North Dakota Travel Guide - 2025 Travel Guide

NORTH DAKOTA IS RICH WITH THE LEGACY OF LEWIS AND CLARK

The explorers documented adventures along the Missouri River that visitors can still see today. Here they saw grizzly bears, giant cottonwood trees and the Knife River Indian Villages with a population larger than St. Louis. Though it has changed, this is still the same mighty river that drains a watershed of more than a half-million square miles from 10 states and 2 Canadian provinces.

While here, the Corps of Discovery met Native American tribes including Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. Follow the trail to On-A-Slant Indian Village near Mandan where you can explore six reconstructed earthlodges. Then visit Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site near Stanton to learn more about the people living here when they arrived.

Visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn to learn the story of the expedition and its time with the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. See real artifacts from the expedition and exhibits of the region’s first farmers. Near the interpretive center, see Fort Mandan State Historic Site. This is the reconstructed base where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804–1805. Here, they met Sakakawea, the Native American woman who would join their journey. West of Williston, the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center marks the confluence of these two mighty rivers and highlights the fur trade era and the Corps of Discovery. See the same views the Lewis and Clark Expedition enjoyed and visit Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site.