by Daniel B. Botkin, originally published by Perigee Books, a division of Penguin/Putnam, 1999.

This book, originally published as “Passage of Discovery“, is an ecologist’s guide to the first half of the Lewis and Clark trail, their travels up the Missouri River from St. Louis to Three Forks, MT.  I have decided to share this book with the readers of my website, and I am going to present the entire book here, one chapter at a time, with a new chapter appearing each week.  There are more than 40 chapters.  If you follow along and read all of them, you will learn about the entire Missouri River as seen by Lewis and Clark at the beginning of the 19th century, and as I visited it during the 1990s to see what they had seen, and to learn how the countryside had changed.  Comparing what Lewis and Clark saw with what we see today is one of the best insights we can get of how nature and environment in American has changed since European settlement.   I hope you enjoy it and find it rewarding.

- Daniel B. Botkin

All of the chapters published thus far can be found in the Passage of Discovery category. Please note that they are listed in reverse order of date posted.

More books by Daniel Botkin are available for purchase from the Center For the Study Of the Environment bookstore.

32. Little Missouri National Grasslands and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park:  Prairie Dogs, Black Footed Ferrets and the Short Grass Prairie

Approximately 100 miles west of Bismarck, N.D. and near the North Dakota-Montana border.  Take Interstate 94, Exit 24, Medora, then south to the Grasslands entrance; the southern section of the park is within this part of the grasslands.  To reach the northern section of the park take Interstate to 94 Exit 42.  Go north on Route 85 approximately 23 miles to the park entrance.  Both the north and south sections of the National Park are within the National Grasslands. Route 85 is a scenic road.

Lewis and Clark first saw prairie dogs when they went out walking together on September 7, 1804. They had climbed a dome-like hill about 70 feet high and on their way down “discovered a Village of Small animals that burrow in the grown” which they estimated covered about four acres with “great numbers of holes on the top of which those little animals Set erect make a Whistleing noise and whin allarmed Slip into their hole.”  They poured a lot of water – more than five barrels – into a prairie dog hole, and flushed one out, killed and examined it.

“Those Animals are about the Size of a Small Squrel” Clark recorded, “& thicker, the head much resembling a Squirel in every respect, except the ears which is Shorter, his tail like a ground Squirel which  Shake and & whistle when allarmed.”  Clark also described them as “the mouth resemble the rabit, head longer, legs short, & toe nails long, ther tail like a ground squirel which they Shake and make chattering noise, ther eyes like a dog, their colour is Gray and skin contains Soft fur.”  These small, social animals were familiar to the plains Indians and to the Canadians.  Clark noted that they were called by the French “pitite Chien”or little dog.  Lewis later wrote a more complete description that was the first scientific description of these animals.

Once prairie dogs were widespread throughout the short grass prairie, the western, drier prairie countryside that does not support the grand tall grasses of the eastern plains.  These animals feed on grasses, but need to see from their burrows to protect themselves, and would not do well in the tall grass prairie where they could not see beyond the next clump of grass.  At the time of Lewis and Clark, short grass prairie extended north-south from southern Saskatchewan, Canada, to northern Mexico, and eastward from Denver to about the 100th longitudinal meridian, which has been the traditional dividing line between the deep-rooted tall grasses with large leaves of the tall grass prairie and the shallow-rooted, short grasses with small leaves.  Along the trail of Lewis and Clark, the 100th longitudinal meridian passes north-south near the mouth of the Niobrara River,  that is to say, near where the Missouri River arrives at the Nebraska border and begins to form the Nebraska-South Dakota line.  This was near where Lewis and Clark first saw prairie dogs — a location within 15 miles of modern Fort Randall Dam.  But you won’t find prairie dogs easily in that area today.

Once individual prairie dog villages covered large areas and had great numbers of animals. At the turn of the twentieth century, an immense prairie dog town in Texas was reported to cover an area 100 by 250 miles and to contain 400 million prairie dogs.  Now some say that 98 percent of the prairie dog towns in the United States have been eliminated.

They have been eliminated from most of their range, directly by poisoning because they are thought to compete with cattle for grasses and their holes pose a problem to the movement of horses and cattle; and indirectly, because their habitat is destroyed with the plowing of short grass prairie or the intense use of it for cattle grazing.

Lewis and Clark saw prairie dogs and the short grass prairie over a long distance, from the Niobrara River to west of Bismarck, North Dakota.  After wintering with the Mandan Indians, Lewis and Clark sent back a live prairie dog specimen which reached President Jefferson in Washington, D.C.

We set out to find short grass prairie and to see prairie dogs and other wildlife of this part of the plains.  On a hot, sunny, August day we drove into the Little Missouri National Grasslands in North Dakota. This grassland is a huge area covering 1,200,000 acres, within which is the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which itself is made of up two sections totaling more than 70,000 acres.

We had driven here from Montana following Interstate 94 and the Yellowstone River, the route that Clark took on his return in 1806, when the expedition divided into two parties, one led by Lewis and one by Clark, to see if they could discover a better route across the mountains than the one they had taken westward the year before.  Interstate 94 travels along the Yellowstone River, often in sight of it, until the town of Glendive, Montana, where the interstate turns east and the Yellowstone River continues northeast to its confluence with the Missouri River.

The Little Missouri National Grasslands extends north from U.S. 12, in Bowman County, North Dakota, and lies east of the northerly coursing Little Missouri River and reaches almost to the Missouri directly north in western North Dakota.  Although this national grasslands is near to an interstate, we had the feeling that you have to want to get here if you are going to visit the area.  It is not the typical way that tourists would travel from coast to coast.

The North Dakota State Parks and Recreation Outdoor Adventure Guide that we picked up at a visitors center stated that this was the largest “and most diverse” of the 19 grasslands found in the western United States.   The guide went on to say that “this 140 mile stretch of rolling prairie, badlands terrain, woody draws and high buttes includes more than a million acres.  From the north half, big horn sheep can be seen in Hank’s Gully, Cottonwood Creek and Lone Butte.  In the south half, visitors may view the only stand of Limber Pine in the state, just north of Marmarth.”  Then west of Amidon there is the only natural ponderosa pine forest in the state.  There is a campground at Burning Coal Vein where an underground lignite seam has been burning for over a century.  North Dakota has four state forests – with oak, aspen, paper birch, green ash, American elm, poplar, willow and Ponderosa pine.  The trees listed are all eastern forest trees, except for ponderosa pine, so we are in an area where the eastern deciduous forest trees reach their western extension.

We passed along the Little Missouri River, North Dakota’s only designated  scenic river, which flows south to north through the park and the national grasslands and extends for a total of 274 miles until it enters the Missouri River.  The Little Missouri has carved a kind of badlands through this dry country.

After stopping at the park’s visitor center, we drove a 36-mile scenic loop.  The air was hot and dry.  The road, paved and two-lanes wide, climbed into badland-like bluffs, eroded by the Little Missouri River.  It was a little after noon and we decided to stop for lunch.  We found a small picnic ground by a prairie dog town, in a lowland where there were cottonwoods for shade and sagebrush in drier areas.  We sat in the shade and watched the prairie dogs acting cute, doing what Clark described them to do — sitting erect, whistling, appearing out of their holes and staring at us, moving around to eat.

We were tempted to go over and get acquainted with them, but we noticed a sign at the picnic ground that said to be careful because these animals carry a form of plague spread by fleas from one prairie dog to another, or, if touched by a person, spread to human beings.  The sign told us that we should not even dig around in their burrows, as we might come in contact with the fleas this way.  So we abandoned our idea to act like Lewis and Clark and decided instead to relax in the shade and watch the animals.  Because plowing and grazing and intentional killing have removed prairie dogs from most of their range, what was once a common site in the western plains is now a rarity, and the chance to watch the behavior of these animals in their village was something to take time and enjoy.

As we watched the prairie dogs sit up, alert, and turn their heads around to look for possible predators, I began to think how well these animals epitomize our society’s mixed attitudes and unresolved conflicts about wildlife.  Here prairie dogs were protected.  But outside parks and national grasslands such as these, the prairie dog was still an enemy.  The Web site for the State of South Dakota states that “the black-tailed prairie dog is found throughout western South Dakota. It’s no secret these small, gregarious rodents are a major irritant to stockmen whose cattle compete with the burrowing grass-eaters for grazing land.  There is no closed season, so it’s legal to shoot prairie dogs anytime.  The ideal time is from May through September.”  According to the Web site, any caliber rifle or handgun is legal.  And “the season is open year-round, and there is no limit on the number of prairie dogs you may shoot. The predator license, small game, waterfowl or big game license is needed to shoot prairie dogs. You can obtain a predator license from a license agent, such as a sporting goods store, when you arrive.”

Several issues arise when we talk of hunting prairie dogs.  Many tourists like to see them and consider hunting them rather unsportmanslike.  Perhaps more important – at least to the prairie dog – is that some of its predators are listed as rare or endangered and protected by state and federal laws.  The two most important of these are the black footed ferret and the burrowing owl.  The South Dakota Web site continues: “Please make sure your target is a prairie dog.  Burrowing owls often nest in abandoned prairie dog dens and look similar from a distance. The brownish owls are approximately 8 inches tall. They feed on insects and small mammals. This owl is believed to be declining in numbers, take time to verify your target before shooting. Burrowing owls are protected. If you observe one while you are in a prairie dog town, make a note of the precise location and call one of the contacts below.”

Of greatest conservation concern is the black footed ferret, called the most endangered mammal in North America.  According to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, “the decline of the black footed ferret is almost entirely due to government-sponsored poisoning of prairie dog towns and development of farms, roads, towns, etc. over prairie dog colonies.”  Prairie dogs make up about 90 percent of the diet of the ferrets, which live in the prairie dog towns, inhabiting abandoned prairie dog burrows.  They depend on the prairie dogs for food and shelter.  In contrast to the statements of the state of South Dakota, this conservation association states that “recent studies have proven that the grass-eating prairie dogs are not significant competition with livestock for forage” and the problem is more one of education than of competition.

Once the ferret population had been reduced to very low numbers, it was then in danger of becoming extinct when the few remaining animals contracted canine distemper, which is fatal.  The Wyoming Game and Fish Research Facility started a captive breeding program with 18 animals, a population that has increased to about 330 animals.  These are now located in a number of zoos around the country and in Canada and some have been released back into grasslands.

On the one hand, money is made available to promote hunting of the prairie dogs, which in turn threatens prairie dog habitat and therefore the habitat of the black footed ferret.  On the other hand money is made available for captive breeding of the ferret with a plan to reintroduce it into its original habitat.  The state government and the ranchers argue that prairie dogs must be reduced because they compete with cattle; conservationists argue that this is not the case, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has to protect the ferret because it is listed as endangered under the U. S. Endangered Species Act.  So it is with many environmental issues, all epitomized by the cute animal who seemed, as it searched around, to think that its only enemy was a local non-human predator and was, of course, unaware of the complex social context within which its future is embedded.

I thought also about how the problem here related to ecological food webs – the web of life of who eats whom.  The most endangered species of the short grass prairie, the black footed ferret, is near the top of the food web, as a predator on the prairie dog.  The prairie dog eats vegetation for the most part, except for an occasional protein-rich grasshopper.  In general, the farther up a food web, the less abundant a species, and the more likely it is to become threatened and endangered.  The ferret’s problem was a combination of lack of food and lack of habitat, and that’s common for many  endangered and threatened species.

Well, the sun began to get too hot for that kind of speculation and reflection, and we certainly were not going to see a ferret.  It was time to move on.   After lunch, we continued our drive on the scenic route and saw the muddy Little Missouri River once again off to our left.  Sagebrush was widespread, but we saw dead cottonwoods and brown, unhealthy-looking cedars on the river’s floodplain.  Cottonwood is the characteristic tree of floodplains and riparian areas of the dry western plains.  Out here, cottonwoods are the only trees that can grow, and it is so dry that they are restricted to water courses.  It’s an old rule of thumb in the cowboy country that if you want water, look for cottonwood on the horizon.

We were more than satisfied with our visit to the short grass prairie of this public land.  Here is a good place to get a feel for the prairie through which the Lewis and Clark expedition passed during late summer and fall of 1804, the spring of 1805, and after they had crossed the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers on their way back in 1806.  And it is a good place to contemplate the mixed opinions and attitudes about wildlife that run through American culture.