As much as I love international travel, I think it’s of the utmost importance that anyone who is able should visit all of our 50 states. Every state is unique, and our visit to North Dakota reaffirmed that.
I visited Jamestown, North Dakota in August, and let me tell you, the first thing that stood out, or should I say things that stood out, were the people. I have been many places, and the kindness of the people we encountered in Jamestown was legendary. People young and old, men and women would smile and say hello when we passed them walking down the street, and even in the car people would wave as we drove by. People were so friendly that we felt like we belonged there!
We arrived late afternoon and headed straight to eat at local Italian restaurant Davoni’s. I had the appetizer meatballs, my daughter had the three cheese ravioli with meat sauce, and each was divine! Just a couple of blocks from Davoni’s led us to Hansen Arts Park, where, in the summer, local artists play live music in the park on Thursday evenings. There were also local artisans and food vendors. People and pets alike sat on benches, brought their own chairs or spread out blankets to take in the music and enjoy a summer evening.
After enjoying some music, we headed over to the Jamestown Reservoir to catch one of the legendary North Dakota sunsets, and it did not disappoint!
Our first full day started at the Depot Cafe which has been serving up hearty breakfasts for over 40 years! I had yummy country fried steak and cheese biscuit sliders, while my daughter had the “Trainwreck”: has browns, topped with diced ham, peppers onions and cheese.
We were fueled up to learn some Jamestown history, starting with Stutsman County Courthouse – the oldest surviving courthouse in North Dakota. Our enthusiastic guide, Steve Reidburn, was chock full of knowledge about the courthouse, showed us the rooms filled with antique phones, typewriters, view finders and all sorts of items of Jamestown past – and even indulged me in letting me don one of the old judges robes!
It was a history filled day as we headed to Stutsman County Memorial Museum. A history buff’s dream lies in this old Victorian home that was built by one of the first main business tycoons of Jamestown. People have donated items from the
pioneer times to more recent antiques, and visitors get a glimpse of what life was like for the residents of Stutsman County of yesteryear.
After the Stutsman County Memorial Museum visit, we headed out to the Midland Continental Railroad Depot and Peggy Lee Museum. Peggy Lee, North Dakota darling particularly known for her hit “Fever”, grew up in the apartment above the train depot as her father and step mother were the depot agents. Visitors get to see how the depot functioned in its time and tour what the apartment above probably looked like when Peggy Lee was growing up there. The Peggy Lee Museum holds some of her beautiful dresses, album covers, and info about the span of her impressive career.
Dinner at local favorite, Jonny B’s Brickhouse completed our day with half Thai chicken and half buffalo chicken pizza for me, and one of the specialities of the house: honey and grape lavash for my daughter.
Day two started with a delightful breakfast at Babb’s Coffeehouse – a Seattle themed coffee shop right in downtown Jamestown. An impressive selection of coffee drinks, pastries and breakfast items made it difficult to narrow down our choices!
Fueled by quiche, breakfast burrito and coffee, we headed to Browning’s Honey Co., where Zach, the third generation owner, gave us a tour of the factory. Did you know that North Dakota is the largest producer of honey in the U.S.? There is so much more to honey production than I ever imagined: learning how the bees are collected in honey boxes, transported to and from to the factory to farms all over the country, the combs removed from the honey boxes and then processed for production of honey, bees wax, and even additives for dog food and fertilizer. We had such an education on bees, honey, and agriculture
that we will never look at bottle of honey in the grocery store the same! My daughter says she is now a “honey snob”.
After the tour, we had time to take in some of the stunning sunflower fields, as we headed out to the National Buffalo Museum.
The museum organizes guided encounters where the guide (ours was Alana), takes you out to a small ranch operation where the museum has a herd of buffalo and guests can actually drive into the herd and be amongst the buffalo. Alana was able to show us how, one particular buffalo who was orphaned as a child and bottle fed, will now allow her to feed her by hand little treat pellets. Alana educated us on all things buffalo, about conversation efforts and what we can do to help increase the buffalo population in the U.S. (the surprising answer is eat more buffalo meat!). As intimidating as this sounds, being there in the herd was truly a majestic and unforgettable experience that I will never forget and would recommend to anyone.
Outside of the Buffalo Museum is the site Jamestown is most famous for: the world’s largest buffalo statue. Make sure you don’t miss this big guy when you visit! He overlooks the city making for great panoramic views of the city and likely a siting of a real buffalo!
The Buffalo Museum sits adjacent to Frontier Village: a site where original buildings from the frontier villages of North Dakota were brought and filled with antiques and artifacts for visitors to get a glimpse at what frontier life was like.
Dinner that evening was at another local favorite: Sabir’s Buffalo Grill, and, in keeping with Alana’s suggestion that the best thing we can do to help with buffalo conservation is eat buffalo meat: my daughter and I each had bison (buffalo) burgers. And let me tell you, they were as delicious as everyone said they would be!
Not suggested to us, but decided to try anyway, was to go out stargazing. We headed back out well after sunset to take in the night sky and the almost layers of stars in the sky were like none I had ever seen before.
Before our flight out the next morning, we stopped at Fort Seward which was an active military fort from 1872-1877. Make sure you head inside the Interpretive Center to see all the artifacts that were found excavating the fort once it was no longer in use; everything from rifles to arrowheads!
If you’re a history buff, you will love all the history found in Jamestown. If you love nature, walking amongst acres of sunflowers, watching legendary sunsets, stunning starry night skies, interacting with buffalo and and learning about bees will be sure to please. Coupled with the exceptionally friendly people, our visit to Jamestown, was, as the motto of their tourism bureau says: legendary!