Double Ditch Indian Village State Historic Site

The Mandan are among the peoples who have lived along the upper Missouri for a very long time, building villages of dome-shaped earthlodges and farming the fertile river bottoms. They grew corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers, hunted bison, and traded far and wide, and their towns were hubs where goods and news moved across the northern plains. Today the Mandan are part of the MHA Nation, the Three Affiliated Tribes, along with the Hidatsa and Arikara, with their homeland at Fort Berthold upstream.

Double Ditch was a large and long-lived village, occupied over several centuries. Waves of epidemic disease brought by newcomers devastated the Mandan and their neighbors, and villages like this one were eventually left, their people consolidating elsewhere. The site remains a place of deep meaning to the Mandan people and their descendants.

There are no standing buildings at Double Ditch, but the ground itself preserves the town's plan. Shallow circular depressions mark where earthlodges once stood, low mounds are the accumulated debris of generations of daily life, and the ditches that ring the site are the remains of fortifications that helped defend the village. The name comes from these earthwork ditches.

Archaeological study has shown the village was larger and more complex than the visible remains first suggest, with the fortifications shifting over time as the town grew and contracted. Interpretive signs and shelters help visitors translate the subtle contours into the busy, crowded town that once stood here above the river.

The site occupies a commanding bluff over the Missouri River, and the location was no accident: it offered good farmland in the bottoms, a defensible height, and a view up and down the valley. Today that same vantage rewards visitors with a sweeping look over the river and the wide North Dakota sky.

A walking path lets visitors move among the earthworks and take in the river views, with benches and shelters along the way. The openness of the bluff, swept by prairie wind, adds to the sense of standing in a place shaped by both nature and centuries of human life.

Double Ditch is a sacred place and a fragile archaeological site, so visitors are asked to stay on the paths, leave the mounds and ground undisturbed, and take nothing. Approaching it thoughtfully honors the Mandan people whose ancestors lived and are remembered here.

Summer and early fall, with warm days and green or golden prairie, are the easiest times to walk the bluff, though there is little shade, so sun protection helps. Spring green-up is lovely, and even winter, when snow lies over the earthworks and the river runs cold below, has a stark beauty. Any season, the exposed bluff calls for weather-ready clothing.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.