May 17, 2007

I don't know about the teaching, I'm learning as we go too! Have visited several Lewis & Clark camps, they wintered over at Ft Maden on the Missouri River in a very small triangular fort. It held about 50 people and our guide said the rooms, which had 2 beds, housed about 8-9 men. Two got the beds and the rest slept in an upstairs small loft and then they rotated for the beds. And of course, they didn't wash during that entire time! Must have been very pleasant!!

We also found an old train trestle today that incorporated a lift bridge over the Yellowstone River, very similar to the one in Duluth. The trestle is fenced so you can walk over it and at the end is the only train tunnel in ND, built in 1913. Once the lift was built, it was raised once to test it and it was never used again even thou the bridge was in use until 1986. Prior to building a car bridge in 1955, this trestle also was used for cars with an attendant on duty to make sure the cars & trains didn't hit each other.