Fort Ransom, North Dakota

Ransom County

38-27580

Fort Ransom is a small village in Ransom County in the U.S. state of North Dakota. The town lies on the Sheyenne River and emerged from a former border fort of the U.S. Army.

History

Already about 5,000 to 8,000 years, Indians lived in the valley of the Sheyenne River, the so-called built mounds as burial sites. Probably derived from these residents also petroglyphs in a large, today Writing rock called rock. Later Indians lived the Hidatsa, Mandan and Sheyenne in the valley and operated agriculture, but also the Plains Indians as Chippewa and Sioux came here. The first known Europeans came in 1738 with a French expedition under Pierre de la Verendrye in the valley. Until the 1860s, trappers and traders arrived in the region.

1867 Fort Ransom was built to protect travelers from Minnesota to Montana. The fort was by Thomas E. G. Ransom named, a general of the volunteer units of the Union Army in the Civil War. On June 17, 1867 a battalion of the 10th U.S. Infantry from Fort Wadsworth, under Major George H. Crosman with the construction of the plant began. The soldiers used oak logs from the nearby valley of the Sheyenne River for construction. The fort was a rectangular, 100 meters long and 120 meter wide installation which was fastened with a moat and an approximately 3.6 meter high palisade of wood and turf. The buildings of the fort were down to two storey building constructions. The crew's quarters were on the north side of the plant. More buildings were the building of the quartermaster, the house of the commander, an infirmary, the guard house, a bakehouse and stables, storehouses and magazines. Outside of the enclosure were the accommodations of Indian scouts. A 25 km ² area around the fort was declared a Fort Ransom Military Reservation.

As in many forts and settlements along the Frontier of everyday life in the fort was hard. For water supply was a more than 500 meters away, source of more than 500 meters away by river served as a bathing place. Close to the Fort a three -acre vegetable garden was created, and on meadows five kilometers south of the fort was made ​​hay for the horses. The supplies for the garrison was made by wagon trains from Fort Abercrombie. Postreiter arrived in good weather within eight days of Fort Ransom Fort Abercrombie to St. Paul, but in the winter snow and cut the spring flood of the Wild Rice River, the fort of his connections from.

The construction of the north-trending cross the Northern Pacific Railroad, the importance of the car route fell rapidly to Montana, and the protection of the railroad measure, the U.S. Army has a higher priority to. Therefore, in 1872 the fort was abandoned and broken, some of the material was for the construction of Fort Seward at Jamestown in Stutsman County reused. The site of the Military Reservation was transferred on 14 July 1880, the Interior Ministry, which sold it to settlers. Many of the settlers came from Norway. The Scandinavian immigrants operated intensive agriculture and new developments were open, so they built in 1882 for the first time in North Dakota durum wheat to. At the Scandinavian traditions of the settlers remembers a small museum in the visitor center of the north of the village situated Fort Ransom State Park.

Attractions

The former fort is situated southwest of the village and is now a State Historic Site. From the fort, only the ditch and the foundations are visible, a flagpole and an information board reminder of the former military base. The five kilometers northerly Fort Ransom State Park was named after the fort. The construction of the white plastered Standing Rock Church of existing since 1882 Lutheran congregation was started in 1888, the tower was completed in 1898.