The North Dakota portion of this trip is straight across, along I-94. To break up the 3-ish hour drive from Fargo to Bismarck - the capital - we picked Jamestown, home to the National Buffalo Museum, as well as the world's largest Buffalo:
Is this a verified world record? Does Guinness care about buffalo statues of unusual size?
Anyway, the museum was fine, and I actually learned some things, like how there were millions of buffalo, then we hunted them down to less than 1,000, and now there's around 400K. Also, that Ted Turner is an inductee into the buffalo hall of fame for his conservation work (?!)
Also, around this area is when the landscape finally began to change. It had been this:
But now had a few rolling hills:
The giant buffalo statue also had a recreation old west town and pioneer church next to it:
And in the actual town of Jamestown, a real church, the local Basilica:
Which, by sheer coincidence, was holding a 12:10 mass, meaning, since we arrived at 12:05, we could sneak inside and see it:
Lunch and coffee followed in town, then we continued on to Bismarck. We arrived just in time to have about an hour at the North Dakota State Museum:
And then the Capitol:
Now this is a weird Capitol. No domes or rotundas here. The whole thing looks like a 1930s New York skyscraper. Even the inside is pure art deco:
And I wondered: why? Well, it turns out there's a very straightforward answer: the original Capitol burned down in about 1933, and so they rebuilt it, according to the style of the day. It looks like a 1930s skyscraper because it is a 1930s skyscraper. Complete with an observation deck on the 18th story:
Saw the house and senate chambers too:
And that was about it. Hotel, then a place called StoneHome for dinner & drinks, then the day was done. A fine little stop, and another state capital crossed off the list.
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