| Summary: | WRITING ROCK STATE PARK Within twenty minutes driving time north from Grenora is located one of North Dakota's most intriguing historical spots--Writing Rock State Park. Today this park attracts several thousand visitors a year, who take time to drive off the beaten track to view this unusual and interesting place. This park is also a gathering place for families, church and club groups. Locally named "Writing Rock", this granite boulder is called Heowaukan or Spirit Rock by the Indians. Archaeologists refer to it a "Petroglyph Rock". It is about 5 feet high, 3 1/2 feet wide and 2 feet thick. Deposited by ancient glaciers on top of the high morainic ridge called the Coteau de Missouri (separating it from the Hudson Bay watershed), this boulder is ideally placed for monumental purposes, whether as a memorial or as a historical landmark of earlier years. This setting appears to be that of a natural "lookout tower". To the south, you can, on a clear day, see to a distance of 25 to 30 miles of rolling North Dakota Prairies and farms. Looking west you can see far into the State of Montana, and as you turn to the north your eyes are able to travel well into the Dominion of Canada. It formed an ideal encampment for worship and other ceremonials, and is therefore, easy to visualize it as a buffalo and Indian paradise of days long gone by. Investigations have not to date disclosed definite interpretation of the "Engravings" on the face of the rock, though a number of theories and legends have been received. It is thought to be quite ancient, as our Indians do not know its meaning, though some have seen it many times. It has been obvious that Indian tribes have, however, held this particular rock in high regard, and perhaps for sacrificial worship, evidenced by a large quantity of arrow-heads and other artifacts found around it by our early settlers. Close study of the rock will show the large figure of a flying bird; just below is a district symbol consisting of a circle enclosing five "dots around a central dot". To the left is seen another less distant sym - bol that may resemble a coiled snake. Below are several "points", perhaps arrows. Across the face of the rock is a long line which may indicate a "Dividing line". On top, though badly eroded, may be partly traced five plumes to the left of the head, and a few remnants to the right, possibly representing a branch. 96 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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