Curles, yep that would be the hill  I  thought it was 23 but the 19 looks familiar cause thats about how fast I drive that road, and it crosses 23 and goes to benidict.  You are correct got my highways mixed up which always explains why  i get lost out there.

Thanks for the information . 

The forum has been a little to enlightening for my sensory perception of treatment of others on this forum and am leaveing , I remembered our talk from last night and √ checked back. 

To you i would like to say goodbye, and who knows we live semi close together I am sure we will see each other at times to time, and I hope I  put a smile on your face when we pass.   T/c and god bless you and your husband.

The Skinner hill I was talking about is the hill that goes straight south on county rd 19.  It is a good paved road that goes south from what used to be Johns Cafe and garage.  the highway goes to Benedict, ND.  Are we talking about the same Skinner Hill?

As for the bank robbery in Sawyer, there are photos in the archives of the Ward County Historical Society.  The bank buildings are still standing.  They are on the corners of main street and are two old brick buildings.  One has been a cafe for years.  The other is now a bar.  I have a copy of the story written by Violet Ballentyne in 1962.  I got it at the all school reunion last summer.  I don't know how I would ever get you a copy.   You are welcome to it though.  I sure wish we could contact people with a private message on this board.  It would be conveinent sometimes.   I spose it is for safety sake. 

Have you ever been to some of the old cemetary's around Minot area?  I like to look at them and read the stones.  My grandfather homesteaded about 5 miles southwest of Sawyer back in the early 1900's.  I have very little information on the area other then the report from the Sawyer bank robbery. 

All good stuff

The Skinner family was one of the first familys up here.  I believe they were involved in the fur trade.  Highway 52 and 23, the old 52 highway is still there.  The cemetary is fenced with a gate, I was there and the only grave stone I could make out was a Joseph Skinner born in 1837 i believe and died in 1909.

The story I heard is the family was masacred  by Indians in that spot.  Skinner hill is still a good place to find arrowheads.   It is in a nice spot out of site from the highway .  I dont know why the story is not told and I dont know why it is not a tourist attraction.  I am sure the story is facinating if anyone knows?

  I took this pic in 2008 and went back but did not see the stone, and looks like it was toppled.  Its an easy walk .  If you increase the size of your screen you maybe able to make it out.  Lighting was terrible.

This is kind of an example where the North Dakota tourism misses the mark.  Sure missle sites are interesting, but are many storys untold , that can be just as interesting.

This letter i have somewhere , if i ever find it tells of a story of Sully masacred a village of Indians, there is a mass burial grave of women, children, and dogs.  The braves were off hunting or indian wars. 

Berthold had  an indian war but do not know much other than that. Indian wars were faught tribe against tribe. There is a place they still find artifacts.

Curles, pleased to know more about you.  It is funny you mention Sawyer Bank Robbery and do not believe it is showen in my book and a quick check on the internet didn come up with anything.  I have been looking for a 15 page letter written to my mother in the year 2000 from a 99 year old man who's father was her grandfathers best friend.  In the letter he explains in detail what it was like in the early 1900s.  I will have to continue looking for my copy.

I am also trying to find the story of the 1895 Estavan bank robber of over million dollars of gold bullion.  The story goes he hightaled his illegal treasue across the border near crosby.  There are stories about a cave where horse theives used to hide stolen horses and run across the border at night.  I do not know of a cave back then on the US side other than the Noonan coal mines.  On the Canadian side I do not know. 

THe bank robber was caught in the foot hills south of lignite and was in jail when he died under interigation.  The most they got out of this outlaw was that he had hidden the gold in a cave.  ?

If you have a story post it ,  I would like to learn more of the Skinner family.

KX, 

It is not that I don't like Custer history, it is that it is more to read then I have time to read.  I have many tasks since I am married to a person who can do nothing physical.  I am a busy lady.  I try to work here and there as well and then of course I love to spoil a group of 3  grandchildren in Fargo. 

I have been to the Custer house in Mandan and we did go to the battle site for battle of the little big horn in Wyoming.  It was many years ago but I did like it.  I love to watch things like that on the history channel.  In fact not long ago I watched a documentary on the bullistics of the battle of Custer and how the bullets they find are changing what was always beleived to be true.  I like the history channel and watch it a lot.  Not long ago I watched a documentary on the Viet Nam conflict.  Since my sweet hubby served there as a feild medic, I watched it to know what he saw there.  I am interested in lots of history...

Have you ever looked at the history behind the bank robbery in Sawyer, ND back in the late 1800's and the early 1900's?  I just got a paper that was written by a history teacher in the 60's about it.  I am a native of Sawyer so I found that to really peak my interest. 

One thing I would love to do is go to Washington DC and see all the history there.  I like to learn about the civil war and find the time leading up to it to be a very romantic time in history.  I think I have a jaded veiw because I liked the book Gone With the Wind and that got me started.  When I visited New Orleans back in the 80's I did some looking at history as it pertained to the war.  It is a facinating place to go to look at history.  I expected Rhett Butler to come out of the nearest cat house at any minuete.  :)

      IF YOU ARE IN JAIL ASK FOR A KNIFE AND A RAILROAD SPIKE.

Ed Canfield and George Arnott made a dramatic escape from the state pen in 1929.  For several weeks, they painstakingly chippped away the mortar between the bricks of a wall in one of their cells with a knife and a rail road spike. There work was undetected because at the end of each day, they replaced the bricks.

They chose to make their escape on Sunday because the roll call was not taken untill noon.  So, between 5:30 and 6:00 that morning while other inmates were making noise en route to the dining room, Arnott and Canfield enlared their hole.  Once it was big enough for them to slip through, they used a rope they had made by braiding strips of sheets to lower themselves 4 floors to the ground.

Because their cell wall was the outside wall of the prison, the 2 inmates stepped on free soil as soon as their feet touched the ground.  True to their calculations, they were not noticed missing untill noon roll call.  That meant they had several hours head start.

They alluded capture for several days.  The December cold finally forced them to seek shelter where they were discovered and turned over to authorities.  This was Arnott's sencond jail break.  Before he was sent to the penitentiary, he attempted to bust out of the Ward County jail.  Eleven years later, he attempted to get out of jail permanently by slashing his wrists.

Curls, books and the internet.   I just cant understand why you dont like history on Custer? its interesting.  

Interesting reading is relaxing, just type in your seach box here or in google and type in your subject, and click away.  The knowlege is out there , however there are bias groups also , so i just read.  If I learn something it was worth it.

a web-site sounds too much like work.

I am not sure if you want comment on this thread or not but...anyway....I have read some of this ND history.  Have you ever thought of putting together a web site (or maybe you have) with all the information you have gathered?  It is interesting and I think it would be a great thing for the arkives of North Dakotans. 

I have not read it all because of time but will continue to work at it.  thank you for the info.  Just curious, where do you find it all?

                                         JAIL ESCAPE

If awards were givin for the most fantastic jail break it would go to Weldon Shore and Marcus Hilstad for their 1951  sneaky escape from the Bismarck pen.

For up to 12 hours one night and the next morning they fooled guards into thinking they were sleeping by putting dummies in their beds.  The dummies were made by stuffing garments with toilet paper. 

The prisoners actually sewed stockings onto the trousers fo add an authentic touch.  To top off their clones, they made heads out of stuffed underwear.  Then they covered their doubles with bed sheets.

The got out of their cells by using smuggled tools to cut the bars which they replaced with chewing gum.  They knocked a hole in a wall which led them to a vacant cell.  Here they pried open a steel plate on the ceiling and knocked a hole in the concrete.  Entering this hole, they crawled in the attic until they gained access to the roof.  From there they lowered themselves 50 feet to the ground using a rope that was braided out of quarter-to-half- inch pieces of string that Hilstad smuggled from the prison twine plant.

The inept gaurds were marking down the two escapees as in their bunks thoughout the night, but it would seem they had been shurking their duties, by playing cards, and sleeping most of that time.  When they were missed at breakfast, again the new shift of guards missed the head count by marking the 2 freedom seekers as sleeping in.  At noon that day one of the guards actually opened the cell and realized they had all been duped.

Despite all this planning, both convicts were caught before the end of the year.  Hilstad was captured less than 2 months later in Yakima, Washington.  Shore was captured in Minneapolis that December.

                   GOLD ?

The first gold found here in North Dakota was near Ft. Ransom in 1862.  While working on a railroad survey crew, Henry Griswold's compass showed unusual readings suggesting mineral deposits.  This resulted in the 1884 gold rush in that area.  The Griswold Mine operated for 2 years then closed because it cost more to process the trace amounts of gold than the metal was worth.  It is believed this gold came via glacial actions into this area from South Dakota.

Gold was discovered 3 miles east of Denbigh in 1908 which resulted in the oening of the Eldorado Gold Mining Company and other operations.  Again, all of these ventures were short lived.  It is believed this gold worked its way down from Canada via glacier.

Potentially, half an ounce of gold a day could be extracted from the sands of the Little Missouri River near the Chaloner Ferry south of Watford City.  At least that was the claim made by oldtimers in 1926. Most noted of those washing up there at that time was an old prospector named Thorn.  It is said the gold he found in the sands of the Little Missouri was a flour-like quality that washed down the waters from the Black Hills.  Although Thorn was not actually finding a half an ounce of gold a day, he said he could if he had the right equipment.

In 1931 came a report ou of Chicago that gold nuggets had been taken from the crops of turkeys grown near Denbigh.  Prospectors decended on the area, for the 2nd time, hoping to get rich quick. No one did, though because , again, the quantities were limited.  A piece of gold about the size of 2 grrains of wheat was found during this rush making it the larest nugget ever found in the state.

Flour gold which is gold dust in the consistency of flour was , also, found not far away in the Bently Lake area near Drake.  Like all the other finds, this one, too, was of no commmercial value.

If you are looking for gold in North Dakota today ?  Don't expect to get rich.  However , there is one report that said the best chance of discovery of gold in North Dakota was between Logan and Minot.

                              THE ENCHANTED HIGHWAY

The Enchanted highway is no longer a dream for sculptor Gary Greff.  His visoion is a reality that includes several giant sized sculptures spanning 32 miles of highway from Gladstone to Regent in the south/western part of the state off I-94.  Begun in 1992, the display includes what are  said to be the largest scrap metal sculptures in the world.

             Deer Family.

             Grass Hopper.

        Fishemen's Dream.

                                               The TIn Family.

                                            The man that put it on the map for your enjoyment,   Gary Greff. 

North Dakota has the longest hang time in the history of golf.

North Dakota is host to the only International golf course in the united states if not the world.

The golfer teees off the 9th hole in Canada.  The ball lands an hour later in the United States. part of the couse is ondaylight savings time and and the other is on standard time. 

Located on the 49th parallel by Portal, North Dakota, and North Portal, Saskatchewan.

Built in 1930, the clubhouse is on American soil, but the next 8 holes are on Canadian property.  Then comes the 9th hole where golfers tee off in Canada but putt in on the green, in this case a sand green, in America.

The 1st hole-in-one on the international hole was made by a 14-year-old George Wegener in 1934. when he sank a hole-in-one on the 9th hole at the Gateway Cities Golf Club.

Wegener was the first to accomplish the feat on the 127-yard-hole.  As it turned out, he did it again in 1958.

The first time Wegener downed his hole-in-one, he was awarded a case of sparkling water and a box of lifesavers.  Although the local residuals were small, his fame spread.  His feat iwas recorded in the 1935 edition of Ripley's Velieve It or Not, and featured in a newsreel shown in movie houses across the nation.

For his 2nd hol-in-one on the 9th hole, Wegener recieved the Dunlop Hole-in-One Award, a trophy with the "international ball" implanted in it.

The 9th hole is a 127 three-par-hole.

The last 30 yards of the green are in the United States.

Angie Dickinson (1931 - ) Famous American actress who is well-known for her role as Seargent Leann "Pepper" Anderson in Police Woman. Born in Kulm, ND

William H. Gass (1924 - ) Writer and philosopher. He wrote Omensetter's Luck and a book of short stories called In the Heart of the Heart of the Country. Born in Fargo, ND (no pic)

Peggy Lee (1920 - 2002) An American Jazz and Traditional Pop singer. She is also an Oscar nominated performer. Born in Jamestown, ND

Louis L'Amour (1908 - 1988) Author known for his vivid descriptions of frontier life. Born in Jamestown, ND