May is National Historic Preservation Month. Today, we’re highlighting some of the historic places included in North Dakota’s State Historic Sites Registry.
By 1877, the Northern Pacific Railway Company and the Minnesota Stage Company had joined to form the Northwest Express and Transportation Company, opening a 240-mile trail from Bismarck to Deadwood. The Bismarck–Deadwood Trail became heavily traveled by prospectors heading to the Black Hills in search of gold, and it served as a key supply line for merchants shipping goods.
The first stagecoach left Bismarck on April 11, 1877. In less than a month, stages were departing three times a week, and soon, daily. This continued until the railroad reached Pierre, reducing the need for literal horsepower and offering a faster option for travelers. As one newspaper romantically observed, “the iron horse supplanted the prancing steed…and traffic died away. The old trail was abandoned, and the stagecoaches which used to rock and sway as they were hauled on the dead gallop…now serve a part in wild west performances.”
Over the years, there were efforts to reconstruct or mark the historic route. In 1912, the Bismarck Tribune noted, “In Kansas, the state historical society is marking the old Oregon Trail, which bore the same relation to the development of that section as does the Deadwood Trail toward the Dakotas…. Why could not the Deadwood Trail be similarly posted?”
Today, markers trace sections of the route, and wagon ruts can still be seen etched into the landscape. One such site is the fifth stop west of Bismarck: The Cannonball Stage Station, now listed on North Dakota’s State Historic Sites Registry.
Visitors to the site can still see remnants of the past believed to include the remains of the station building, another unidentified structure, and the outline of a barn. Together, they tell the story of a stage stop where passengers could rest and stretch, and where teams of horses were exchanged for fresh ones, carrying travelers farther west toward an uncertain adventure.
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
- Bismarck Tribune, March 13, 1917, p3
- Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, March 15, 1917, p11
- Bismarck Daily Tribune, February 13, 1912, p4
- https://www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/bdst/index.html
- https://www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/cannonballss/index.html
