North Dakota is a state of the United States located in the
north of the United States on the Canadian border. North Dakota
is 183,112 km² and has a population of over 750,000 (89% White,
5% Native American, 3% Hispanic, 2% Black and 1% Other). The
capital is Bismarck. The climate is cool-temperate.
North
Dakota became the 39th state to join the Union after the
division of the Dakota Territory in 1889. North Dakota has the
nicknames Peace Garden State, named after the International
Peace Garden on the border with Canada at Dunseith, and Sioux
State. The name Dakota derives from the Dakota Native American
ethnic group who lived in this area before it was conquered by
immigrants and who still live here today.
1 Bismarck - State capital and seat of the governor, resort town,
picturesque center of North Dakota, growing daily.
2 Devils Lake -
the heart of North Dakota's lake country.
3 Dickinson Crown of the
Southwest, Gateway to the Badlands.
4 Fargo - North Dakota's largest
city, home of North Dakota State University, cultural, medical and
commercial center of the state.
5 Grand Forks - Home of the
University of North Dakota.
6 Jamestown – the Buffalo City, Pride of
the Prairie.
7 Minot - The Magic City, the capital of northwestern
North Dakota
8 Rugby - the geographic center of North America
9
Williston - the largest city on upper Missouri and the epicenter for the
state's recent oil boom
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site is an open air ethnographic museum on a site of three former Native American villages situated half a mile North of a town of Stanton, ND.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is situated in Billings County and McKenzie Counties in a state of North Dakota in US.
By plane
Bismarck Municipal Airport (IATA: BIS)
Hector
International Airport (IATA: FAR) . near Fargo.
In the street
I94 Billings MT - Bismarck ND - Fargo ND - Minnesota MN - Minneapolis MN
I29 Sioux City IA - Sioux Falls SD - Fargo ND - Canada
H2 Spokane WA
- Grand Forks ND - Duluth MN
H85 Cheyenne WY - Deadwood SD - Fortuna
ND - Canada
Flag
The design of the North Dakota flag is an almost exact copy
of the flag carried by the North Dakota contingent of state troops in
the Philippine-American War. It was passed by the North Dakota
Legislature on March 3, 1911. Legislation in 1943 brought the flag into
line with the original flag of the Philippine War troops, which is on
display at the Heritage Center in Bismarck.
The measurements of
the official flag are 33:26.
The history of North Dakota shows a very late colonization, due to the presence on these lands of formidable Native American tribes who inflicted a bitter defeat on the American army in 1876 during the Battle of Little Bighorn.
The first European to reach what is now North Dakota was the French
Canadian trader Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye, who led an exploration
of the Mandan villages in 17381. The possibilities of exploration were
however limited by the precarious position of the French possessions in
Canada, some of which were located very close to British colonies, and
the hostility of the Sioux, who considered the French as allies of the
Cree and the Ojibwe. The Verendrye brothers led an expedition in 1743,
leaving from Fort La Reine, on Lake Manitoba, in the hope of tracing a
river route to the Pacific. Arriving approximately in the center of the
current state of South Dakota, thanks to the river system, they suddenly
turned west, without it being possible to know for sure how far, before
heading north again. Their journal vaguely mentions their position
"[...] in sight of the mountains", mountains that can be identified
either as the Black Hills or the Big Horn Mountains. In 1795, the
Mackay-Evans expedition went up to what is now North Dakota, where it
expelled several British merchants.
Trade agreements between
Native American tribes allowed few tribes in North Dakota to come into
direct contact with Europeans. The arrival of the Lewis and Clark
expedition in 1804, however, made them aware of French and Spanish
claims to these territories. During the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, most
of the acquired lands were organized between the Minnesota Territory and
the Nebraska Territory.
When Minnesota Territory became a state in 1858, the adjacent
territories lost all administrative organization. When the Treaty of
Yankton was signed that same year, transferring most of the Lakota lands
to the U.S. government, the few settlers present formed a provisional
government and tried unsuccessfully to obtain territorial status.
After three years of intense lobbying by Abraham Lincoln's
brother-in-law, J.B.S. Todd, Washington finally recognized the Dakota
Territory on March 2, 1861, which for a time covered large sections of
the present-day states of Montana and Wyoming. In 1863, it was reduced
to the present dimensions of the two Dakotas by the creation of the
Idaho Territory, incorporating the lands located west of the 117th
meridian.
In 1864, the territory recovered part of these lands
removed from the territory of Idaho (in green on the map), located south
of the latitude of 46°30'N, on the eastern slope of the Continental
Divide, as well as those east of the longitude of 110°03'W. Section that
the territory lost four years later by the creation of the territory of
Wyoming west of the 117th meridian. The capital of the territory was
Yankton from 1861 to 1883, date at which it was transferred to Bismarck.
The Conquest of the West led to the creation of hundreds of small
newspapers along the railroad line, which was worked by German
immigrants. Mark Kellogg, a reporter for one of these "Wild Frontier"
newspapers, died on the job during the Battle of Little Bighorn, won in
June 1876 by Sioux chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. In the midst of
the Black Hills War, Mark Kellogg had joined ex-Colonel Clement A.
Lounsberry to launch the Bismarck Tribune newspaper in Bismarck, a small
town founded by the Northern Pacific Railway in what would become North
Dakota, to house German immigrants working for the railroad. Lounsberry
accompanied his friend Custer to the fight. But his wife fell ill. He
had to give up his place to his colleague Mark Kellogg, who the military
hoped would be able to tell of a resounding victory. He was killed on
the battlefield.
The massacre would be revealed by the Helena
Herald, Andrew J. Fisk's newspaper, in Helena, Montana, a small town 250
miles to the west, to which a survivor had galloped. Thanks to the
telegraph, the Bismarck Tribune was able to report on it on July 6,
twelve days after the battle. Also by telegraph, James Gordon Bennett,
head of the New York Herald, asked Andrew J. Fisk, head of the Bismarck
Tribune, to rush to the battlefield to bring back details, which would
be published on July 11 in the New York Herald, seventeen days later.
The New York daily had already published a year earlier, from July to
October 1875, a series of major investigations into commissions paid to
Orvil Grant, the brother of American President Ulysses S. Grant, in a
case of overbilling on deliveries to George Armstrong Custer's 7th
Cavalry Regiment, written by Ralph Meeker, with the discreet help of the
Bismarck Tribune.
The American bison population is estimated at 60-100 million during
the second quarter of the 19th century, when the West of the continent
was still the property of the Native Americans. But then, bison hides
were used to make belts for industrial machines, clothing, and carpets,
and massively transported to Europe. There were only 750 bison left in
North America in 1890 and Montana was one of the regions least affected
by this extinction. Poaching had reduced the native herds to a few dozen
animals.
To repopulate, animals were transplanted from other
wildlife reserves. A century later, the bison was hunted again, for its
population regulation.
These lands were settled in a scattered manner at the end of the 19th century, until the arrival of the railroad and an aggressive commercialization of the land. A bill for the creation of several states including those of North Dakota and South Dakota named the Enabling Act of 1889 was voted on February 22, 1889 under the presidency of Grover Cleveland. After the latter left office, it was up to his successor, Benjamin Harrison, to sign the official proclamation admitting North and South Dakota into the Union on November 2, 1889. It is very difficult to know which of North Dakota or South Dakota was integrated first since the signing took place on the same day. President Benjamin Harrison always refused to indicate the order in which he signed the executive orders. However, the proclamation was issued first for North Dakota (as the first in alphabetical order). Thus, it is listed before South Dakota by most sources. North Dakota has been the 39th state since November 2, 1889.
Corruption in the governments of the territory and then the young state led to a wave of populism in the early 20th century, which inspired the film Northern Lights, by John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, against a backdrop of anger against large corporations in the grain industry. Winner of the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, it tells the fictionalized story of a Swedish-born farmer, Ray Sorenson, who decides to organize a Non-Partisan Populist League in response to a bank seizure. The film describes the successes of the Non-Partisan League, led by wheat producers demanding strict regulation of railroads and banks, and the creation of farm credit agencies. At the time, Alexander McKenzie, the leading politician in Dakota, was living in Minnesota, where the banks and large milling and railroad companies were located, making money from the wheat grown on small farms in neighboring Dakota. The Nonpartisan League was inspired by the "granger" movement created in 1867 against the big middlemen, in Illinois or Wisconsin, at a time when Dakota did not exist. It became a political force after its victory in the 1916 elections. Led by two young, previously unknown farmer friends, Fred Wood and Arthur Charles Townley, the latter coming from the Socialist Party, it hoped to replace the party system with a form of direct democracy. Thanks to it, another little-known farmer, Lynn Frazier, was elected governor of North Dakota with 79% of the vote, while John Miller Baer, an agronomist turned cartoonist, was elected to the United States House of Representatives. The prestige and rhetoric of the Nonpartisan League spread to Western Canada, in the great prairies, where farmers became increasingly aware of their social force. In North Dakota, its successes led to social and economic reforms. The Nonpartisan League was behind the creation of a state-owned corporation in North Dakota, the North Dakota Mill and Elevator. Located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, it operated the largest flour mill in the United States, along with a grain elevator and machinery for processing flour to make bread and pancakes more quickly. Another important state building, the North Dakota Capitol in Bismarck, was destroyed by fire on December 28, 1930, and was replaced by an Art Deco skyscraper that still stands today.
World War II saw a boost to the state's economy as North Dakota supplied food and other goods to American troops serving in the conflict. North Dakota also supplied products such as binoculars, aviation instruments, helicopter propellers, and ship parts. After the war, a series of federal construction projects began in the 1950s, including Garrison Dam and the Minot and Grand Forks Air Force Bases. Minot Air Force Base is one of the largest nuclear weapons depots in the United States, with more than 1,250 warheads. The base had a combined military and civilian workforce of 7,599 in 2000, making it one of the largest in the U.S. Army. Construction of the Garrison Dam began in 1947, and the embankment was completed in April 1953, and it was put into operation in 1954. It is the fifth largest embankment dam in the world. It created Lake Sakakawea, the third largest artificial lake in the United States, after Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which has a national fish hatchery, and is the largest walleye and pike culture facility. The creation of Lake Sakakawea led to the displacement of members of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation from the towns of Van Hook and (Old) Sanish, necessitating the creation of New Town. A third town, Elbowoods, was also lost.
Oil exploration in western North Dakota boomed in the 1980s as oil prices rose. In the 2010s, the region turned to another form of energy exploitation, with the oil sands. The Bakken deposit, discovered in 1910, is in a second phase of exploitation. The first, which took place from 1951 to the early 1980s, ceased due to the narrowness of the shale. The second began in 2008, thanks to horizontal hydraulic drilling technology. In 2012, the region was home to approximately 84 commercial oil and gas producers, who operate 200 platforms (compared to 30 in 2009) and 6,071 active wells producing an average of 500,000 barrels per day. Growth accelerated further the following year: more than 1,700 new wells were drilled in 2013, reaching a total of almost ten thousand wells and a production of one million barrels of light crude per day. During the same year, the population of North Dakota (670,000 inhabitants in 2010) grew by twenty-two thousand new residents, almost all of whom came in the shale oil sector. This energy boom allows the state of Dakota to display full employment in all sectors and a budget surplus of more than one billion dollars. But it has its downside, with tense working conditions. In April 2013, following the death of a First Choice Energy employee on an oil rig in Stanley, North Dakota, labor inspectors discovered no fewer than nine serious violations of workplace safety legislation.
North Dakota is located in the region of the US known as the Great
Plains. The state shares the North Red River with Minnesota to the east;
South Dakota is to the south, Montana is to the west, and the Canadian
provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are to the north. North Dakota is
located near the geographic center of North America, indicated by a
stone marker at Rugby, marking the "geographic center of the North
American subcontinent." With an area of 183,058 km², North Dakota is the
17th largest state.
The western and northern halves of the state
are made up of foothills of the Great Plains and the Badlands,
respectively. In fact, the state's highest point, White Butte, at 3,506
feet (1,069 m), and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, are located in the
Badlands. The region is abundant in fossil fuels such as natural gas,
crude oil and lignite coal. The Missouri River forms the artificial Lake
Sakakawea, controlled by the Garrison Dam, the third largest artificial
body of water in the United States by accumulated volume, behind lakes
Mead and Powell.
The central region of the state is divided into
the Drift Prairie and the Missouri Plateau. The eastern part of the
state corresponds to the plain of the Red River of the North (the bottom
of the glacial lake Agassiz). Its fertile soil, drained by the
meandering Red River flowing north into Lake Winnipeg, supports a large
agricultural industry. Devils Lake, the largest natural body of water in
the state, is also located to the east.
Eastern North Dakota is
generally flat. However, there are significant hills and buttes in
western North Dakota. Most of the state is covered in grasslands, which
cover most of eastern North Dakota but are increasingly sparse in
central and further west. Natural trees in North Dakota are generally
found where there is good drainage, such as the ravines and valleys near
the Pembina River Gorge and the Killdeer Mountains, the Turtle
Mountains, the hills around Devils Lake, in the dune area of McHenry
County in the center of the state, and along the slopes of the Sheyenne
River valley and delta. This diverse terrain is home to nearly 2,000
species of plants.
North Dakota borders the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north, Montana to the west, South Dakota to the south, and Minnesota to the east, across the Red River of the North and the Bois de Sioux River.
There are some natural resources in the west, such as oil and brown coal.
The climate in North Dakota is a typical example of a continental
climate; the state is far from large bodies of water that could moderate
the climate. As a result, the range extends from oppressively hot and
dry summers to bitterly cold winters. Warm air masses from the Gulf of
Mexico and cold air masses from the polar regions often cause strong
winds.
In summer, the convergence of arctic and tropical systems
leads to sometimes severe thunderstorms on 20 to 40 days a year.
Tornadoes are not uncommon and mostly occur in the southeastern quarter
of the state. In winter, the weather tends to be more stable: cold and
dry, with occasional snowfall. However, the constant wind can produce
snowstorms at any time during the winter. Severe snowstorms occur in
late winter and early spring.
In spring, flooding is common in
the very shallow Red River Valley. In 1997, a severe flood in eastern
North Dakota submerged much of the Red River Valley and caused major
damage in the city of Grand Forks.
North Dakota borders the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north, Montana to the west, South Dakota to the south, and Minnesota to the east across the Red River of the North and the Bois de Sioux River.
North Dakota ranks 48th out of 50 states in terms of population. Only
Vermont and Wyoming have fewer inhabitants. In terms of population
density, North Dakota ranks fourth from last with 4.25 inhabitants/km²,
ahead of Alaska, Wyoming and Montana.
People with German
ancestors are spread throughout the state, but especially in the south
and the center. In 2000, 44% of the population had German roots. The
German language is still spoken by 2.3% of the population. Scandinavians
are also present everywhere. In some counties there are large Native
American communities (mainly on reservations). North Dakota has the
highest percentage of Russian-German population of all US states. Around
20% of all residents of this state can trace their roots back to this.
The south (e.g. McIntosh County, LaMoure County and Emmons County) was
almost exclusively populated by them. Places such as Kulm or Strasburg
indicate that the founders originally came from southern Russia, mainly
from Bessarabia.
6.9% of the population are under 5 years old,
22.8% are under 18 and 14.2% are 65 or older. The proportion of women in
the total population is around 48.7%.
In 2005, the updated population was 636,677, which corresponds to an
increase of 369 inhabitants or 0.1% compared to the previous year and a
decrease of 5,527 inhabitants or 0.9% compared to 2000. The natural
increase compared to the 2000 census was 10,283 people (40,890 live
births, 30,607 deaths). The immigration deficit was 14,881 people, with
3,687 moving in from outside the United States and 18,568 moving inland.
Since the 1980s, North Dakota has experienced a steady population
decline due to out-migration. Younger people with college degrees in
particular have left the state. One aspect of the problem is the lack of
jobs for college graduates. The development of economic development
programs to provide high-quality and high-tech jobs has been proposed,
but the usefulness of such programs is debatable.
However, the
trend changed with the energy boom through the development of previously
inaccessible oil and gas deposits through fracking. Since the turn of
the millennium and increasingly after 2010, the state has experienced an
economic boom, attracting large numbers of workers to the extraction
areas.
English is the native language of more than 95% of residents.
North Dakota has a significant proportion of German speakers. In 2000,
14,931 people spoke German in their households, which is about 2% of the
population. In the sparsely populated counties of Logan and McIntosh,
over 16% are German speakers.
There are also speakers of Spanish,
Norwegian and indigenous languages.
The basis of state law is the Constitution of North Dakota.
Amendments to the constitution are subject to a popular vote. In 1914,
the instrument of the constitutional initiative was introduced, so that
constitutional changes could also be introduced through the popular
initiative.
legislative branch
Legislation lies with the North
Dakota Legislative Assembly, which consists of two chambers: the Senate
and the House of Representatives. The state is divided into 47
legislative districts, each of which elects one senator and two members
of the House of Representatives. Senators are elected every four years
and members of the House of Representatives every two years.
Judiciary
At the lowest judicial level there are municipal and
district courts, to which the North Dakota Court of Appeals is superior.
The state's highest court is the North Dakota Supreme Court.
Federal level
Like its southern neighbor and Montana to the west,
North Dakota is a conservative state that, however, relies on aid from
the legislature for agriculture. This constellation leads to a
preference for Republicans, most recently Donald Trump, for the office
of president. Overall, the Republicans have won in every presidential
election since 1968. However, in recent years this has often been offset
by an open attitude towards the Democratic candidates for Congress. U.S.
Senators for North Dakota are Republican John Hoeven and Republican
Kevin Cramer, who won the November 2018 election against Democratic
incumbent Heidi Heitkamp; In the House of Representatives, the state is
represented by Republican Kelly Armstrong.
Education
The most
important universities in North Dakota are the University of North
Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks and the North Dakota State University (NDSU)
in Fargo. In addition to several public and private universities and
colleges, there are also five colleges specifically dedicated to
indigenous education.
Military
In the north of the state, 150
Minuteman nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles from the 91st
Missile Wing of the US Air Force are stationed and are in constant
operational readiness. Headquarters is Minot Air Force Base.
An important writer whose works are set in North Dakota is Louise Erdrich.
Bonanzaville, USA, West Fargo
Dakota Dinosaur Museum, Dickinson
North Dakota Heritage Center, Bismarck
Fargo Air Museum, Fargo
North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks
Plains Art Museum, Fargo
Roger Maris Museum, Fargo
North Dakota Lewis & Clark Interpretive
Center, Washburn
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site,
Stanton
In the north of North Dakota is the “International Peace Garden”,
which crosses over into Canadian territory. This landscape garden gave
the state its nickname, Peace Garden State.
State parks
There
are 18 state parks in North Dakota, managed by the North Dakota Parks &
Recreation Department.
The real gross domestic product per capita (per capita real GDP) was
USD 68,723 in 2016 (national average of the 50 US states: USD 57,118;
national ranking: 5). Although less than 10% of the population is
employed in agriculture, it continues to play an important role.
Important products are grain, potatoes and flax. North Dakota is the
largest producer of barley, sunflower seeds, wheat and durum wheat in
the United States. Cattle farming and turkey breeding are important.
The unemployment rate was 2.2% in March 2020 (US average: 4.4%).
North Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate of any state in the
country.
Oil and gas production has become
increasingly important since oil reserves were discovered near Tioga in
1951, while brown coal mining has declined. Technical progress and
increased oil prices have led to an “oil boom” in the region, which has
large reserves of tight oil (“fracking oil”). These are now increasingly
being exploited, currently in the Bakken Formation. In March 2012, 17.9
million barrels of crude oil were produced in North Dakota, meaning that
North Dakota overtook Alaska (17.5 million barrels) for the first time
and was the second largest oil producer in the USA behind Texas. In
October 2012, 23.2 million barrels were already produced, more than 11%
of the total US production of 206.7 million barrels in October 2012.
North Dakota has great potential for wind power generation in the
Great Plains, which has been increasingly exploited since 2008. Before
2008, there was little significant wind power generation, but by 2010,
wind power generation had increased sharply to 5,236 million kWh,
accounting for just over 4 percent of total U.S. wind energy production.
The state is home to a significant portion of the Bakken
unconventional oil field (light oil from tight reservoirs). It has been
actively developed since 2000-2005, primarily using horizontal drilling
and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. By 2014, oil production had
increased to 0.7-0.8 million barrels per day, with about 2,000 wells
being built annually. The oil boom created many jobs in the late 2000s
and early 2010s.
Coal-fired power plants generate 93% of the
state's electricity.
The major east-west routes are US 2 and Interstate 94.
State highways 5 and 200 are also significant east-west routes. The
major north-south highways are Interstate 29, US 81, US 281, US 83, and
US 85.
US 52 runs northwest to southeast from Portal to Jamestown
and then along with I-94 to Fargo. US 12 runs through the extreme
southwest of the state and intersects US 85 in Bowman to Denver and El
Paso (Texas).
The BNSF Railway and the Canadian
Pacific Railway (CP) maintain the most extensive rail network in North
Dakota. Regional companies are the Dakota, Missouri Valley and Western
Railroad (DMVW) and the Red River Valley and Western Railroad (RRVW),
which mostly operate on leased BNSF and CP branch lines that were due to
be closed.
In addition to those mentioned, the railway companies
that operate in North Dakota include two others:
Dakota Northern
Railroad
Northern Plains Railroad
Former railway companies in
the state were:
Burlington Northern Railroad
Chicago and North
Western Railway (CNW)
Great Northern Railway (GN)
Milwaukee Road
(MILW)
Midland Continental Railroad
Northern Pacific Railway
Soo Line (SOO)
North Dakota has 90 public airports. Regular flights serve Bismarck, Devils Lake, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Minot and Williston.
Fargo is home to the KVLY-TV mast, a television broadcast tower with a height of 628.8 meters, making it the fifth tallest structure in the world (as of 2023).