52 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
The town of Mandan, named for the tribe of Indians that formerly 
occupied this part of the country, is on the west side of the Missouri. 
It is essentially a railway town, being a division termi- 
nal. In coming from the east the traveler has had 
very few opportunities to see the rocks underlying the 
glacial drift, but west of Mandan the drift is thin or 
lacking and the bedded rocks are much more con- 
spicuous than they are east of that place. In places about Mandan 
they are exposed in badlands, as shown in Plate IV, A. 
A deep well that was drilled at Mandan a number of years ago with 
the hope of obtaining water for railway and town use penetrated 
sandstone and shale much like the surface rocks to a depth of 470 
feet and then nothing but shale like that seen at Jamestown to a depth 
of 2,000 feet. The drill probably went nearly to the Dakota sand- 
stone, which furnishes artesian water farther east in North and South 
Dakota, but as it did not reach that rock the exact depth of the Dakota 
is not known. 
In 1876, when the railway extended westward only as far as Bis- 
marck, this town was a mere frontier settlement with a wide stretch 
of Indian country to the west. On the west side of the river was 
Fort Abraham Lincoln, one of the important military posts of the 
time. Although the days of Indian warfare in this vicinity had 
passed, it was the starting point for many military expeditions into 
the Indian country. An expedition of this kind which left the fort in 
1876 was the most eventful in the history of the border warfare of the 
region, as it resulted in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the 
slaughter of Gen. Custer and his immediate command. The Northern 
Pacific Railway has been built along or closely parallel with the route 
followed by the troops. (Seep. 71.) At Mandan the railway changes 
from Central to Mountain time, and the westbound travelershould set 
his watch back one hour. 
West of Mandan the railway follows the valley of Heart River, and 
for the first time in North Dakota the westbound traveler can see the 
hard rocks well exposed. These consist of shale and sandstone (Lance 
the slow and unsatisfactory method Oy New foes. Pousti 
boat rtation was abandoned, so 
that to-day vessels are seldom seen upon 
the muddy waters of the river. 
The Missouri is one of the great drain- 
age channels of the United States. Its 
Mandan. 
Elevation 1,667 feet. 
Population 3,873. 
St. Paul 451 miles. 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, 
Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and 
Mississippi. 
Although Missouri River may never 
again be utilized as a means of communi- 
cation and transportation, it is destined 
Lhattor 
Lis Ve 
itery 
that embraced in the States of 
development of its drainage basin by 
ishing water for irrigation and for the 
development of power. 
