Members of the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance gathered in Bismarck include, from left, board members Gary Snow, Darian Morsett, Farah Gruneau, Gov. Doug Burgum, NDNTA board member Stacey LaCompte and board member Les Thomas.
TURTLE MOUNTAIN – Fresh off hosting the second annual Turtle Mountain Tourism Summit in May, tribal and local promoters are pushing ahead with a game plan aimed at increasing tourism to the area.
“In North Dakota, tourism is the third largest economic driver after agriculture and oil,” said Les Thomas, a tourism consultant for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Because the Turtle Mountain Reservation is a 6-by-12-mile swath of land outside the oil fields, too small to impact agriculture, the tribe is focusing on tourism spending, which it expects to reach $3.55 billion in North Dakota in 2023.
With the International Peace Garden and various other local attractions nearby, partnerships are important to increasing tourism.
Tim Chapman, executive director of the International Peace Garden, said North Dakota’s tourism budget is about half that of surrounding states, so regional collaboration is important to boost the state’s tourism efforts.
The recent Turtle Mountain Tourism Summit was supported by North Dakota Tourism and Manitoba Travel, but he said the message from both agencies is that continued effort is needed at the local level.
“We know that government funding is never guaranteed, which is why these types of partnerships are so helpful,” Chapman said.
“What we’re trying to do is strengthen the area,” he added. “We’re competing with the more established, bigger stores in Medora and along Interstate 94. But the cross-promotion and communication that we’re really starting to have throughout the Turtle Mountains on both sides of the border will lead to more stability in the future.”
Thomas, who also serves as vice president of the North Dakota Native American Tourism Alliance (NDNTA), said collaborative efforts on regional tourism extend beyond county lines.
NDNTA, an organization representing North Dakota’s five tribes, is partnering with the North Dakota Department of Commerce and Tourism to organize regional tours. Because tribes are spread across the state, the coalition is working with tourism bureaus in Medora, Watford City, Williston, Minot, Jamestown and elsewhere to try to add more stops along the tours, Thomas said.
Last year, a tour called the “ND Road Trip” was formed, going from Medora to Fort Berthold to Minot to Peace Gardens, creating a tour of the sights and activities.
“It just happened organically,” said Stephanie Schoenrock, executive director of Visit Minot. Without any marketing, Visit Minot found tourists following the route from Medora to Peace Garden, stopping along the way.
“We decided to make this a partnership, and we did just that,” Schoenrock said. “Each organization promotes each other. We have a North Dakota road trip itinerary on our website that gets you from one location to another, which helps increase exposure for organic road trips.”
“So far, it’s going really well,” she added. “Very positive.”
North Dakota is also part of the Great American West partnership, which also includes South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho and, until recently, Montana. An annual conference provides a one-stop destination for travel companies from many countries. International interest in the Great American West is growing, Thomas said.
“We have a lot of people who are going to start organizing tours in North Dakota next year,” Thomas said. “We have Italian journalists coming. They come to MHA and we’re showing them around North Dakota. So we’re promoting North Dakota.”
Thomas said officials from the Bush Foundation will visit Minot and the Turtle Mountain area in August to tour tourism activities they might be interested in supporting.
“This is an opportunity for us to communicate our needs to them and work together as partners,” he said.
The foundation has already given $684,000 to the North Dakota Native American Tourism Alliance since 2016.
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribal Council understands the value of tourism and has invested in amenities to attract visitors, Thomas said. The attractions of gambling, dining, white buffalo, Metis culture, powwows, horse racing, rodeos and a variety of outdoor recreation are further enhanced by a recently constructed $10 million water park and a soon-to-be built trampoline park.
But to attract visitors to Turtle Mountain’s remote properties, a tourism plan was developed to cover Rolette County with the help of consultants from the Northwest Area Foundation and George Washington University. The TMBCI Rolette County Comprehensive Plan was awarded a $1.5 million state tourism development grant to help advance key projects, such as the construction of Peace Garden’s 170-foot diameter powwow arbor.
An exact location is being sought and more private funds are being raised before bids are issued for the Arbor’s construction, with the goal of hosting the world’s first international peace conference in 2026. Construction of the Arbor is estimated to cost just under $2 million, with about $456,500 already raised, Thomas said. A state grant is helping to fund the Arbor and an estimated $3 million circular building that will serve as a community center for the reservation.
Thomas said a $700,000 state grant, $400,000 from the tribe and $100,000 from the Shakopee Tribe of Minnesota will help build the estimated $1.2 million veterans park in Dunseith. In recent years, Peace Garden has invested in $12 million in renovations, including a $1 million playground. Thomas, who co-chairs Peace Garden’s Native American Advisory Committee, said the Turtle Mountain Tribe is helping by sponsoring part of the playground.
Chapman said the next focus for the gardens should be on the 93-year-old infrastructure, including updating the water and sewer systems.
“If we don’t strengthen our basic infrastructure, it doesn’t matter what we want to do with programming and events, because we’re going to have all kinds of issues, like restrooms needing to function,” he said.
But while the state and NDNTA are looking to promote the park outside of North Dakota, Peace Garden is also focused on expanding local tourism.
“You can’t expect tourists, even local tourists, to drive an hour and 45 minutes from Minot on a whim without giving them a more detailed itinerary,” he says. “But if you tell them they can enjoy the casino, they can stay in a winter cabin, they can enjoy an indoor water park on the weekends, they can go downhill skiing in Bottineau, they can enjoy the cactus collection in the gardens, that’s great. And the fact that you can communicate that to people within an hour, two-hour radius starts to give economic developers, employment development authorities, people in those towns the confidence to say, ‘Yes, we need to promote tourism more.’ And when that happens at a more local level, it makes it a lot easier for provincial and local people in Bismarck and Winnipeg to say, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of good things to do there.'”
Thomas said tourism in Rolette County and North Dakota has a bright future thanks to collaborations between various foundations, tribal nations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, International Peace Garden Skydancer Casino & Resort, other local organizations and numerous state agencies down through the governor’s office.
“And this isn’t a competition. It’s a partnership,” Thomas added, noting that for Turtle Mountain and the state, it all comes back to the same theme.
“We want to be a year-round family-friendly destination,” he said.
Peace Garden plans 2024 event
The International Peace Garden is planning four major events and a Thursday night events series to draw large crowds this summer and fall.
IPG will host a Summer Celebration Weekend from Aug. 9-11, which will feature family entertainment, live music, a car show, a peace market, children’s activities, walking tours of the gardens and hiking tours of the trails. The grand opening of the Don Vitko Cactus & Succulent Collection Conservatory is also scheduled for Aug. 10.
A Garden Gala will be held on August 24th to raise funds for the continued development of the Conservatory and South Patio. A Fall Celebration Day will be held on September 21st, featuring children’s activities, a buffet, wagon rides and a vendor market. A concert is scheduled for later in September as the fourth event of the season.
The Thursday series will take place on July 11 and 25, and August 15 and 29. Events will include trivia nights, jam sessions and chats with gardeners.
Other upcoming events include the Peace Triathlon Aug. 3-4, Saturday Evening at the Garden Jam Session Aug. 17, World Day of Peace and Mass on Aug. 18, a Remembrance Service on Sept. 11 and Santa at the Garden on Dec. 7.
The gardens offer tours every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. This year’s floral designs focus on characters from children’s books.
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