20090615 – Mouse River, Foxholm and Minot.

20090615 – Mouse River, Foxholm and Minot.

This morning we drove from Kenmare to the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge. We learned early on that the Souris is the French word for Mouse and the Mouse River flows into, is the center of, the Upper Souris NWR. At the North end of the refuge there is a RV campground (appropriately named the Mouse River Campground) and river front (perhaps summer cottage) resort community that dates back to the 1930's. We walked through this and around it birding. And trying to recall memories that Tim had of one of the Sauer ancestors fishing on the bank of the Mouse River (according to Mom's description of a picture of this in the Rice Picture Box).

That afternoon we drove part of the auto tour at the South end of the refuge, then headed for Foxholm, ND. Tim had noticed this important town in the Sauer genealogy on the map earlier that morning. Foxholm is very small at this time, with only a few dozen houses apparently occupied. It does have a Catholic church in excellent condition, so we sought out the graveyard associated with this. We got direction from two men at a welding shop, the only business we saw open. The graveyard, St Mary's Cemetery) is about a mile North (uphill) from the church. We found 6 graves with Sauer last names: Steven John Sauer (1/17/1970-5/29/1988), Clarence E. Sauer (2/4/1932-5/4/2005), Sandra L Sauer (8/7/1942-10/25/1974), Edward J. Sauer (3/17/1904-9/14/1941), John M Sauer (3/3/1871-11/19/1945), Rose M Sauer (5/13/1882-12/22/1956). We were not expecting Foxholm on our itinerary, so did not have awareness of the other last names we should have looked for. We did look for Schneiders, but found none. We did not look for Loomis, but recalled that name later. We do not recall seeing any Loomis markers.

Foxholm is only 20 miles North West of Minot, so we headed to the city (US52, then US2)for an RV spot, a few groceries and dinner.

Birds: American goldfinch, Western Wood Pewee, Eastern Bluebird, Barn Swallow,
Bobolink, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Sedge Wren, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Wren, American Robin, Mourning Dove, Least Flycatcher, Clay Colored Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Canada Goose, Red-winged Blackbird, Sora (heard), Downey Woodpecker, Mallard, Wilson's Snipe (heard), Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Cliff Swallow, Orchard Oriole, Mourning Dove, Yellow-headed Vireo, Clark's Grebe, Western Grebe, Purple Martin, Wild Turkey.