This story begins there in some ways. There is much more to the story that can be detailed on a little blog like this.
About a month ago, I read an article that Bill Gates, of Microsoft fame, had purchased some 200K acre-plus, in a little town in far Northeast North Dakota. Let alone that, the number cruncher who had already made the calculations, would place him owning just shy of 1% of the United States. He apparently has been buying a lot of land elsewhere over time. Quietly.
Putting that fact aside for the moment, the main question is why did he choose this corner of North Dakota? It sits 2 miles from the Canadian border, the busiest border crossing between Blaine, Washington and Detroit, Michigan. It is one of three ports of Entry that is a 24-hour crossing in either direction. It is also the fifth POE's in all of Canada, That, "ain't all" when the story gets more interesting. However, before leaping onto that flax rope bridge, the American side land purchase residents were in an uproar over Bill's deal. They made a pretty darn good showing that they were unhappy, too. Those residents are from the small town of Pembina, North Dakota. A town of 512 souls according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
In the 16th century, the French exploration came across native Americans called Lakota, (Soux as the French called them). They also came across the Chippewa (ojibue) and the Assiniboine. There in Pembina, the Hudson Bay Company established a fur trading post. It is, today, a Historic Site on the border. were US75 ends and crosses the border into Canada. There, as a Canadian highway, it bears the same designated number, now known as International Historic Highway 75, the King of Trails that goes to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Here, it should be noted that US75 begins in Galveston, Texas and comes north into Dallas paired in tandem with I-45,US75 as it leaves Houston outbound to Dallas. There, it becomes North Central Expressway (aka, NCX or George Bush, for a short distance near Southern Methodist University). The Bush Presidential Center sits yards from the fabled road through Dallas on the SMU campus. Traveling even further north, it winds it's way across several states until at Fargo, ND it become the back bone of Minnesota's border with North Dakota. From there, all the way just short of the border with Canada, it makes a sharp left turn into Pembina, where it joins US interstate I-29 on to the border with Canada, as the modern I-29 on the west side of the city. Whereas US75 came north on the east side of the city. I-29 ends at the border, and so does US75. But that same road, 75, continues on to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as the International Highway 75, King of Trails.
One key point about Pembina besides being the historic city of Hudson Bay Fur Traders, is that it is also the home of Greyhound Bus' beginning of new buses built there. Nevertheless it seems to be an interesting place besides being Pembina's new land holder Bill Gates. Currently, there is a movement to designate 75 in Canada the old title of King of Trails. Let us hope that the US Department of Transportation joins that movement, Mr. Secretary Buttigieg. The Daughters of the American Revolution are a bit ahead of you since 1923 with the Central National Highway of the Republic of Texas c.1884 landmark stone that stands on Texas State Route 78 at White Rock Lake, Dallas. All the more reason to join the Canadians in making highway 75 in Canada and US75 in the states, the International Historic Highway, King of Trails as a joint venture.
