On our way to MN, we passed the Theodore Roosevelt National Park ( click TRNP), encompassing the North Dakota Badlands.  Although he was born and raised in NY, Teddy came to love the wild and wide open spaces in this area.  He bought a ranch that stood in what is today the national park.  When his mother died of typhoid fever and his wife died of complications from childbirth - both on the same day and in the same house - this was where we went to restore his soul.  His love of the land and desire to preserve it's natural beauty and wildlife developed into his great desire for conservation.  As president, he signed legislation creating 5 national parks (click for a webpage). 

Sparked by lightening or grass fires, lignite coal veins smolder underground. The fierce heat bakes the surrounding rock into red clinkers, shown on the hill tops.

Know what is more eerie  than 3 a.m. in an all-night Wal-Mart parking lot?  3 a.m. in a CLOSED Wal-Mart parking lot....Seems that ND has blue laws in effect that close retail stores like WM at midnight on Saturday, reopening at noon on Sunday.  Not that we were worried - there were at least 10 big RV's  in the lot with us, plus lots of lights.  But for a closed store, there is a lot of activity in the parking lot in the wee hours!  

Here is our new WM campsite for tonight, in Ladysmith, MN. Getting ready to dump the trash for the day.

Reviewing the past few days, we've really been moving since Missoula and the refrigerator delay. It's astounding to see how our environment has changed in a few days and a few hundred (nearly a thousand) miles. Glacier National Park and its glacier capped peaks is only a hundred or so miles north of Missoula. This was replaced by the still splendid fir and pine clad hills from Coeur d'Alene that persisted as we left Missoula.

Those hills grudgingly gave way to a drier climate and still impressive rolling hills with ranches emerging.

then came more barren hills around Butte and Anaconda.

East central Montana became very flat

and then had very western looking rolling hills with sage brush

As we entered North Dakota, we ran into the National Grasslands, and then the Badlands of North Dakota presented above. Steaming further eastward, by the time we passed the Missouri River at Bismark and reached Fargo, the terrain was again flat as a pancake. As we crossed into western Minnesota, the long, rolling hills started again, 

and as we crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin, finally to give way to the flat cornfields, the lily filled ponds, small lakes and large deciduous trees of Wisconsin.

Back to Butte and Anaconda...

We approached Butte MT,  we noticed a VERY large tower on a small hilltop.

(picture compliments of Wikipedia)

Exercising our smart phones, we learned that the smokestack is the old smelter stack from the Anaconda copper mining operation in Butte.  This smoke stack is so large that the Washington Monument would fit inside of it!  The mine itself was so large that at one time it supplied 1/3 of the world’s copper needs.  This was not without consequences, as a huge negative environmental impact that the mining had on the area.  Mining was stopped in 1983 and a Superfund cleanup began. We then researched Butte, and found that it also had a very interesting mining related history.

Here are 2 articles about both the stack itself and the effect the copper industry had on Butte.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Smelter_Stack

http://www.bigskyfishing.com/Montana-Info/butte_mt-2.shtm

 On Monday through Thursday night, we plan to be back in a federal campground at Lake Michigan.  Shade and water instead of sun and asphalt!