The Sheyenne River Byway

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

- Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, author of "Molly Bawn" (1878)

A high school classmate recently sent me a meme comprised of a wide angle picture of a golden wheat field, otherwise empty save for a few hay bales scattered throughout.  The horizon line stretches far in the distance.  Above the image are the words, "North Dakota. Come For The..."  And, below: "Nevermind.  There's nothing here."

Residents and natives of many states will find some reason to include their homeland in any discussion regarding which of the Fifty have the most natural beauty.  For some states such as Alaska, Colorado and North Carolina, justification for inclusion is probably easy to come by.  For others, a little imagination is required.  Montanans love their Big Sky Country. Texans write poems about their Wide Open Spaces.  The wind comes sweepin' down the plain in Oklahoma.  (Thank you for the image, Messrs. Rodgers and Hammerstein.)  A college friend of mine from southern Indiana once opined, "If you take away Lake County, Indiana might be the Midwest's most scenic state."  Well, yeah; and if you take away those four runs Clayton Kershaw gave up in the sixth inning, he would have had a shutout.

Among the many attributes of North Dakotans, two I particularly admire are these: They are extremely proud of their state, and they rarely feel a need to convince any outsider of the correctness of their opinion.  If outsiders can’t appreciate the beauty of the land, well, that’s on them.  In fact North Dakotans, ever confident, are even willing to poke some fun at themselves, hence the wheat field meme.  "Flat is where it's at," proclaims a popular Nodak T-shirt.  While driving through the state you might see "It's not a tree, it's a telephone pole" on a bumper sticker.

All kidding aside, one doesn't have to look very hard to appreciate the splendor of North Dakota.  And, as an expat of the Peace Garden State, I find it easy to defend any accusations of exaggeration or hallucination from people who think of the place as strictly fly over territory or the frozen tundra.  I wasn't always in the camp of the state's ardent admirers.  Between 1966 and 1976 I probably made the 1000 mile round trip between the Twin Cities and Minot close to three dozen times.  On those journeys I was always in a hurry to reach my destination.  (The first time I ever drove 100 m.p.h. was on I-94, about twenty-five miles west of Fargo. Dumb!)  But then I finally got smart; I ditched the interstate.

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Have you ever been at a party when the conversation has run dry?  Here is the perfect ice-breaker.  You gather a small group around you and posit this querry:  Does anybody know the difference between a byway and a backway?  If that doesn’t reignite the chatter, nothing will.  (Or, it could also be a good way to clear your house of guests if you're the exhausted host.)

Let's start with the basics.  There is a regulated system of Scenic Byways across the United States, thus dissuading states’ Departments Of Tourism from  posting homemade roadside signs making such proclamation anywhere they choose.  In order to qualify officially as a Scenic Byway, the U.S. Department Of Transportation requires that one or more of the following attributes of the road must be present: scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archeological and recreational.  The federal government calls these "intrinsic qualities."  Due to probable overlapping of these qualities, most Scenic Byways boast several, not just one, of the mandatory characteristics.

North Dakota hosts seven Scenic Byways, of which two have earned special recognition from the feds, and three Scenic Backways.  You have waited patiently for an explanation of the definitional difference, so here it is in all its simplicity.  In addition to meeting one of the six requisites listed above, a Byway must be a road with an all-weather surface suitable for automobile and RV travel.  This can mean either a paved road or a gravel road which is graded and regularly maintained.  There are no such guaranties with the Backways.  They are mostly dirt or gravel roads, with several stretches unsuitable for RVs and other large vehicles.  There may also be safety concerns associated with Backways, such as washouts or unstable shoulders.  The average length of North Dakota's seven Byways is 51 miles; the three Backways' average is 28.

For the two Byways which have earned national recognition, state highway signs are replaced by white rectangular signs trumpeting "AMERICA'S BYWAYS" in red capital letters, above which is an illustration of a fluttering triangular flag, blue with a white star in the middle.  The other five Byways and the three Backways are marked by green rectangular signs with white block lettering below an image of a bison.  (Must have been designed by an North Dakota State University alum.)

Forty-six states -- all but Hawaii, Texas, Nebraska and Rhode Island -- are home to at least one nationally recognized Scenic Byway.  The two North Dakota claims are the Sheyenne River Valley National Scenic Byway (the "Sheyenne River Byway"), the first in the state to earn national recognition, and the Standing Rock National Native American Scenic Byway (the "Standing Rock Byway").  I have driven each of them twice.  (I've also driven the Old Red/Old Ten Scenic Byway once.  Its endpoints are Mandan and Dickinson in the state's southwest quadrant.)  The Sheyenne River Byway is located in southeastern North Dakota, running between Lisbon and Baldhill Dam on Lake Ashtabula.  The Standing Rock Byway lies in southwestern North Dakota, starting 41 miles south of Mandan at Cannon Ball and extending beyond the South Dakota line.  What follows are a few lasting impressions from my travels up the Sheyenne River Byway.

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The sixty-three mile long Sheyenne River Byway follows its namesake river, winding through some of the most beautiful countryside North Dakota has to offer.  My first exploration of the road took me over three hours.  I could have used four, but made the mistake of starting too late in the day, then rushing a bit so I could eat dinner at my favorite ND restaurant, City Lights in Valley City, before it closed.  I did not repeat that error on my second time through a couple of years later.  There are so many things to view, including the forty-one award winning interpretive panels which populate the route, and the gorgeous vistas which await the traveler, seemingly around every bend.  An important feature for camera bugs is that, unlike most of the Standing Rock Byway, the Sheyenne River Byway is  girded by relatively wide shoulders.  That, coupled with the fact that (like most North Dakota roads) there is very little traffic, enables the traveler to pull over, get out of the vehicle and snap pictures to his heart's content.  Sometimes I even hopped a fence and strode twenty or thirty yards into a field just to get "the perfect shot."

The southern third of the Sheyenne River Byway is forested, a fact which might come as a surprise to out-of-state visitors.  The route takes you through the Sheyenne River State Forest, where bur oak, quaking aspen, basswood and ironwood trees grow in abundance.  The state forest is also the home of North Dakota's only waterfall, Mineral Springs. Countless groves of trees grow on both sides of the Sheyenne, so even on those stretches of the Byway where the river can't be seen, you know where it is; just look for those leafy clusters.

There are 347 species of birds living in or traveling through North Dakota.  The Sheyenne Valley is popular with birders because of the variety of terrain.  The woodlands following the river contrast with the wavy grasslands and the fields of grain crops, thereby attracting an assortment of the winged creatures.  The Audubon Society lists roughly twenty different bird types of special local interest in the valley, most of which I've never heard of.  How about the northern harrier, the marbled godwit, the ovenbird or the yellow-throated vireo?  As for four-legged creatures, I saw many horses and cows, plus an occasional deer and a lonely coyote.  Although North Dakota farms and ranches are not open range, the curious animals are willing to lope over to the wire fences separating them from the road in order to check out human visitors.

If shooting pictures isn't your thing, don't let that stop you from trying the Byway, especially if you're interested in American history.  The area was home to several military outposts, including Fort Ransom.  In the 1860's and 1870's, Harris Ford Crossing was the point along the Sheyenne where westward bound army wagons carrying supplies and mail crossed to reach Fort Ransom from Fort Abercrombie.  The soldiers' main responsibility was to protect the settlers who were either making their home in the valley or else heading toward the western reaches of the Louisiana Purchase.  The village of Fort Ranson, named for the nearby fort, was founded in 1878 as a lumber and flour mill center.  The hamlet still stands today, notwithstanding the misfortune of having the Northern Pacific Railroad laying its tracks far to the north.  On the outskirts of the village lies the mysterious Pyramid Hill, on top of which stands a Viking statue.  Some archeologists believe that the hill, which actually does resemble a pyramid, is part of a network of Native American burial grounds, possibly dating back to the ninth century.

The majority of the settlers in the region were Lutherans from Scandinavia.  Two historic houses of worship, the Preston Church and the Waldheim Church, are situated several miles apart on the Byway north of Fort Ransom.    Those buildings, completed under the direction of Lutheran missionaries in 1898 and 1900, respectively, were once surrounded by tiny houses and cabins.  Now, other than a small cemetery across the road from Waldheim Church, the buildings stand alone.

Other historic sights along the Byway include: Walker Dam, originally built in 1906, sabotaged shortly thereafter in a water rights dispute, and rebuilt in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (better known as the "WPA") under FDR's New Deal; Wadeson Park, where a one room cabin built of oak logs and local uncut stone was used as a community center; and, King School, a one room frontier school house just south of Valley City.  All of these buildings have been lovingly preserved for more than a century.

The "city" of Kathryn, population 52, marks the midpoint of the Sheyenne River Byway.  Pioneers first established homes here in 1870, and thirty years later were lucky enough to have the Northern Pacific create a stop in its midst.  In fact, when the town incorporated, the name it chose was in honor of a railroad executive's daughter.  Other stations along the prairie route were likewise named for execs' wives and daughters, thus becoming known as "The Ladies' Line."  As important as the railroad was to the town's survival, the establishment of a co-op grain elevator played a key role in Kathryn's survival.  Outside of Valley City, the concrete elevator bearing the name "Kathryn Farmers Mutual Elevator Company" is the tallest structure on the Byway.  In the North Dakota lexicon, grain elevators dotting the plains are sometimes called "prairie skyscrapers."

Valley City, with a population over 6300, stands as an anomaly on the Byway.  It bills itself as "The Most Beautiful Town in North Dakota."  (Interestingly, Valley City State University unabashedly claims to have the most beautiful campus in the state.) The local Visitors' Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce also refer to Valley City as the "City Of Bridges," a reference to its thirteen bridges having varying degrees of historical interest.  Travelers sometimes use Valley City as a home base for exploring both the Sheyenne River Byway and the North Country Trail, both of which cut through the town.  The North Country Trail is America's longest hiking trail, spanning over 4600 miles from Vermont to central North Dakota.  The Rosebud Visitor Center in downtown Valley City is a very helpful resource.

The northernmost point of the Sheyenne River Byway lies eleven miles beyond Valley City at Baldhill Dam.  Built by the U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers from 1941 to 1951, the dam was desperately needed to control the flow of the Sheyenne River as it wended its way through precious farmland on its way to the Red River.  The dam created Lake Ashtabula, a twenty-seven mile long wide spot in the river, not unlike the relationship between Lake Pepin and the Mississippi.  The Corps strategizes with the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, studying flood forecasts which impact the Corps' adjustments of the lake level.  With 74 miles of shoreline, there is a plethora of resorts, beaches, marinas, lakeshore campgrounds and restaurants.  Northern pike, walleyes and yellow perch are the main attraction.

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The North Dakota Department Of Tourism spends a lot of money airing television advertisements in the Twin Cities market.  Their spokesperson is movie actor Josh Duhamel, a native of my town, Minot.  "North Dakota Legendary" is the service mark.  For the most part the advertisements tout the splendor of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and the big city lights of Fargo.  I have been to those places, and there is no disputing they both deserve the attention.  If and when Josh rings me up for my advice on how the state can improve its lure, my suggestion will be to start a campaign promoting North Dakota's Byways and Backways.  I expect that call at any moment.