Postcard-Geography Album: North Dakota; "The Peace Garden State"

"...It was a land of vast silent spaces..." -Theodore Roosevelt, 1913

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

The colorful North Dakota Badlands provide the scenic backdrop to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The Little Missouri River has shaped this land, which is home to a variety of plants and animals

This week's beautiful postcard comes from North Dakota and was sent by Lisa of Blessed Beyond Measure. She writes,

"Greetings from North Dakota!! I hope you enjoy studying about our state. I am sure you will find lots of new information and fun facts about N. D. Our family moved here the end of August, so I asked the locals about a ND food -and just as I thought, they recommended Knoephla Soup. We had never heard of it before moving here -but now a family favorite."

We decided to try Knoephla (pronounce nip-fla) soup, as it is a soup eaten in both North and South Dakota. We used this recipe and it was quite good. It is a potato and mini dumpling soup in a butter-milk broth. It is a German soup brought over by the German Immigrants who came to the Dakotas between 1820 and World War I.

The state of North Dakota is called "The Peace Garden State" to honor the International Peace Garden, a large park and botanical garden symbolically celebrates the peaceful friendship between the United States and Canada. In fact, the border between the U.S and Canada is the world's longest unfortified border.

Both North and South Dakota are named after the Dakota Indians, part of the Sioux tribes,

 so we decided to do the Sioux Indian Pocket from History Pockets; Native Americans.
One of the activities was about how the Sioux used the Buffalo.

The Buffalo, or American Bison, is also on the North Dakota quarter.

We colored a map of the state as well as the state flower, the Wild Prairie Rose, the state tree, the Elm and the state bird, the Western Meadow Lark.

We will learn more about the Sioux as well study Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery.

We have almost completed our 50-states project, but we still need postcards for these states:
Mississippi, New Jersey, Vermont and Wyoming.
If you live in any of these states and would like to help us with this project, please leave a comment on how I can get in touch with you. Thank you!