North Dakota - Day 17 - Minot

Roughriders RV Resort, Minot

Saturday, 17 July 2021

I'd found only 2 places I wanted to visit while we were in town, and that's what we did today.  First I stopped at Marketplace Foods, which seemed to be the main grocery store in town, and I was surprised to find that despite it being a very large store, many of the items and brands I have had little trouble finding elsewhere were not being sold here.  Made me think Minot is a small town after all.

I went first to a place called Scandinavian Heritage Park - an attraction covering the space of several city blocks, most of it green lawn.  They claim to be the only park in the world representing all 5 Scandinavian/Nordic countries.

I found 2 works of art at the entrance.

Carved into the base: "Let this globe depicting the
seven continents of the world symbolize all our heritages."

Apparently there was carving on the globe that showed the continents, but I couldn't see any.  The globe, by the way, was moving around and turning over as the water splashed around it, which may have been why I couldn't see any carving.

I couldn't find a vantage point that would let me show the whole thing at once, so I'm including both these photos.

This is called Plaza Scandinavia, and this is a 65' diameter granite map of the 5 Nordic countries - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.  The blue ocean is granite from Norway (which is a long way to ship some stone).  They say it "serves to commemorate and honor the Scandinavian immigrants, who left their homes across the ocean and endured many hardships to establish their new homes in North America."

Not far away are these:

goes with the statue, below

Hans Christian Andersen -
presumably with the ugly duckling

30' version of a Dala horse, considered the most recognized of the Swedish symbols

Apparently these horses are usually a very great deal smaller, and were originally carved as toys.  They're named for the Dalarna province, where they've been carved since the 1840s.

This next is what I came here to see.

Gol Stave Church
A stave church is what it is, and this is an exact replica of one built in Gol, Norway.

T

They call this the Gate House, though I don't understand its purpose at a church.

The church is full of examples of the art of wood carving.

There were many other sites and statues in this heritage park - many relating to skiing, such as a statue of Sondre Norheim, who they say was the "father of modern skiing."  They also have a sauna, a windmill, several old houses and other structures relating to the culture these immigrants came from.

It's a large, attractive area, with extensive lawns and picnic facilities.  And it certainly emphasizes the role of these immigrants in settling this area.

From there, I drove to a section of town called the Eastwood Park National Historic District.  It's a small neighborhood that sits inside an oxbow of the Souris River.  By the way, funny thing about the name of that river - various places on the internet insisted it was called the Mouse River, that that's the US name for it, and that Souris River is what it's called in Canada.  But here in Minot, all anybody seems to call it is the Souris, which is a name I saw all over town.  I never saw anything about the Mouse here.

Anyway, this neighborhood is about 3 blocks wide and 3 blocks across, bounded by the oxbow.  The Souris itself flows along the north side of the neighborhood, and then just south of it is this piece that was once connected, flowed in an almost perfect circle, and then gradually became disconnected from the main river.  I drove across a bridge on the south side, and there's a pedestrian bridge across the east side.  When I left I drove on a road through the opening in the oxbow back into town.

It's just a nice little residential neighborhood that claims a spot on the National Historic Register because of a variety of early 20th century architectural styles.  In general I found them pleasant but unremarkable, because that's the kind of neighborhood my mom used to live in.  But I did see one slightly unusual feature.

The curve on the porch frame is something I don't think I've seen before.

Leaving the area, Google led me through a very industrial part of town, and at one point I found myself looking at the most attractive fire escape I think I've ever seen.

Definitely not your typical fire escape.

Minot has a well-known air force base which, of course, I'm not allowed on.  The town itself promotes other activities - their zoo, for instance.  And I just missed the state fair by a week, though that was on purpose.  I usually try to attend those things, but from what I saw online, this one wasn't going to promote their agricultural activities but instead would be mostly just a fair, with food and carnival rides and concerts.  I'm one of those strange people who like touring vegetable displays and livestock entries and like that, and I saw no mention of those things in their promotional info.  So I gave it a miss.

And then back to that rough campground.