The Congregational church was picked up and moved to the prairie south of Parshall.
“Hey, you wanna check out a historic town? It’s the home of a champion basketball team, a hospital, a mission, a couple large schools, a bustling retail community,” he asked her. “It’ll mean a bit of a hike.”
“Sure. How much of a hike?” she asked.
“Depends on which way we go. From the south, it’ll be just a short easy hike down an old road to the water. But the town won’t be there,” he teased.
“Huh? Then why go? You’re not making any sense. Where did the town go? What town?” she asked.
“It didn’t go anywhere. I’m guessing it’s still there. You just can’t get there. Here, I’ll show you. We’ll go look for Elbowoods.”
A 1942 North Dakota Highway map shows Elbowods and Highway 8.
He hauled out one of the tools the mild-mannered explorers depend on, maps. The pair liked old maps, they were most useful for adventures such as this, searching for Elbowoods. Travelers today, using modern maps drive right by the rich history of the plains.
On a 75-year old reproduction of a North Dakota railroad map, he pointed out the historic town of Elbowoods. Another map showed that it was on Highway 8 where it crossed the Missouri River in the northwestern quarter of the state south of the Mountrail County town of Parshall.
They pair packed a cooler with snacks and water because he promised it would be an easy hike with plenty of opportunities to sit and absorb the environment.
They drove Highway 200 across the state to Halliday in Dunn County. Highways 8 and 200 share a short stretch of highway near Halliday. Highway 200 goes on its east and west direction, Highway 8 goes north past Halliday and Twin Buttes.
They looked for remnants, hints, and history as they drove up Highway 8 past Halliday and Twin Buttes. (Highway 8, a state highway, comes up from South Dakota near Hettinger, North Dakota. It’s part of a state highway system that once was called the “Bowbells to the Black Hills” Highway before the valley was flooded to make Lake Sakakawea.)
Highway 8 ends at the Twin Buttes Water Treatment Plant.
North of Halliday they skirted ranchland with herds of cattle in the hundreds. It was early spring, so there wasn’t much green yet.
“I gotta tell ya, it’s been 15 years since I last took this drive to the south shore of Lake Sakakawea, looking for evidence of old Highway 8 and Elbowoods. You could drive right up to the water’s edge, “ he said.
Permanent barricades stop traffic before going down the hill.
They drove on to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, the home of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nation. At the Twin Buttes water treatment plant and the road stopped at barricades. So, they walked. That part of his prediction was right: it was an easy walk. “I wonder why more people don’t stroll down this easy hike,” he wondered aloud. The road and the entire shoreline below are public access.
“Look at this, she said. I’m in a no passing zone.” She pointed at the yellow lines on the broken and covered pavement.
The old highway 9s clearly evident under the leaves and dirt.
“Looks like someone didn’t want to follow the road,” he said as pointed down over the edge of the ancient roadbed.
A crashed station wagon lays down below the road at one of the curves.
Tagged rocks broadcast to the world the dates and initials of previous visitors.
Tagged rocks overlook the abandoned Highway 8 below.
It was easy to see that this section of highway would have been a challenge to maintain. One side, the slope ate out the grade below the road. The other side dropped boulders and mudslides on the pavement.
The drive to the river before it was flooded would have been a scenic route across North Dakota.
At the bottom of the hill, the pavement disappeared. So, the mild-mannered explorers followed the water’s edge.
Lake Sakakawea was invented in 1953 when the Army Corp of Engineers built Garrison Dam on the Missouri River and flooded out the people, farms, ranches and towns along the river’s edge — including Elbowoods. The inlet had once been a slope that the highway followed – now under water. It was easy to see where the highway had run between two bluffs, one jutting up from the north, one from the south.
Before the Army Corps of Engineers flooded the valley, Highway 8 ran alongside the Missouri River toward the Four Bears Bridge. This section of the highway is under water. The original Four Bears Bridge is in the background. Photo courtesy of the Tveit family.
The pavement extends to the water’s edge. A bit of imagination is all it takes to envision how the highway went down in to the valley to the Four Bears Bridge.
The old Highway 8 lies beneath the flooded waters in this bay on Lake Sakakawea. It passed between the buttes that jut out in to the water today.
The valley was an abundant farm and ranch region. It was home to indigenous people for hundreds of years. Modern convenience settled in the town of Elbowoods and a ferry connected Elbowoods on the north side of the Missouri River to the south side of the river.
The Four Bears Bridge at Elbwoods crossed the Missouri River, connecting the northern and southern halves of not only the state, but of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Then, in 1925, a bridge replaced the ferries, the Four Bears Bridge. Its southern end was marked with a giant monument to Chief Four Bears.
The official opening of the Four Bears Bridge brought excited people from all over the western part of North and South Dakota. The Four Bears Monument is on the hill above the crowd. It is now underwater.
Local ranch families from the Elbowoods region would gather near the bridge for family picnics and family portraits. Photo courtesy of the Tveit family.
Ranchers who lived along the Missouri River Valley would often congregate on the bridge for family photos. The bridge was an engineering monument in 1925.
Flood waters begin to creep up on Elbowods in this 1953 photo from the North Dakota Historical Society. By the time, this image was shot, much of the town had been picked up and moved. The streets no longer were lined with homes. The large brick schoolhouse and hospital are still visible.
The winter before the valley was flooded, movers hauled buildings up out of the valley to higher locations. Some were moved to create a new town on the prairie called New Town
The Congregational church was picked up and moved to the prairie south of Parshall.
In 1953, the Army Corps of Engineers took the Native American and white-owned land and flooded the river valley to form Lake Sakakawea, the bridge was dismantled and moved to New Town. 50 years later at its reborn location, it was deemed functionally obsolete and was replaced. The town of Elbowoods and other towns such as Sanish and Van Hook were gone forever.
In 2005, just as the new Four Bears Bridge was completed, the tip of the giant monument to Chief Four Bears made an appearance. The water level had dropped to near-record lows, revealing shoreline, and other long-flooded lands. A hike out on the frozen water showed visitors just the tip of the monument that once towered over the Four Bears Bridge and the Missouri River.
In 2005 Lake Sakakawea reached historic lows. By November, some of the shallow reaches of the lake were frozen over and the tip of the Four Bears Monument appeared poking through the ice.
The mild-mannered explorers returned to the truck, sat on the tailgate, rested and quenched their thirst.
She was quiet when they got back to the pickup truck. He asked her, “What are you feeling?”
“You know, “she said. “This makes me kind of sad. There’s a lot of family roots under that water. Just think, there are families where the younger generation has no concept of what their grandparents’ farms and ranches were like, or where they were. Underwater. It’s all gone forever.”
Want to learn more about Elbowoods?
http://www.flatheadmemo.com/archives_2016/september_2016/2016-09-14_elbowoods.html
http://ghostlakes.blogspot.com/2012/02/elbowoods-nd-flooded-plain.html
Here’s the story of the bizarre way Elbowoods stuck to the rules and won the 1942 championship title
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View Comments
"The Native American and White owned land" of Elbowwoods.
Like how they added that there to lighten the actuality of trauma that was caused among the tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. That town was THEIR HOME! and the WHITE PEOPLE FORCED THEM TO SIGN IT OVER TO BE FLOODED! IT WAS WE EITHER SIGN IT OVER WITH LAND IN EXCHANGE OR DONT SIGN IT AND GET NOTHING AND NOWHERE TO GO.
They took their livelihood, their culture, their homes, their land!
It makes me sick. How dare they try to lighten the severity of the story.
Such shame the white people cast upon themselves.
You're right. A horrible taking by the U.S. government, not by white people, but by the government. That is a huge difference. It could have been taken by the Sioux.
From the MHA History shelf at the Fort Berthold Library, ( used to be the west wall in the library), the MHA had somehow managed to hold on to the land when the Sioux were taking land from the Pawenee, Crow, Cree, Blackfoot, Shoshone and others further to the south. The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people kept their land by merging into one group that was strong enough to repel the Sioux. They would have forced from the land entirely, with nothing left. That was the Sioux practice.
So, in the late 1800s, the MHA nation sided with the "blue coats" and became scouts for Custer and others. They knew that was the best way to stand up to the Sioux. And when the Fort Laramie Treaty was finally signed by the warring nations, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara still kept their land. Whites and Natives lived together, fought together, worshipped together, traded together. Then the U.S. Government took the land. That is why I will not play on Lake Sakakawea, or the other lakes.