Dr. Joe Stickler, longtime Valley City State University professor, inspired students and the community to build Medicine Wheel Park.

A solar horizon calendar is the centerpiece of Medicine Wheel park. And it's a Native American symbol. Hundreds of them are found out in the west, and the best one is found in the Bighorn Mountains.

When I moved in 1981 to Valley City, I was here one week after classes started. And the biology professor said, come with me after classes today and I'll show you an interesting place on campus. And he walked me up through the woods to this place. There was nothing there. There were no buildings. There was the winter show building and maybe one motel, but for other developments, there was none. And I thought this would be a perfect place for a medicine wheel.

So in 1992, my partner Diana Skroch, and I were on our summer camping trip. On the way home, I decided we would stop and camp near the Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains. It's about a mile and a quarter up to it. And we walked up there, and instantly I saw that it was made all with little rocks. And I knew that I could do that with my class. And that was the beginning.

I went to President Charles House's speech to the university at the opening of campus. He said that he would be retiring at the end of that year. I then immediately made up my mind. Charles House knew what a medicine wheel was. He was pretty knowledgeable in astronomy. And so I thought, boy, that's the guy I've got to convince, and I better do it before he leaves. So I then walked him up to the medicine wheel and said, this is what I want to do. And he said, that sounds great, and gave me permission.

The astronomy class worked that fall, and they made the main circle and the important three spokes across it and a few other spokes, but that was just the outline with little rocks. And a pivotal moment came towards the winter end of the semester. Three of the older than average students in my class came up to me and said, you know, people are just going to come up here, especially kids, and mess up this alignment. I took that in my mind, and in a few days, I looked over across the street to Bloomer's gravel pit, and there was a big pile of boulders there. And I said, that's the solution. I placed six boulders at the important equinox and solstice sites. And that was the first modification of my idea. So everything that followed evolved from that point on.

There was an editor of the Times Record, maybe in the third year the wheel was there. He opened up an article about the medicine wheel in the Times Record that said Medicine Wheel Park: The Intersection of Community and University. And that's exactly what happened. Not only did the students form a wonderful crew of workers up there, they had many ideas of how it should be developed. The rings around Saturn were done by Chuck Bowen. To give Saturn a better definition, he also put in the rose compass. The students were more than just labor. They were in the creative process too. I can give example after example of how the students had this marvelous aesthetic input. And the community early on recognized that this could be a tourist attraction.

The community was full of people that wanted to support the park. Around 2000, several grants were written to fund the infrastructure up there. The path and the signage was paid for. And that was a quantum jump at the development of the park. At the same particular time, another grant had been written to put the North Country Trail through Valley City. And the North Country Trail runs from Lake Sakakawea to the Vermont border. And I was so pleased with that idea, I lobbied. I said, you take that North Country Trail through Medicine Wheel Park and I'll put in a distance scaled solar system. So those two really converged together to make a really nice activity for the Medicine Wheel, for people to do.

Dr. Joe Stickler’s mission was simple: create beauty and have fun doing it. What began as an idea grew into a place shaped by thousands of hands, working together above the Sheyenne River Valley.

Stickler hopes the park will continue to evolve for generations to come, like the ancient wheels that inspired it.