FORT RANSOM, ND

8/10-11

We arrived at Fort Ransom on Sunday. We used the GPS to get us there and it took us over 7 miles of gravel road to the state park. It was exciting to say the least. We did not meet any cars on the way, thank goodness, because the road was not very wide. This road is listed as an “American ByWay”. It really was nice. We stopped at a little cabin we saw on the way to the park. It was Slattum’s Cabin. As we were walking to the cabin to read the interpretive sign, a gentleman drove up and asked if we wanted to go inside. This man was the great grandson of Mr. Slattum who built the cabin. It was very small as you can see from the picture. Mr. Slattum came from Norway and he and his wife raised 9 children in this small cabin. He walked from south Minnesota to settle in this region of North Dakota.

Next on to Fort Ransom and a gorgeous camp site. There were only 6 other campers in the park.
We took a ride to the overlook and looked at the area. It was awesome. The sign gave an explanation of how North Dakota was formed. Eastern North Dakota was covered by the Western Interior Seaway between 60 and 90 million years ago. This warm subtropical sea was less than 500 feet deep and stretched from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. There are many fossils found in the area. Three layers of rock (called formations) extend over eastern North Dakota. These formations, which began as sediments washed into the sea, were deposited along the shoreline on the seashore.
Sandstone was deposited along the fluctuating shoreline, with shale and limestone forming on the bottom in deeper waters.

It rained all day Monday. This was the first day since we left from Kate’s on July 7th that we really couldn’t do anything. It was a good day to catch up on rest, reading, and a couple of videos.