Skip to main content

2016 Summer Mountain Trip Part 11; Lonely US Route 85 in the Dakotas

By
Following spending the night in Belle Fourche my destination was in North Dakota in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  From US Route 212 in Belle Fourche it was a solid 174 miles north to Interstate I-95 on a desolate stretch of US Route 85.


This blog entry serves as Part 11 of the 2016 Mountain Trip series, Part 10 can be found here:

2016 Summer Mountain Trip Part 10; Devil's Tower National Monument

US Route 85 north of Belle Fourche in South Dakota traverses through rural Butte County and Harding County.  Between Belle Fourche and the North Dakota State Line there isn't much to capture the interest.  The site of interest I did find was the ghost town of Redig in southern Harding County.  Oddly Redig is something I've never been able to find much information on as it rarely ever appears on historical maps.  The community has an abandoned service station that appears to have been last in use in the mid-20th century.  There was no apparent signs of life amid the abandoned buildings and derelict cars.




US 85 enters North Dakota in Bowman County.  The first real town north from Belle Fourche is the County Seat in Bowman at the junction of US 12.  I stopped in Bowman for a refill of gas and a bag of M&Ms before continuing northward on US 85.

US 85 enters Slope County north of Bowman County.  I stopped in Amidon which is the second least populated incorporated County Seat in the United States with a population of 20.  Amidon was founded in 1910 and was anticipated to be a rail siding of a Milwaukee Road Railroad branch line that ultimately never made it to the community.  When Slope County was split from Billings County in 1914 Amidon became the county seat.  Amidon was the last North Dakota County seat to receive electricity by 1950.  Apparently Amidon once had a population of about 150 in the 1920s but along with Slope County has declined.  Reportedly the Amidon County Post Office closed in 2018.


North of Amidon US 85 enters Stark County where it meets I-94 in Belfield.  From Belfield I entered I-94 west towards Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Part 12 of the 2016 Summer Mountain Trip Series can be found here:

2016 Summer Mountain Trip Part 12; Theodore Roosevelt National Park, I-94, and Old US 10
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abandoned Fowler Avenue in Clovis, California

By
Originally Fowler Avenue in the city of Clovis had a brief discontinuation approaching Herndon Avenue.  Fowler Avenue traffic heading northbound was required to detour briefly onto westbound Herndon Avenue.  During 2001 this discontinuation was removed when Fowler Avenue was reconfigured to access the Sierra Freeway (California State Route 168) via an interchange.  This led to a segment of the original alignment of Fowler Avenue just south of Herndon Avenue to be abandoned.  Despite a shopping center opening over part of the original Fowler Avenue alignment in 2016 much of the abandoned roadway remains.   The history of the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue in Clovis The original alignment of California State Route 168 departed downtown Clovis eastbound along Tollhouse Road.  This original alignment did not interact with Fowler Avenue at the Herndon Avenue intersection.  Fowler Avenue north of Tollhouse Road ran north to Herndon Avenue...
Post a Comment
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

By
  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...
Post a Comment
Read more