Just north of Deadwood is Belle Fourche, the geographical center of America. In my quest for these geographic places I was surprised since I thought the geographic center was in Kansas. The sign explains that the geographical center of the 48 states is in Kansas and after Hawaii and Alaska were admitted, a recalculation by NOAA designated the geographic center of the US 20 miles north of Belle Fourche, SD.
We stopped in Buffalo (not the one in NY) a tiny, tiny town of 364 people that has Centennial Park, which includes statues of ND animals (buffalo, horses, bald eagle, wolf, snake) and an oil pump and wind mill. There was one other guy in the park and I struck up a conversation with him. He was making his way from Washington State to Washington DC and reported witnessing the oil boom in western ND – lots of oil trucks, construction, lack of housing. He had trouble finding a hotel room for the night and thought he might have to drive all the way to SD to find lodging.
We stopped at Jabbrs in Bowman, ND, population 1509, that serves lunch on Fiestaware. Bowman reminds me of Rugby, ND – small, simple, friendly, surrounded by nothing. Like most places in ND it really does seem like you are in the middle of nowhere.