North Dakota
The state of North Dakota lies on the Great Plains in the northern United States. It is on the Canadian border, at the heart of the North American continent. North Dakota's nickname, the Peace Garden State, is a symbol of the friendship between the United States and Canada. Likewise, “Dakota” is an Indian word that means “friends.” The capital of North Dakota is Bismarck.
North Dakota is shaped like a rectangle. It is bordered on the west by Montana, on the south by South Dakota, and on the north by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. To the east, the Red River of the North separates North Dakota from Minnesota.
North Dakota has an area of 70,702 square miles (183,119 square kilometers). The western part of the state has a rolling surface that is dotted with buttes—flat-topped hills that rise 300–400 feet (90–120 meters) above the surrounding plains. White Butte in the southwest is the highest point in the state, rising 3,506 feet (1,069 meters). It is located in a rugged region called the Badlands.
Most of North Dakota's farms are on smoother land in the eastern part of the state. The fertile black soil in the valley of the Red River of the North is ideal for farming. The state has a dry, continental climate with hot summers and cold winters.
Prairie grasses and flowers are typical in North Dakota. The state flower is the wild prairie rose, and the state tree is the American elm. Trees and bushes grow mainly along rivers and streams.
North Dakota is sometimes known as the Flickertail State because of the many flickertail squirrels there. The state's largest animal is the buffalo, but only a few buffalo herds still exist in protected parks. The state bird is the western meadowlark.
The original inhabitants of North Dakota were various tribes of Plains Indians, including the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Sioux, Ojibwa (Chippewa), and Assiniboin. At the end of the 20th century about 35,000 Native Americans lived in North Dakota, making them the state's largest minority.
The earliest white settlers included many Norwegians, Canadians, and Germans. Most of the residents of North Dakota are descendants of those settlers. African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics together make up less than 3 percent of the population.
Less than half of the people of North Dakota live in urban areas. Fargo is the largest city in the state. It is located on the Red River. Bismarck, the capital, is on the Missouri River. Other notable cities include Grand Forks and Minot.
North Dakota has several state parks and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Knife River Indian Villages in Stanton and Fort Union Trading Post near Williston are National Historic Sites. Hunting, rodeos, fairs, and fishing (especially on Lake Sakakawea) are popular pastimes.
The first school in North Dakota was established in about 1818. A system of free education was in place by the time North Dakota became a state in 1889. Because the area of the state is large in comparison to the number of residents, many children have to travel far to school.
The largest state-supported universities are the University of North Dakota, at Grand Forks, and North Dakota State University, at Fargo. Jamestown College, at Jamestown, is the state's oldest private institution of higher learning; it was founded in 1883.
North Dakota has traditionally been a farm state. In the late 20th century, however, the number of people employed in agriculture steadily declined. The state is among the nation's leading producers of wheat, barley, rye, oats, and flax. Other crops grown in North Dakota include sunflowers, soybeans, sugar beets, potatoes, and hay. Cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens are raised.
North Dakota's leading industry is health care. Manufacturing is a small part of the state's economy, but it grew significantly during the 1990s. Factories produce industrial machinery, food products, electronic equipment, and chemicals. Oil is the state's leading mineral resource.
Native American peoples settled in what is now North Dakota thousands of years before Europeans arrived. The first known European visitor was a French-Canadian explorer, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Lord de La Vérendrye, who arrived in 1738. Other colonists soon arrived from Canada to trap animals for their furs.
The area that became North Dakota came to the United States in 1803 as part of a land deal with France known as the Louisiana Purchase. Soon afterward the Lewis and Clark Expedition made its way up the Missouri River. Sacagawea, the Native American woman who guided the explorers westward, was from present-day North Dakota. The first white settlement in the area was made at Pembina in 1812.
Fur trappers were gradually replaced by wheat farmers and ranchers. The Dakota Territory was organized in 1861. The coming of the railroads in the 1870s and 1880s brought in thousands of new settlers. In 1887 the territory was divided into northern and southern regions. North Dakota became the 39th state in 1889, and South Dakota was admitted to the Union later that year.
Poor farming practices removed the thick mats of grass that held moisture in the soil and protected the land from winds. During the great drought of the 1930s North Dakota was part of the region that became known as the Dust Bowl as high winds blew much of the topsoil away. Since then measures have been undertaken to prevent such erosion.
In the 1950s North Dakota began producing oil. In 1954 work was completed on the massive Garrison Dam, which was built to produce electricity. The giant reservoir (man-made lake) formed by the dam flooded the land of many Native American families. Another damaging (though natural) flood took place along the Red River of the North in 1997.
In the 1960s the United States government built many air bases, missile launching sites, and other military facilities in North Dakota. In the 1990s, however, many military sites in the state were closed. Population (2000 census), 642,200.
