This is where the tour starts for the On-A-Slant Mandan Indian Village. The visitor center building contains a display that includes exhibits from the Lewis and Clark expedition and from the Mandan Indians who had a village there. We didn’t go to those areas of the park to check them out. Although we didn’t use them, it should be noted that the park has primitive and developed campgrounds and rental cabins near the riverbank. The next morning we head back north towards Mandan and the Ft. We are now Prairie club members! We walk around a bit, get some dinner at the buffet and call it a night. The registration is free but it knocks $25 off our room rate and gives us $10 to spend in the casino. Before we get registered, they suggest we go into the casino and register. When we go to check in, the clerk asked if we were members of the Prairie Club. Once we finally get there, we see that they have a landing on the River, the lodge, a restaurant (buffet style), the casino and a small gas station with prices comparable to what we’d seen in Bismarck. The lodge portion of the casino consists of 200 guest rooms. The casino offers high stakes gaming options, along with 725 slot machines, blackjack, craps, among other games. It is operated by the Standing Rock Indian Tribe. Prairie Knights is a casino and lodge located on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

It really is 50 miles and there is virtually nothing until you reach the Prairie Knights Casino and Resort. We drove south with the Missouri River to our left through a couple of very small settlements and passed the Ft. They told us they had plenty of rooms so there was no need to make a reservation. Since it was about 50 miles off the highway, we called ahead to check on room availability. Someone recommended the Prairie Knights Resort. We called a couple of hotels but found no rooms available without a reservation. We left Medora and headed east on I-94 towards the Missouri River and Bismarck.