And on this day of days, the USA’s 250th anniversary, a shout-out to Bismarck, the state capital you never knew.
Because while the powerhouses of New York, Boston, Philly, DC, Chicago, Miami, Vegas, San Francisco and LA will hold the biggest parties.
America is bound by its Capitol motto E pluribus unum… out of the many few.
Which means that the lesser-known Bismarck is just as important as any of the 49 others and the District of Colombia’s colossus.
And on my radar ever since my American History tutor Ted Ranson put me back in my box.
When I berated the Americans I’d met on my first trip to New York for not knowing Edinburgh was the capital of Scotland.
The awesome Ted
So Ted challenged me to name the capital of North Dakota.
Which since 1873 so near enough 150 years ago has been known as Bismarck.
Renamed from Edwintom for the-then German Iron Chancellor, whose career I also tracked as a history major.
By the Northern Pacific Railway to attract German investment and European immigrants to the developing Dakota Territory.
Consigning Edwin Ferry Johnson, the railroad’s engineer-in-chief, to a note in history.
And his brother by a different mother
So because nowhere else will you find the 250th July 4th focus on Bismarck, North Dakota, we will.
And we heard it straight from the horse’s mouth when we met up with adopted North Dakotan Teddy Roosevelt.
When we reminisced over his treks with Scots Father of the National Parks John Muir.
And the totemic Teddy waxed lyrical about the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library slated for this very day.
In Medora, 155 miles, or two hours’ drive, along Interstate 94 West.
Read all about it
Teddy’s library covers eight chapters of his storied life.
Beginning with his childhood in New York City, followed by his early adulthood.
Including his formative time ranching and hunting in the Little Missouri Badlands in the 1880s.
Which puts us in this place at this time in North Dakota.
Dakota makes you feel like the one
Now the first pit stop for anyone wanting to know what is happening today, even if virtually from abroad is the America250 site.
So you can enjoy Mandan Rodeo Days, the North Border Bronco Rally in Walhalla.
The Turtle Mountain Chief Little Shell Memorial Powwow in Dunseith.
And bringing it back to Teddy as always must the Broadway hit (and we love a Broadway show) Teddy & Alice: An American Musical.
Now wherever he is now my old hippie Americanophile tutor Ted will be proud.
That I have explored many of the places and faces he enthused us with back in those heady student days in Aberdeen.
Like his hero and namesake Ted you were our Man in the Arena.
Now door to door my American odyssey would be a 16-hour marathon through the Eastern seaboard or Chicago.