< FLIGHT OF DISCOVERY >

DAY 7 - June 7, 2004
Become a scientist-- and fly in a helicopter

On Day 7, the crew gathered in the morning for the flight from Pierre, SD through Mobridge to Mandan/Bismarck, ND. The weather was clear. The scientists had the opportunity to take advantage of the helicopters on this day, so they could touch down and go out into the field and collect samples and specimens on which to perform research. They were fortunate to have been able to collect a significant amount of samples.

The crew was greeted by the nice tourism folks in North Dakota, and they even had a barbeque at the airport for us. The crew also went to On-the-Slant, a Native American (Mandan) village, and Fort Abraham Lincoln, which was home to Custer during his final days. The tour was very interesting.

Flight Operations
Sciences
View Slideshow

Cessna Flight Operations

Weather

Pierre, SD (PIR)
Winds 310 / 13 KTS
Visability = 10
Sky Clear below 12,000'

Mobridge, ND (MBG)
Winds 295 / 12 KTS
Visability = 10
Sky Clear below 12,000'

Mandan, ND (Y19)
Winds 300 / 10 KTS
Visability = 10
Sky Clear below 12,000'

Weather along the route - unrestricted visability.
Late morning clouds scattered 7000'
Low pressure system occluded front @ Fargo
Airmet for occasional moderate turbulence below 8000' in ND with a general risk of severe thunderstorms in Northern ND

Expedition Leader's Notes
Up early at Pierre, SD… a town I'm going to re-visit since I missed the activities on this trip - especially Peter Hegg and the staff at the Circle H Ranch's hospitality in Gregory. Some of the crew will have to elaborate about that evening since I wasn't there. But everyone is of a mind that we should start the 2005 Pacific Northwest edition of the FOD from the Circle H.

Stopped at Mobridge where the nice folks at the FBO loaned us a van to go into town where we overwhelmed the local DQ. First time Lee and I have had a dipped cone in years. We need to spend more time here in 2005 and visit the Sacajawea Monument and pay our respects to Sitting Bull. It's fast becoming apparent that our schedule is not permitting us the kind of time we need to visit with the locals and investigate historical sites.

We flew along Lake Oahe… the first of the dammed lakes along the Missouri that I have seen on this trip. Roger and I were the first to call out "Tatonka!" when we spied a buffalo herd grazing on a bluff. Others saw a variety of other wildlife and our zoologists and botanist commented on the changes wrought by 200 years of American agriculture as we flew 1,500 feet at 100 kts along the banks of the lake.

On to Mandan Airport which lies just across the river from Bismarck, ND. We're now in the habit of calling up Class B controllers to let them know we're in a flight and in Bismarck, it worked like a charm. I need to remind myself to send medallions to all the tower personnel along the route.

Landed in Mandan with the press and Chamber of Commerce waiting. Also, Brad Kramer of the local EAA chapter and the Jim Lawler, Airport Manager wanted to host a BBQ for us. I have to tell you, the Airports Commission for the State of North Dakota is going to get a nice letter and some trinkets from the FOD. We notified all the airports along our route months in advance about our expedition. Jim and the good people in North Dakota were the only group to send us maps, tour information and aeronautical charts for the entire state route. Mark even patterned our expedition's Flight Plan after the ND model.

The FBO and the Chamber of Commerce provided vehicles (and drivers… thanks Jennifer) for most of the crew to go visit On-A-Slant Village and General Custer's Home. I stayed at the FBO to catch up on my journals. So did Brian Forrest and Leslie Scott our webmeister; enough cannot be said about her dedication to getting the updates on the site every night. With help from Bob Scott and Brian, Leslie did a great, unbelievable job. After dinner, I set up a chair in front of my tent and watched the sun set over the Plains. The wind howled all night.

Co-Expedition Leader Daily Log Notes: Monday, June 07, 2004

Departed Pierre up river in sequence with other corps aircraft. All the corps members appear to be very well adjusted to the task at hand. With the scattered settlements and calm waters, I observe that most of the Missouri River landscape gives me the illusion that it is unchanged and very tame. What appears tame to the perspective of our aerial route (following the right bank), must have been harsh and violent to the Lewis & Clark 1804 expedition.

The river is extremely wide as it is backed up by man made dams to control seasonal flooding and hydroelectric power plants. Our up river route to Mandan is taking us over parts of the river with faster moving water and narrower in width. The original river route is visible with the apparent lower water level not concealed by the reservoir back water. The river becomes much smaller and less visible as we progress closer to Mandan. I suspect tomorrow we will encounter areas where Lewis & Clark's expedition resorted to overland travel due to the diminishing river flow.

Arrived in Mandan late afternoon. Landing for all the aircraft is a challenge due to high gusty winds. Most landings made on grass runway, due to winds. Many of the aircraft perform go around maneuvers for another landing attempt. Entry into the airport traffic pattern needs to be more organized for the safety of all. All pilots are doing very well considering the elements that they are not accustom to dealing with.


	Geology The scientists were escorted to specific sampling locations today by helicopter. As we proceeded to the north, the bedrock continued to become younger in age. From Pierre the shale yielded to other rock formations and the geologist observed a number of the younger ones. We stopped at an outcrop of the Pierre Shale and noticed a veneer of glacial till full of large boulders that came from elsewhere probably on the Canadian Shield. These boulders are called glacial erratics. As we proceeded north the bluffs changed from Pierre Shale to the Fox Hills Formation which consists of interbedded shales		and sandstones that were deposited in the inland sea but at shallower depths than the Pierre Shale along the shoreline in lagoons and estuaries near a delta. We stopped on the north shore of the Cannonball River and noted the presence of cannonball-sized concretions. These "cannonballs' were noted by the Corps in 1804. Our last rock stop was to identify the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary. This boundary represents the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, that some believe was caused by a catastrophic meteorite impact and resulting climate change. We looked for the Ludlow Formation, a low grade coal, known as lignite,


	loaded with plant fossils that was depostied afer the catastrophe. There were some dark bands in a bluff south of the Rice Creek. I asked the pilot to land and they circled a low hill. I jumped out of the chopper upon landing and immediately noted an unconformity between the late Cretaceous Hell Canyon Formation and the overlying Ludlow Formation--we found the K-T Boundary!

Zoology
Zoology- Recap June 6 to 7
The world of Lewis and Clark has come to pass; the prairie lands like the Missouri Valley have developed into farm land and grassing land. The once tall grasslands of the prairie are gone. They have been replaced by many non-native species that out-compete the original grasses. Many of the original species like buffalo were almost wiped out through harvesting. Man has also, now, after 200 years of abuse, begun to invest in the environment, and is trying to replace a small portion of the lost grasslands. It is estimated that only 2 percent of the original
habitat still exists. We see buffalo and horses in herds of 20 to 200, yet as wild and natural as they looked in the current grassland, I do not think they are wild. They are raised for there meat and other domestic uses.
Animals observed: mule deer (does), horses, black angus cows, sheep, elk (farmed), buffalo, hawk, dove, bald eagle, meadow lark, beaver.

Anthropology
Elk Steaks
On Tuesday evening we were able to experience another of the foods eaten by the Lewis and Clark expedition, elk. We didn’t have to hunt for ours; it was already cut into steaks and packaged for us by Jim and Deb Kraft of the Casper Elk Ranch in Turtle Lake, ND. Jim was one of the many helpful people we met at the Mandan airport. The people we meet along the way add richness to our trip. Andrew and Rob McGann, two of our ground crew, did an excellent job preparing our steaks and the recipe for Andy’s Elk Steaks will be in our cookbook.
For those of you unfamiliar with elk, it is a very lean meat that is lower in fat and cholesterol than chicken or beef. Because of its low fat content, overcooking will make it dry and tough; cook only to medium doneness.


	Zoology Zoology- Recap June 6 to 7 The world of Lewis and Clark has come to pass; the prairie lands like the Missouri Valley have developed into farm land and grassing land. The once tall grasslands of the prairie are gone. They have been replaced by many non-native species that out-compete the original grasses. Many of the original species like buffalo were almost wiped out through harvesting. Man has also, now, after 200 years of abuse, begun to invest in the environment, and is trying to replace a small portion of the lost grasslands. It is estimated that only 2 percent of the original		habitat still exists. We see buffalo and horses in herds of 20 to 200, yet as wild and natural as they looked in the current grassland, I do not think they are wild. They are raised for there meat and other domestic uses. Animals observed: mule deer (does), horses, black angus cows, sheep, elk (farmed), buffalo, hawk, dove, bald eagle, meadow lark, beaver.


	Anthropology Elk Steaks On Tuesday evening we were able to experience another of the foods eaten by the Lewis and Clark expedition, elk. We didn’t have to hunt for ours; it was already cut into steaks and packaged for us by Jim and Deb Kraft of the Casper Elk Ranch in Turtle Lake, ND. Jim was one of the many helpful people we met at the Mandan airport. The people we meet along the way add richness to our trip. Andrew and Rob McGann, two of our ground crew, did an excellent job preparing our steaks and the recipe for Andy’s Elk Steaks will be in our cookbook.		For those of you unfamiliar with elk, it is a very lean meat that is lower in fat and cholesterol than chicken or beef. Because of its low fat content, overcooking will make it dry and tough; cook only to medium doneness.