ND OKs power line in historic battlefield area

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota regulators on Wednesday approved a permit for a proposed $375 million high-voltage power line that would run through the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield, a site in the western part of the state where a battle between U.S. Army soldiers and American Indians occurred in 1864.

Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative wants to build the 197-mile line from its Antelope Valley Station power plant near Beulah to a substation near Tioga to deliver more electricity to communities in western North Dakota’s oil patch, where there is a growing demand for power. Several American Indian tribes, historians and others have objected to the company’s plan.