Fort Mandan State Historic Site is temporarily closed for maintenance until further notice.
Subscribe to SHSND podcasts
Located 23 miles southeast of Kulm, ND.
Open year round.
A Works Progress Administration building, two monuments, a marker, and a picnic area with a shelter, table, pit toilets, and a parking lot.
No Rental Facilities
Free admission, donations welcome.
Whitestone
Historical Society
c/o Dorene Brandeburger
8692 98th Ave. SE
Monango, ND 58436
For more information on the region call the Ellendale Civic Association, 701-349-4103, or Ellendale Tourism, 701-349-2916 or Jamestown CVB: 1-800-222-4766.
The light of the following day revealed a field of carnage. Dead and wounded men, women, and children lay in the campsite and in the ravine. Tipis stood vacant, or drooped in various stages of destruction. Camp equipment and personal items, tools, utensils, weapons, toys, and injured or dying horses and dogs littered the ground. Injured women protected babies and the little children. As the soldiers looked after the wounded and gathered the dead, Sully moved his camp to the battlefield. While some squads of soldiers patrolled the region searching for escapees, other men were put to work digging graves and destroying the village and Indian possessions.
During the Battle of Whitestone Hill, 20 soldiers were killed and 38 were wounded. Although there was no accurate count of the Indian casualties, estimates ranged from 100 to 300 dead. In addition, 32 men and 124 women and children were captured. For two days, military patrols guarded against reprisal raids while troops destroyed Indian property. Tipis, buffalo hides, wagons, travois, blankets, and perhaps as much as half million pounds of buffalo meat were stacked and burned. Some of the fires were set over the graves of the soldiers to obscure the location of the burial places. Troops threw pots, kettles, weapons, and other things that would sink, into the lake.
On September 5, one of the scouting details ran into a party of Indians. In the ensuing skirmish, two more white soldiers were killed. The following day, Sully and his army marched south toward their transport on the Missouri River. The Indians, who had escaped the battlefield, scattered over the plains looking for friends and families who could share necessities during the winter months.
Address:
7310 86th Street SE
Kulm, ND 58456
Get Directions
Hours:
Open year round.
Contact Whitestone Hill:
phone: 701.328.3508
Contact SHSND:
phone: 701.328.2666
email: history@nd.gov
