NORTH DAKOTA: BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA HERITAGE CENTER AND SICKIES GARAGE

September 16, 2019

On our last morning in North Dakota, we spent some time in the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum, located on the capitol grounds. Called the "Smithsonian on the plains," the original building opened in 1981, and an expansion that added 127,000 of space was finished in 2014.

 They have a large collection of fossilized remains, including this huge mastodon skeleton.

The displays are creatively placed, often showing the animals in conflict.

NORTH DAKOTA, BISMARCK: STATE CAPITOL BUILDING

September 13, 2019

One of the things we like to do as we have traveled around to the 50 states is visit the state capitol buildings. There are a lot of states we will have to go back to because we didn't go to the capital city or because it was Sunday and the capitol was closed or because of some other reason.  

But we made it to the capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota's capital.  It was not super exciting, but it had some fun components. 

First, some info on Bismarck itself. It was founded in 1872 by European Americans on the Missouri River and was made the capital in 1889, the year the state was created from the Dakota Territory and admitted to the union as the 39th state. (FYI, it made it in ahead of South Dakota, the 40th state.)  Bismarck has a population of about 75,000 people, not very big, but by no means the smallest capital city.

The original state capitol was built in 1883-1884 to house the territorial government, but it burned to the ground in 1930, requiring that a new building be built during the height of the Great Depression. They came up with this 21-story Art Deco structure, still the tallest building in North Dakota. Its nickname is "The Skyscraper on the Prairie."

They have a very nice state seal, which is in the front entry.

NORTH DAKOTA: WHERE ELSE WOULD YOU GO FOR YOUR 40TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY?

September 12-13, 2019

Our wedding anniversary falls in September, a time when it is very hard for me to get off work. However, our 40th wedding anniversary was coming up, and that seemed important enough to beg for a couple of days off. I did and they were granted.

Now where to go? How to celebrate? It wasn't hard to figure that one out. We've been on a decades-long quest to visit all 50 states, and we had been to 49.  Mind you, "been" might mean driving through in our car, which hardly seems like "being" anywhere, but Bob is adamant that putting your toe in the state counts.  We need to go back to a few states to "be" there a little longer.

Anyway, the only state we had not had any contact with, even on a drive through, was North Dakota, not exactly the pinnacle of romance (think Hawaii), but certainly a Milestone Befitting a Milestone. We booked our flights.

We got off to a good start with a layover in Denver that was just long enough to eat some ice cream.

We flew into the Bismarck Municipal Airport, arriving in the early evening. The airport may look a bit prehistoric, but it is was built in 2005.

On our way out of the airport, I noticed a Bobcat parked inside. Now that's not something you see every day. Turns out that the Bobcat Company has its headquarters in North Dakota. Okay, now it makes sense!