Morton's Mud Hole: Dakota Prarie

Maybe it's just me being all meloncholy about the holidays and such that has me thinking about my family and roots on the North Dakota prarie.  No, it's not the glamorous place to be from, but it's where I am from.  I wish i could say that North Dakota/Minnesota is famous for>>>>>>>>>>>.  See what I mean?  Nothing really comes to mind.

Growing up, my summers were spent shoveling pig shit and hoeing sugar beats.  I was never happier.
At dusk we would then go to Morton's Mud Hole to bathe.  Yup.  It was a truck full of dirty farm kids with a couple bottles of shampoo and a bar of soap to jump into this pond/mudhole to wash off the top layer of grime so we could actually get back to the house to shower and clean up.  It was a multi-step process,  you know.  You had to get cleaned up before you got cleaned up.

At dusk Morton's Mud Hole was this wonderment of cross-cultures.  It was where the Whapeton Sioux tribe brought their kids/famlies to hang out.  It was also where the Norweigan settlers and their descendants also hung out.  In later years, it was also where Mexican migrant farm workers brought their families to hang out.

Something magical happened at Morton's Mud Hole.  For so many staunch cultural traditions to come togther in one place with no bias for each other was something that I will never forget.  The draw to Morton's Mud Hole was also magical.  As the sun was setting looking west there were mounds off in the distance.  It was a native burial ground for the Wahpeton Sioux that was rumored to come alive after dark.  I remember my cousin literally grabbing me out of the mud hole with shampoo still in my hair and throwing in the back of the truck stating we HAD to get out of here before the sun set below the priarie horizon because of the resltless spirits.

Now decades later I want to go back and try to listen to what the spirits have to say.