Bismarck’s Big Block

Linda Burton posting from Bismarck, North Dakota – If it’s Sunday you take a picnic and the family, or meet your friends for a game of touch football. If it’s a workday, you join your coworkers for a brisk hike around the grounds, your choice of trails; walk a mile or two during lunch. If it’s the dead of winter with snow on the ground, you might join 8,962 townspeople to make angels in the snow as you set a new Guinness World Record. You can do those things when you have large tree-lined open spaces that are designated for public use. And that’s what they have in Bismarck. They started out with 160 acres back in 1883, deeded to North Dakota Territory by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Today the property is still ample – 132 acres – and on it sits the North Dakota state capitol, along with the North Dakota Heritage Center, the State Office Building, the Department of Transportation, and the Governor’s Residence. With lots of space left over for parks, and trails, and fresh-cut grass. » read more