Jamestown North Dakota: The Estate Takes on Alaska

Copyright 2019, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

June 15, 2019

It rained last night. Feeding the skeeters I guess. 

On tap for the day, supply run. For starters. 

First stop of the day, "World's Largest Buffalo Monument", built in 1959,  the buffalo is built out of concrete, is 26 feet tall, 46 feet long and weighs 60 tons. 

Lunch at JB Brickhouse.  Great pizza and a salad.  YUM. Leftovers for our dinner.

Next was the Stutsman County Museum, Lutz Mansion, built in 1907 by George Lutz, a local lumberman. A fine collection and a pleasant docent made for a nice couple of hours.

This is the gazebo (bandstand), duplicated from an earlier one, long gone.  It is two stories, kinda interesting.

Once inside, we were greeted by a pleasant docent who told us about the history of the home, the owner, and some of the displays on the first level.  This hanging lamp, appears to be Tiffany (or same era?)  Pretty.

Next two photos, original  mural at the top of the dining room walls, the room was painted below this at some point, but, some one had the wisdom to NOT paint this. It goes all the way around the room, continuously. Quite stunning:

Stairs to the second story:

Original stucco walls, the designs are part of the stucco:

I was impressed by this stove, kerosene:

Cause I like spinning wheels and the composition with the chair:

The bath tub.  I know - - - 

The border of the bathroom tile - - 

A fireplace on the third level (was the old ballroom), not original to the home, but, stunning - - 

There are a number of stained glass type windows through out the home, it is possible they are Tiffany made, the docent seemed to be a bit hedgy on that fact - - no matter - - pretty:

Man was all excited about these light switches and the fact that he got to turn the lights on and off - - it's an electrician kind of thing. They are neat tho - - 

There was a toy room, full of baby dolls and toy dolls and doll furniture.  I have my Tiny Tears, like this one,  a 1950 era doll.  It looks just like this one.

Another stunning light fixture: 

Next we went down the street a block to see the 1883 County Courthouse. 

The building  has stamped tin walls and ceiling due to a fire. The fire burned off/smoked up the gold trimmed wallpaper that was there prior to the fire.  To cover the smoke damage they covered all the walls and ceilings in stamped tin.  In the entire building!  LOTS of stamped tin!  It was quite something!  May be the most stamped tin in one building in the US.  Docent was a bit unsure.  Fun stuff, no matter.

This is some of the old smoky wall paper.

Some of the stamped tin:

And on the ceiling:

And, what is a courthouse without a few old cases laying about:

Supplies run. Saw these in the parking lot! 

Back to camp, thunder and expected rain.  When the rain came it was deafening on the roof, reduced the visibility to 1/4 mile or so. Rumble. A decent summer storm.  

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