Ransom County High Point Trip Report

Date: March 28, 2002
Authors: Jobe Wymore, Julie Kawa, Pat Wymore

Finding the starting point of this trip report is going to be the real challenge if anything is. Good luck!

At the reddish brown "Welcome to Fort Ransom" sign located by the spur road heading to Fort Ransom (and I mean the actual fort, not the town) on the Walt Hjelle Parkway set the odometer and head west on the paved main road leading into the town of Fort Ransom. The road will quickly cross the Sheyenne River and then enter Fort Ransom where it will curve to your right and start to gain elevation. At 1.4 miles, you'll come to a stop sign at a T-intersection where you need to turn right. After going 0.4 mile more, look for a dirt road that branches to your right heading uphill, with a "No Snow Removal" sign nearby. Turn right here on a lesser dirt road as it gains elevation, passing by a radio tower some ways off the road, and then finally cresting out 0.6 mile later in the middle of some tiny/abrupt bumps on both sides of the road. Park here for the first 3 of your 8 areas.

These 3 areas are in the immediate area with the road actually cutting through the center of them. The first is on the west side of the road and the other 2 on the east. You should be able to hit all 3 in 3 minutes. The topo map labels them as the Bear Den Hillocks.

To continue to the 4th area just keep heading north for another 0.3 mile and park again right before another faint road intersection. The map showed this area to contain a BM but couldn't locate it in the high grass. The 5th and 6th areas that are in Section 10 lie immediately to the west of you about 150 yards or so. Hand leveling shows that these 2 are clearly lower and, in my book, don't even need to be visited. You'll see what I mean when you get there.

The final 2 spots for Ransom County are in the Standing Rock SHS and to get to these you need to get back to the intersection where you turned uphill on the lesser dirt road. Turn right/west and drive 1 mile to another intersection, set the odometer and turn right/ north on 117. We followed it north roughly 8 miles until it came to a T-intersection with ND46. Here we took a right and traveled east for 3 miles to a dirt road to our right, immediately after a Historical Sign. Here we took another right, heading south up a lesser dirt road until it ended at a dirt parking area 1/2 mile later. From here it is obvious to the first spot which is through the fence and up the dirt path 25 feet to the top of Standing Rock itself. The summit has an upright rock in concrete and BM Standing Rock 1954.

The 8th and final area is the small bump you can make out just 150 yards to the east of you. We crawled through a fence and strolled over easy terrain to the final area. Hand leveling shows this 8th area to be lower than the BM spot and back sighting confirms.