"The Magic City" Minot

Clouds hanging low again this morning - it had rained all night - when we departed from Devils Lake towards Minot, a straight, easy 1 3/4 hours-drive. Somehow it felt like driving somewhere in Canada. We stopped at Rugby, the geographic center of the North American continent, marked by a field stone.

We knew Minot already from a previous visit during Norsk Høstfest, North America’s largest Scandinavian Festival (end of September). It's all about Scandinavian tradition, from Nordic entertainment to culinary options as "Lutefish", from a Viking Village to Scandinavian crafts. For the rest, the city is is known for the Air Force base north of the city, its medical center and as a trading center not only for northern North Dakota, but also for SW Manitoba, and SE Saskatchewan in Canada. The city was founded in 1886 during the construction of the Great Northern Railway and is also known as "Magic City", commemorating its remarkable growth over a short time. In 1969, a severe flood on the Souris River devastated the city and again in 2011 the "Souris River Flood" caused extensive damage throughout the Valley.

After checking in the visitor center and getting a warm welcome, our first stop was the Scandinavian Heritage Park with buildings, statues (Leif Erikson shown on the picture) and monuments that celebrate the heritage of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Main attraction is a full-scale replica of the Gol Stave Church (pics below), a fantastic wooden church, and a 27-foot tall Swedish Dala horse.


The Dakota Territory Air Museum, our next stop, at the International Airport, is a display of famous military and vintage aircraft. In three huge hangars we saw famous military as well as civilian aircraft. We have visited quite a few Aircraft Museums recently, last one was in the Houston area in spring.

At The Starving Rooster we got our fill of local food together with three reps of the tourism office. The restaurant is situated in an old grist mill. As legend has it, the Altman Taylor Company made a threshing machine that was of the highest quality and didn’t leave a speck of grain behind. As a result, the roosters had nothing to eat. The owners re-purposed nearly all of the materials of the former mill operation for the restaurant. Had a great bison burger and the "loaded potato soup" was just extraordinary.

The Railroad Museum was our next stop and we got a chance to see the basement with all its modell railroad installations, as well as the old cabooses outside.

Bray's Saddlery was a little different from what we expected, but nevertheless a great shopping experience for visitors. The downtown area is about to be revived with a new plaza, new events and new enterprises. Right now,,, not too much to see and do.

Checked into the Hyatt House, situated in a completely new residential neighborhood in the outskirts of town. Most buildings came up as a result of the oil boom a couple of years ago. In the meantime demand slowed down and many are standing empty. In the "extended stay hotel" we got an "apartment" with kitchen, living room and bed room, and, were able to spread out before we were picked up again for dinner in the Minot Country Club's fine-dining restaurant "Elevation", adjacent to the golf course. We had excellent steaks (Sirloin this time!), preceded by appetizers, finished with desserts and accompanied by good beer and wine and conversation with three reps from Minot Tourism.
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