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Picnic Shelter, Whitestone Hill Battlefield Historical Site and State Park

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1937; 2010 reconstruction. North end of 73rd Ave. SE, near 86th St. SE, east side of the lake
  • (Photograph by Steve C. Martens)

At the end of a long gravel road, the recently reconstructed stone shelterhouse at Whitestone Hill Battlefield Historical Site and State Park seems worth the extra seven miles off the pavement. Associating the word “battlefield” with this site is a misnomer, inasmuch as it was an unprovoked massacre by General Alfred Sully’s cavalry forces in retribution for the remotely related Sioux attacks in the lower Minnesota Valley. The site continues to embody contentious local enmity over the historical events. The WPA shelterhouse, with an open stone hearth at one end, was the subject of apparent vandalism in 2009 that largely destroyed it. Faithfully rebuilt according to the original design, this handsomely proportioned, coursed rubble stone building has exposed, unhewn timber sloped beams and paired columns framing the breezeway. The State Historical Society assured a faithful reconstruction of this lakeside shelterhouse kiosk within a state park.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay
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Data

Citation

Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay, "Picnic Shelter, Whitestone Hill Battlefield Historical Site and State Park", [Kulm, North Dakota], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/ND-01-DI1.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of North Dakota

Buildings of North Dakota, Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 216-216.

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