My visit to the North Dakota State Capitol

Last Saturday, Aug. 1, my brother, Ryan (the guy in the red "Dad-Pool" cap), and I stopped in Bismarck, N.D. around lunchtime during a two-day drive to see our parents in the Great Falls, Montana area. Here in no particular order are some shots from our guided tour of the North Dakota State Capitol.

"The Hon. John Burke of North Dakota: Legislator – Governor – Supreme Court Justice – Treasurer of the United States of America"

This is the House of Representatives chamber. The Legislature meets only during odd-numbered years and the legislators have no offices except their desks in the chamber. Contrary to the expected location of the two chambers on opposite sides of the central tower, both are in the same wing, to the left as seen facing the front steps, with the House at the front (with windows) and the Senate at the rear. The House ceiling, I was told, was designed to represent the moon and the stars.

The art deco design of the Capitol prominently features this tall tower, which (except for the second-floor memorial hall and the 18th-floor observation deck) is pretty much government offices. The House chamber is at the left with the Senate behind it, facing the rear of the building.

These portraits of N.D.'s governors are on the observation deck. The tour guide pointed out one guy, "Wild Bill" Langer, who's on there twice. He was impeached and removed from office, only to be re-elected later.

This first-floor portrait gallery of the winners of N.D.'s annual "Rough Rider Award," starting with Teddy Roosevelt himself, includes such North Dakota residents as Roger Maris and Angie Dickinson.

Here's the memorial wall in the Memorial Hall, with black marble representing North Dakotans who died serving the country. And, of course, the state seal. The Art Deco decor includes a variety of types of marble and woods, many of them rare and irreplaceable today, including one room (not pictured) called the "monkey room" because a child thought the burls in the wood resembled monkeys' eyes. The tour guide pointed out a pattern resembling Garfield (the cat).

This is the Senate chamber, which the tour guide said is affectionately called "the dark side" because of its lack of windows, though the ceiling is designed to represent the sun.

On this lawn, viewed from the observation deck, 900-some people set a Guinness world record for the number of snow angels in one place. I think you can see the Missouri River in this picture, in the upper right.

Here's that Memorial Hall again, with brass-accented rotary doors (no longer used) decorated with reliefs representing North Dakota's farmers and miners. We were told North Dakota is the number one producer of canola, honey, winter wheat and sunflowers in the nation, and it also produces a lot of coal that's mined in such a way that the land is restored to its previous condition afterward. The light fixtures are designed to represent ears of wheat.

Elevator doors on the bottom two floors are also in brass, as are the pillars in the Memorial Hall. The reliefs on them include a depiction of a settler and an Indian clubbing each other(!) with their rifles.

This hallway runs between the House and Senate chambers. More of that rare, irreplaceable wood, accented with lights designed around an Egyptian motif (typical of Art Deco). The benches along the corridor are overhung by slanted canopies that I'm told serve some acoustic function, muffling the sound of conversation beneath, so you can have a relatively private conversation.