Lots to See and Do at Highway 83's 'Magic City'

By

By STEW MAGNUSON 

Happy Birthday, Minot, North Dakota!

Incorporated this week, June 28, in 1887, it is the first major city encountered on Highway 83 — if one is starting at the top and driving south.

“The Magic City,” as it is known, received its nickname when it sprung up seemingly overnight as railroad magnate James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railway made it to the town. Construction stopped there in a onetime wheat field owned by Norwegian immigrant Erik Ramstad.

Minot would remain a main stop as the railway made its way to the Pacific. The rival Soo Line arrived six years later, and further cemented the town’s reputation as a transportation hub.

Minot later became the front line in the Cold War when Minot Air Force Base was built a few miles north of town along Route 83. 

The Souris, or Mouse River, has played a part in the town’s history, although not in the way the Missouri did for the development of Bismarck, ND and Pierre, SD. It has spilled its banks several times. The latest flood came two summers ago when the town suffered widespread damage.

Despite the disaster that reportedly damaged more that 4,000 homes, the town’s population is growing at a rapid pace because of the North Dakota oil boom.

With the advent of the automobile age, U.S. Route 83 became a vital, north-to-south road, connecting the town to the state capital, Bismarck. That is where it today intersects with the closest Interstate, I-94.

For that reason, Highway 83 is four lanes from Minot to Bismarck. And Highway 83’s place in the town’s history is still being written as it has become a main road for the transportation of equipment and workers making their way to jobs in the oil fields.

Minot has not lost its railway roots. Amtrak’s Empire Builder, a nod to James J. Hill’s nickname, passes through town once a day from Chicago to Seattle, and back. The station had been “de-modernized” and restored to what it looked like in the golden age of railway passenger trains, when it was severely damaged in the 2011 flood. But after a year, it was restored (again), according to this article in the Minot Daily News. The Railroad Museum of Minot — a few blocks away between the river and the charming downtown area — pays further tribute to the town’s legacy.

Erik Ramstad came from the absolute lowest rung of Norwegian society, but he envisioned a better life for himself in America. He settled in the area as thousand of Scandinavians were coming to the Dakotas to farm.

The Norsk Hostfest every year celebrates the region’s Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish and Icelandic roots. Organizers brag that it is North America’s largest Scandinavian festival.

The 2013 festival, which runs from Oct. 1-5, will feature singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson as the headline performer. Although it is surely coincidence, Kristofferson was born along Highway 83 as far away south on the road as one could get from Minot in Brownsville, Texas. He also wrote one of the great American road songs, “Me and Bobby McGee.”
For a full schedule and more details, CLICK HERE.

Those who aren’t in town during the festival can still stop by the Scandinavian Heritage Park alongside Highway 83 it passes through town. It has replicas of buildings from all five countries and a huge Swedish Dala horse (left).

Minot also hosts the North Dakota State Fair. It will run from July 19-27 in 2013.

Travelers making their way north will find a lot to see and do in Minot.

To join the Fans of U.S. Route 83 group on Facebook, CLICK HERE. And check out the U.S. Route 83 Travel page at www.usroute83.com. 

AND NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM

Click here to order: THE LAST AMERICAN HIGHWAY: A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME DOWN U.S. ROUTE 83: THE DAKOTAS

Stew Magnuson (stewmag (a) yahoo.com) is the author of Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding: The American Indian Movement, the FBI, and their Fight to Bury the Sins of the Past published by the Now & Then Reader. It is available as an eBook on Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iTunes. Buy it in paperback on Amazon or bookstores such as Plains Trading Company Booksellers, in Valentine, Neb., on Highway 83.

Celebrating the Lincoln Highway's Centennial — And All the Backroads of America

By STEW MAGNUSON

There are many unique aspects about Highway 83 that makes it an interesting road to travel. One is all the fascinating history found along the way. But I would not call it a “historic road.” A historic road to my thinking is a highway that itself contributed to the development of the nation, or has a special place in its history.

I believe there are three main historic roads in America. One is the most famous of them all, U.S. Route 66. Another is the National Road, which was the first highway in the United States to receive federal funding in 1811 and took travelers over the Allegheny Mountains into the Ohio River Valley. Today Route 40 covers most of that old road.

The third is the Lincoln Highway, which became Highway 30 in most stretches, and was the nation’s first coast-to-coast road.

The latter will be gaining a whole lot of attention this summer as it reaches its 100^th anniversary.

I hope someday Route 83 is as famous as Route 66. Okay. That is probably never going to happen. As an example, the Fans of U.S. Route 83 page I administer currently has 730 fans. The main Route 66 fanpage has more than 92,000! My long-term goal is to make it to 1,000 fans someday. There are businesses with Route 66 in their name that have 10 times that many fans.  

But I refuse to show any jealousy toward these other three roads. The Highway 83 Chronicles blog celebrates all the backroads, and encourages travelers to leave the interstates behind, explore small towns, spend your money at small businesses and restaurants, and stop your car to read historical markers—no matter where you are. A few weeks ago, I had a rare chance to travel solo to and from Pittsburgh from Arlington, Va., and I drove parts of the old National Road and Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania.

Sad as it is to say, the bicentennial of the founding of the National Road in 1811 went unnoticed two years ago.

I hope the 100^th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway will encourage people to both learn more about how our roads shaped the nation’s history, and to drive off the interstate ramps and explore what the author William Least Heat Moon called the “blue highways.”

Many communities along the old Lincoln Highway are going all out this summer to celebrate its centennial. Kearney, Nebr., which was the half-way point of the road at 1,733 miles from either coast, on June 30 will hold a parade. Two classic car convoys will converge on the city from both coasts. That will kick off one month of festivities in towns along the road.

Highway 83 intersects with what was once the Lincoln Highway in North Platte, Nebr. Today, the Lincoln Highway Diner is a few blocks west of the 83-30 intersection (Pictured below and left). Reproductions of the old Lincoln Highway markers went up last year.

One little known fact is that Highway 83 once went through Kearney, Neb., up until about the late 1930s. Present-day 83 was 183 for several hundred miles. Some bureaucrat in Washington decided that 83 should be the primary north-to-south road, and the numbers switched places from Vivian, S.D., to Highway 24 in Kansas. If the numbers hadn’t changed, that would have truly made Kearney the center of America with 83, the border-to-border highway, intersecting with the half-way point of the coast-to-coast highway.

Today, Highway 83 intersects with the nation’s main east-to-west road Interstate 80 in North Platte. The Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard, the nation’s largest railroad classification yard is also there. I would argue that this makes North Platte, “The Crossroads of America.”

(I hereby give the North Platte Chamber of Commerce permission to use this slogan.)

The creation of the Lincoln Highway was a first step in a long process that changed America in profound ways. While Highway 83 is not a “historic road,” its development also changed the communities found alongside it. I hope the new attention on the Lincoln Highway this summer sparks more interest in the history of roads in America.

To join the Fans of U.S. Route 83 group on Facebook, CLICK HERE. And check out the U.S. Route 83 Travel page at www.usroute83.com. 

NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM

Click here to order: THE LAST AMERICAN HIGHWAY: A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME DOWN U.S. ROUTE 83: THE DAKOTAS

 

Stew Magnuson (stewmag (a) yahoo.com) is the author of Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding: The American Indian Movement, the FBI, and their Fight to Bury the Sins of the Past published by the Now & Then Reader. It is available as an eBook on Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iTunes. Buy it in paperback on Amazon.com or bookstores such as Plains Trading Company Booksellers, in Valentine, Neb., on Highway 83.