Welcome to the Pembina Walsh Historic Trail (PWHT). Earn a commemorative coin after finding five caches in each county! Fill out the PWHT Passport at https://rendezvousregion.com/download/passport.pdf and submit it to receive your coin(s)! Our caches are located at the most interesting historical sites in Pembina and Walsh County in northeast North Dakota. This trail includes a number of gadget caches designed by Trycacheus.
As the first farmer in North Dakota, Charles Bottineau, Jr. homesteaded on this quarter of land in December 1870. At the Pembina Land Office, he was the second person in Dakota to file a homestead and the first to raise wheat. From the Feb. 8th, 1900, Courier Democrat in Langdon, "No wheat grown south of the boundrary line until 1871". Then Charles Bottineau living four miles from Neche, north of Pembina River, seeded to wheat 10 acres he had cultivated as a garden. The yield of wheat he asserts was 'fifty bushels to the acre." Eventually he raised 100 acres of wheat which he shipped to Canada. He also owned the first grain wagon in the area. Bottiniau was a farmer and a trader with a store in St. Joseph (Walhalla). He was Metis and was known as a leading member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Indians. Charles Bottiniau died in Washinton, DC, on May 6th, 1908 at the age of 82. He had been there assiting his nephew in prosecuting Indian claims before Congress. The body was returned to Neche for burial.