Leaving the plains behind

Right now (Monday morning -- I was too popped to post last night) we are in Forsyth, Montana which is right on the Yellowstone River.  The river was recently at flood stage.  We heard that Montana had 60 times their normal rain this spring, added to the higher than usual snowmelt and the you can see how the entire plains country feels it.  In Iowa they were talking about Montana rains.  Everything is connected and the sooner we all get that the better.  Todays progress map:

We started the day at the Mo Rest in Mobridge SD.  Here is the breakfast buffet.  A dog came along and grabbed one of the milk cartons and lapped it up.

We left the Mo Rest to head back out of town to visit a wetland I had seen the night before.  It was LOADED with persicaria.  Daniel is the leading authority on the class of plants known as persicaria of which there are 26 species in North America.  There used to be 24, but Daniel, through his fieldwork and herbarium study found two more that were overlooked by previous botanists.  One of the remaining problems in the group is a species complex known as water knotweed.  Botanists since the 18th century have struggled to determine whether these plants constitute one, two or as many as 150 species.  Daniel is hoping to observe intermediate forms and collect DNA samples for genetic studies.  We were hoping to find Persicaria amphibia here but the plants were all of one type -- Persicaria coccinea.  


The wetland we visited was incredibly beautiful and attracted diverse birds whose songs filled the air.

Daniel put on his boots (lacking waders which are on the shopping list) and went in to collect samples.

I asked for some flowers so I could make a little nosegay for the truck.  I bet not many people cut Persicaria for their flower but I find them very pretty.

When traveling it's impossible to not have real estate fantasies.  I really love plains once you get out of all the corn and into the grassland.  We saw an old deserted farmhouse in SD that looked like it was a set prop from the Wizard of Oz.  I fell head over heels in love with this property.  There were several out buildings all in great condition.  But what happened to this dear little house?  I want to rescue it.  I would stabilize the whole thing but keep all the crazy angles.  This is the most beautiful house in the world.

Since we had so much luck Saturday seeing buffalo and pheasant, the two animals we were hoping to glimpse, we started out by talking about what we hoped to see.  I said I wanted to see antelope play.  And no kidding, we made a turn onto a dirt road to go see an unspecified "historic site" and a family of antelope were playing in the grass.  What luck.

The historic site turned out to be a really good one.  It was the site of Fort Dilts, which was the site of an incredible standoff between pioneers, cavalry and some very angry Sioux.  The pioneers and cavalry had to build a sod fort to defend themselves from attack.  They were under siege and several died including Corporal Jefferson Dilts who by all accounts was brave and gallant.  I had made an arrangement earlier of the main species of prairie grass and left it on his marker.

This is the surrounding landscape.  Can you imagine being there in the middle of nowhere under constant attack by Sioux not knowing if you will get out alive?  As it turned out, one soldier sneaked out one night and went for reinforcements and came back with a megaforce of cavalry which led the pioneers to safety.  The pioneers left behind some bread laced with strychnine which the hungry Sioux ate and died.

The flowers in the foreground are prairie clover (Astragalus).  You see the prairie clover in three shades of purple from light to very dark.  Occasionally we have seen it in light yellow as well.  Patches of it are all over and give the prairie a lovely impressionist painting kind of feeling.  It's not an unrelenting green (like corn).

As we drove, the plains gave way to the Badlands of North Dakota.

We entered Montana and started seeing pines trees and distant mountains.  Although eastern Montana is still largely plains.

In the plains area we stopped at the Powder River and explored the dry (well cracked mud actually) creek beds that were adjacent to it.  Lewis and Clark camped on the Powder River and collected plant specimens now at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia where we visited on our first day.   70 years later General Custer passed through here on his way to Little Big Horn and specimens from that trek are at the New York Botanical Garden.  The specimens we collected here will further our knowledge of the flora and will document any changes over the centuries.

We collected some interesting specimens including a cute yellow flower that is a DYC (Damn Yellow Comp).  The sunflower family (compositae) is the second largest family of plants, after orchids, with over 10,000 species, many of which have yellow flowers.  Botanist call any unidentified yellow flowered compositae a DYC.  I guess it's the botanist analog to birders confusing fall warblers.

Later in the day we stopped at the Rest Wel Motel in Forsyth MT, a nice, clean place.  A quick visit to the river showed recent flood conditions and a current that would make kayaking suicidal.  But there were real pretty cottonwood trees including this one.

Well, Daniel is almost done pressing yesterdays specimens.  We will hit the road and search for more flowers and maybe a place to kayak.  Supposed to be hot again, high 90's.  Yesterday was hot but the humidity was in the low 20's so it was not bad at all.  Drop us a note (Daddy this means you.  Just click on "comment" at the end of a post.  A window will open and you can type a note, something like "I love you" and then submit it.)