598 Ralston siding. Coulees in this part of the state are relatively deep, as they have most
likely been incised through thick glacial deposits since the close of the Pleistocene Ice Age. Bedrock is not exposed in any
creek banks or coulees in this part of the state.
600-601 Gassman Coulee is visible on the right (eastbound). This is another
deep incised coulee in Pleistocene glacial deposits, and no bedrock is exposed.
602.5 Cross the Gassman Coulee Trestle. The view from the trestle is quite impressive and scenic, although the trestle itself cannot be seen from the train. Again,
no bedrock is exposed in the walls of the coulee.
605 Pass beneath U.S. 2. the Souris Valley Golf Course is
visible to the north of the railroad (left if eastbound).
606 The Souris River is visible north of the railroad (left
if eastbound). The Souris is approximately 450 miles long, and rises in Saskatchewan, north of here, then flows into the Assiniboine
River.
607.5 MINOT station, 400 First Avenue S.W. Elevation approximately 1650. When this city was first settled,
it was known as ”Magic City,” since it was moved from a temporary settlement along the railroad at a nearby dry stream bed, in a very
short period of time. Its location on the frontier made it a hot spot for castle rustlers, gamblers, and outlaws. Minot
is a commercial center of an extensive agricultural region where durum wheat is grown. Major manufactured products here include
processed food, farm equipment, building materials, and plastic products. Vast lignite and petroleum fields are located in the
area. Minot is the home of Minot State University (established in 1913).
Minot was settled by Scandinavians, and hosts the Norsk Hostfest every October. Minot is also the home of the Dakota Territory
Air Museum, Pioneer Village, and Scandinavian Heritage Park. The Heritage Park contains a 225-year old house brought over from
Norway, as well as a gingerbread-style house.
610 Cross Livingston Creek. This creek valley is also incised within
Pleistocene till deposits, and again no bedrock is exposed in creek banks.
612-613 Pass through a large BNSF railroad
yard, The surficial deposits in this area are mapped as glacial outwash, which are deposits which have been laid down by streams
running either through the retreating glaciers, or along the margins of retreating glaciers. Topographically, outwash deposits
are much flatter than till deposits.
615 Pass through Surrey. The town was named for Surrey, England by railroad
officials. Settlement began in June 1900, and the post office was established June 18, 1900. The town became a household
word in the state in 1911 when it was made the terminus of the Great Northern Railroad’s new Surrey cutoff line from Fargo. The town is now a favorite location for people who work in Minot, but wish to live in a smaller town.
618 Deposits
along the small creek north of the railroad (left if eastbound) are mapped as glacial outwash deposits, and the deposits in the more
hilly area south of the railroad are mapped as glacial till.
620.5 Enter McHENRY County. McHenry County was formed in
1873. It was originally part of Buffalo County. The county seat is Towner. The county is named for early settler
James McHenry.
622 Pass through the small agricultural town of Norwich, named after Norwich, England. The surficial
deposits north of the railroad are still mapped as glacial outwash, while deposits of till are mapped south of the railroad.
625 Cross a small outwash-filled valley north of the railroad (left if eastbound).
628 The valley of South Egg Creek,
on the north (left if eastbound) is another outwash-filled valley.
628.5 Pass through Granville, another small agricultural
town. The town was named after Granville Dodge, a civil engineer for the railroad. North of town (left if eastbound),
the stream valley is underlain by glacial outwash deposits. Between the railroad and the stream valley is an alluvial terrace,
which was the stream bed during glacial times, but has since been deepened by erosion.
632.5 Cross a fairly wide marshy glacial
outwash valley.
635 Riga is located north of the railroad (left if eastbound). The predominant sediment type
in this area has now been mapped as loess, which consists of windblown deposits of very fine-grained glacial material. The landscape
may appear to look like dunes, and loess deposits are very similar to dunes. We will be traversing these loess deposits all
the way to Towner (see MP 649 below).
638 We are still traversing a wide area of sand dunes and loess deposits. The topographic map shows a relatively strong northwest-southeast trend for these features in this area, which indicates the predominant
wind direction over time.
641 Pass through Denbigh, yet another small agricultural town in the area, named after
Denbigh, Wales.
641.5 The two lakes north of the railroad (left if eastbound) are the first significantly-sized lakes we have
seen for quite a while. They formed within low areas in glacial till or in windblown sediments in the area.
643 Well-developed loess hills are visible just north of the railroad here (left if eastbound).
647 For the first time
since leaving Minot, the Souris River again approaches the railroad here on the south (right if eastbound). It is difficult
to distinguish the modern alluvial sediments deposited within the Souris River flood plain from the older glacial outwash deposits.
648 Cross Souris River.
649 Pass through Towner, the “cattle capital of North Dakota.” Incorporation of the village
of Towner came from a petition of residents on March 2, 1892 to the county commissioners. A special meeting was held on May
2, 1904, to canvass the vote of the citizens to incorporate as a city. Residents named their village Towner after the respected
Oscar M. Towner. Deeply convinced of the goodness of the land, Towner made and lost fortunes in the less than 10 years he lived
in the Dakotas. Towner died penniless in a Towner hotel on June 9, 1897. Some 70 years later, a granddaughter placed a
monument on the previously unmarked grave in Larimore.
653 Along either side of the railroad are more loess and dune
deposits.
657 Pass through Berwick, then enter PIERCE County. Established by the Territorial Legislature on
March 11, 1887, Pierce County was named after Gilbert Ashville Pierce (1839-1901), a newspaperman, Territorial Governor (1884-1886),
and U.S. Senator (1889-1891)
658 Rush Lake, a relatively large lake created during the Ice Age, is visible north
of the railroad (left if eastbound).
661 The flat area here is composed of Pleistocene lake bed sediments mixed in
with glacial till.
663 Tunbridge siding.
668.5 RUGBY station, 201 W. Dewey Street. Elevation approximately
1560. Rugby was settled in 1886, and is an agricultural town, as well as the Pierce County seat. Rugby is the ”Geographical
Center of North America,” as marked on the wall of the AMTRAK station. The actual geographic center, south of downtown, is marked
by the Geographical Center Museum and a monument. The population of the town is largely Scandinavian; however, the name of this
town and others in this area is decidedly English, named by a group of English bankers who invested in the townsite in the 1880’s. The town was originally named Rugby Junction after a famous railroad junction in Rugby, England.