Visiting The National Buffalo Museum and Frontier Village was a memorable and moving experience. Before entering the museum there is a small frontier village with a few shops that sell arts and crafts made by the local tribes of the Sioux and the Lakota. I got a really great pair of handmade buckskin moccasins that I love so much I am afraid to wear them for fear of ruining them. Isaac got a little drum that … [Read more...]
Bonanzaville (West Fargo)
Driving up from South Dakota up to Fargo, we stopped at Bonanzaville, a pioneer village with 12 acres, 43 historic buildings, 400,000 artifacts, and millions of memories. It is the region’s largest historical attraction. Bonanzaville is kind of a museum whose exhibits are old buildings. We found out that most of these buildings were not here originally but were painstakingly moved here to create this sort of … [Read more...]
Prairie Homestead (Interior)
The Prairie Homestead was one of my favorite places on the whole trip and is the original sod home of Mr. & Mrs. Ed Brown built in 1909. It is typical of the homes and outbuildings that pioneers built and is one of the last remaining original sod homes intact today. These pioneers played a very important part in settling the Great Plains and the kids and I learned all about them. Go inside the home and you … [Read more...]
Itinerary #5: North and South Dakota
What is there to do in North and South Dakota, you ask? Plenty! When people ask me which trip was my favorite, I always think of this one, mostly because I was surprised by what I took away from it: a new appreciation of the American spirit embodied in the homesteaders and pioneers who toughed it out for a piece of land to call their own. It’s tough to imagine my kids and me coming out on a covered wagon to settle … [Read more...]