Well, we are now in North Dakota--have been for most of the day.  

Our first stop was in West Fargo about 10 miles from the Minnesota border.  We spent about 3 1/2 hours in Bonanzaville, a recreated town (actual buildings brought to the site from other parts of ND) put together by the Cass County Historical Society.  There was also a telephone museum, antique car museum and an airplane museum (we didn't go into that one) on site.  Pictures say it better than I can so..........

Fargo's first house; log cabin built in 1869

  

The inside of St. John's Lutheran Church chartered in 1898

Schoolhouse.  Julie Nixon Eisenhower must have visited Bonanzaville and written her name and 1972 on this school blackboard as the signature and date have been overlayed with a covering so they aren't accidentally erased.

 Various models of some of the old telephones that are included in the collection in the telephone museum.

1936 Phantom II Rolls-Royce

 

1981 Freeway

Wouldn't you just love to have one of these one-seaters to buzz around town in?  Bet it would be good on gas!!

After a little lunch eaten in the truck in the Bonanzaville parking lot we got on the road and traveled to Jamestown where we visited The Buffalo Museum.   Along the way one can't help noticing how flat the terrain is (a surprise to me) and how many wetland patches (sometimes you can see the 'pools' of water; other times you see just the cattails) there are.  

The Buffalo Museuem has a rare albino bison on site (born in2005) but we never saw her.  It was hot and she was undoubtedly in the shade of the trees some distance from the museum building.  

As you may already know, what we call buffalo are not buffalo at all and are not even related to the the buffalo.  What we were seeing is the American Bison, which, at one time, were close to extinction.  They certainly are big creatures!  The males are about 6' measured from the shoulder and weigh one ton.  The females are slightly smaller and weigh around 1200 lbs.  Included in the museum were a lot of Native American artifacts and some of their lore, paintings of Native Americans,  cowboys, American Bison, etc.  There was also a collection of plainsman guns and some stuffed animals native to the area.  We spent a good 1 1/2 hours there before heading on the Coddington where we are staying tonight.

Tomorrow we head to Dunseith and a botanical garden.