History Of Bottineau, North Dakota, The Turtle Mountains, and Lake Metigoshe

In the Mid 1700's, the first land surveyors explored and mapped the Upper Great Plains of North America, including Bottineau County. They found the 800 square miles of the Turtle Mountains to be a range of heavily wooded jills dotted with many small lakes. The Area was pentiful with small game, birds, fish and wild fruit; it was an exceptional source of food and protection for the Native Americans, primarily the Chippewa, who lived in the region. The fertile plains surrounding the Turtle Mountain range was the home of large herds of buffalo that supplied food, clothing, shelter, and tools for the early inhabitants. European trappers/traders from Canada found an abundance of furbearing animals in the area. They secured the friendship of the native Americans and induced them to trap for furs; these dealing led to the blending of people and cultures. Pioneers came into the territory in the Early 1880's to make new lives for themselves; they traveled by horseback, stage coach and Red River ox carts looking for good farmland, or on their way to search for gold out west. They endured droughts, floods, grasshoppers, blizzards, army worms, prairie fires, tornadoes, isolation, hail, dust, wind, sickness, conflict between Indian Tribes, and territorial disputes between settlers and Indians. The population of the region increased in spite of hardships, and communities developed. The original village of Bottineau was first known as Oak Creek, and was located at a point where the stagecoach road crossed the creek about 15 miles south of the Canadian Border and about 2 miles north of the present site of the city. In 1884, the village was renamed Bottineau when the post office was established, Bottineau County was organized as a county, and the city of Bottineau was designated as the county seat.

Email: bottineau@angelfire.com