Most People Have No Idea Just How Unique This Village In North Dakota Truly Is
When it comes to preserving history, there are state parks in North Dakota that do an amazing job and deserve a visit from everyone. Some of these parks will take you on a journey back in time and keep true to what happened in these places. Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is one of the best examples of this. It holds not only the fort, but also a unique, fascinating village that the Mandan people would have called home for centuries. It is a great experience everyone should have. If you haven’t yet, here is what you’re missing:
On-A-Slant Village is within Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park and is located right next to the Heart River.
This village was originally home to the Mandan people, what the city of Mandan is named after. It has been there since as early as 1575 - over four centuries ago! It is called On-A-Slant because it is located on a slope next to the river, as you can see in the picture above.
The village has unusual and unique structures you can explore.
Unlike other plains tribes, the Mandan were not nomadic and lived a mostly agricultural-based life next to the fertile lands of the river. Because of that, they built huge, permanent earth lodge homes. Today, you can visit reconstructions of those earth lodges.
The earth lodges are huge and impressive to see in person.
You can see artifacts and reconstructions of exactly what life used to be like here and how the Mandan society lived their day to day lives. This would have been a time where they were considered to have reached their highest civilization and were successful in farming, hunting, trading, and surviving on these lands. It is a true part of North Dakota's history well before it was ever even considered a state or territory.
The park also has Fort Abraham Lincoln, another important part of the state's history.
All of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is absolutely full of history. There is the village, the fort and stockades, and also Custer's House, shown above. All of these are open to be explored and toured. They make the park one of the most historic places in North Dakota.
Not only does this park have all of this history, it also has beautiful, natural scenic views and plenty of hiking trails, campsites, cabins, and even tipis you can stay in. It is located only a short drive from Mandan, ND. You can find more information about it here.
Even though we can’t fully step back into time to see what life was like here over a century ago, we can take a look at rare photography from North Dakota’s earliest pioneer days. Check out these amazing snapshots of the past here.
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Leah moved to North Dakota when she was 12 years old and has traveled from the Red River Valley to the badlands and many places in between. She loves small-town life and currently enjoys living on a small farm in the ND prairie. She's always had a passion for writing and has participated in novel writing challenges such as NaNoWriMo multiple times. Her favorite part about this job is recognizing small businesses that deserve a boost and seeing the positive affect her articles can have on their traffic, especially in rural areas that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
