89 Fun Facts About North Dakota: Prairie Heartland

North Dakota sits in the heart of the Great Plains, a sparsely populated state of wide prairies, badlands and vast farmland. This collection gathers facts about its location, people, symbols, landscape, agriculture, history and quirky claims to fame.

North Dakota Facts At-a-Glance

Total area: 70,704 mi² (183,123 km²), 19th largest state
Capital: Bismarck
Largest city: Fargo, with 126,000 people
Statehood: November 2, 1889, alongside South Dakota
National park: Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Highest point: White Butte, 3506 ft (1069 m)
State flower: Wild rose
Leading industry: Agriculture, with farmland covering 89% of the state

Location, Size and Borders

1. North Dakota is located in the Northern and Upper Midwestern regions of the United States. The latter also includes the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
2. It also falls entirely within the Great Plains region.
3. North Dakota state has a total area of 70,704 mi² (183,123 km²), making it the nation’s 19^th largest state. It falls between Washington and Oklahoma in regard to its size.
4. North Dakota borders Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south, and Montana to the west.
5. The highest point in the state is 3506 ft (1069 m) above sea level at White Butte, while the lowest is 751 feet (229 meters) above sea level at Red River.
6. North Dakota has the smallest amount of forest out of all the states, at less than 1%.

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Population, Cities and Tribal Nations

7. With a population of 770,000, North Dakota is the 4^th least populous state, after Wyoming, Vermont, and Alaska.
8. Coincidentally, it also has the 4^th lowest population density, at 11 people per mi² (4.2 per km²), after Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana.
9. North Dakota’s population has been shrinking for the last three years.
10. People from the state are known as North Dakotans.
11. Bismarck is the capital city of North Dakota. With a population of 73,000, it sits right at the bottom of the list of 500 largest cities in the US.
12. Fargo is the state’s largest city, with 126,000 people. It is the only city in the state with more than 100,000 people.
13. Every incorporated community in North Dakota is officially a city, no matter how small the place is. The state doesn’t have towns or villages.
14. In fact, the state’s smallest city is Maza, with a population of just 5 people.
15. Native American tribes which have had a great influence on today’s North Dakota are the Sioux (otherwise known as Nakota/Dakota/Lakota), Arikara, Mandan, Wahpeton, Yanktonai, Hidatsa, Sisseton, Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Metis and Chippewa. They make up 6.5% of the state, a percentage surpassed only by 5 other states.
16. The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is the state’s largest at 1 million acres, the same size as Rhode Island.

Names, Symbols and State Identity

17. Dakota means “friend” in the local Sioux language.
18. In 1947 and 1989, attempts were made to drop the word “North” and rename the state “Dakota”. However, this was defeated by legislature both times.
19. North Dakota is known by several nicknames, including Peace Garden State, Flickertail State, and Roughrider State, after Roosevelt’s Roughriders in the Spanish-American War, which included many North Dakota cowboys.
20. North Dakota’s state motto is “Liberty and Union Now and Forever, One and Inseparable.” The state’s motto refers to the free nation, which can’t be divided.
21. The state flag features a blue background with a bald eagle in the center, holding an olive branch and a bundle of arrows in its claws. The eagle symbolizes peace. The Latin words “E Pluribus Unum” mean “many uniting into one”. The 13 stars and shield with 13 red and white stripes symbolize the country’s first 13 states.
22. North Dakota’s state flower is the wild rose, the same as Iowa and Alberta province in Canada.
23. The official state beverage is milk, the same as 21 other US states.
24. More honey is produced in North Dakota than in any other state. The honeybee is even the state’s official insect.
25. North Dakota is known for having quirky city and place names, including the likes of Ops, Concrete, Antler, Three V Crossing, Medicine Hole, Flasher, Buttzville, On-a-Slant Village, and Zap.

Parks, Rivers and Wildlife

26. North Dakota has one national park: Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It encompasses three sections of prairie and badlands in the state’s west. Roosevelt stayed in a cabin and had a ranch there. The area also influenced his later conservation policies.
27. Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the only national park in the US named after a person.
28. North Dakota also has 13 state parks known for their campgrounds and lake-based activities, as well as an entire park dedicated to the state’s Icelandic settler heritage.
29. The state also has 7 national historic landmarks, which are mostly indigenous archaeological sites, plus the Frederick A. and Sophia Bagg Bonanza Farm.
30. The Missouri River, the longest in the US, flows in from the west and south through the center of the state.
31. However, North Dakota has 63 national wildlife refuges, more than any other state. Many of them are private lands that owners have given the state some rights to in exchange for tax credits.
32. North Dakota is one of the least visited states in the country.

Climate and Weather Extremes

33. North Dakota has a typical continental climate with warm-hot summers and cold winters. The state experiences some of the widest variety of weather in the country due to its Upper Midwest location.
34. North Dakota’s highest temperature ever recorded was 121°F (49.4°C) on July 6, 1936 in Steele. The lowest was -60°F (-51.1°C) on February 15, 1936 in Parshall. That’s a difference of 181 degrees F (100.5 degrees C)!
35. In 1988, the first major drought was recorded since the 1930s.

Farming, Ranching and Food Production

36. Agriculture remains the leading industry in North Dakota, and farmland covers 89% of the state.
37. 99.5% of the state’s original grassland has been turned into ranches.
38. North Dakota grows the 2^nd most sunflowers in the US after South Dakota, well more than “The Sunflower State” (Kansas). [Learn more: 32 Bright Facts About Sunflowers: Golden Giants]
39. North Dakota supplies 92% of the country’s canola and 95% of its flaxseed.
40. Most of the nation’s pasta is made from North Dakotan durum wheat. Cities in the state have even been known to hold pasta parties.
41. North Dakota makes enough wheat every year to produce 1.5 loaves of bread for every person in the world.
42. North Dakota is also the 3^rd largest sugar producer in the country.
43. There are about 1.8 million heads of cattle in North Dakota, more than twice the number of people.

Oil, Coal and Energy

44. The western region of North Dakota has About 25 billion tons of lignite (a type of coal) beneath its surface. This supply is enough to maintain North Dakota’s coal needs for over 800 years.
45. Oil was discovered in 1951 near Tioga.
46. In 2016, major protests erupted against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which sits on the border between North and South Dakota. The local Sioux people cited environmental concerns and risk to their drinking water. Over 800 were arrested, including many non-indigenous people who came to join the protest.
47. In 2017, President Trump signed off the pipeline project, and it now runs today.

Earliest Peoples and European Claims

48. Stone tool makers belonging to the Clovis culture inhabited North Dakota as early as 11,000 years ago.
49. After the glaciers retreated, North Dakotas grasslands formed around 7000 years ago.
50. From 1100 CE, Native American Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes traditionally lived along the Missouri and Knife Rivers in North Dakota. The Huff archaeological site is the best-preserved village.
51. In the 1700s, a tribe of Cheyenne people built the only known earthen lodges in the state’s history at the Biesterfeldt Site.
52. In 1610, the Hudson Bay watershed and much of North Dakota’s eastern region was claimed by Henry Hudson for England.
53. Much of the North Dakota region was then claimed by Robert de La Salle in 1682 for France.
54. In 1713, the French gave North Dakota’s northern region to England.
55. In 1738, Pierre de La Verendrye, a French fur trader, visited the North Dakota region and met with the Mandan people.

Lewis and Clark and the Fur Trade Era

56. As part of the Louisiana Purchase, the land was bought by the US in 1803.
57. In 1804, Lewis and Clark arrived, building Fort Mandan to spend the winter in North Dakota. They then met with the Sacagawea people.
58. Lewis and Clark spent more time in North Dakota than in any other state (some say it was Montana, but sources show that ND takes the lead). In total, they spent 214 days there, vs six months in Montana.
59. The first white child to be born in North Dakota was on December 29, 1807 to fur post employees at Pembina.
60. In 1812, a Scottish settlement was founded near today’s Pembina, called the Red River Colony.
61. North Dakota became part of the Missouri Territory in 1818.
62. The American Fur Company established the Fort Union Fur Trading Post in 1828. Today, it is a National Historic Site located in western North Dakota near the border with Montana.
63. Due to a smallpox outbreak in 1837, most of the Mandans tribe died.

Territory, Settlement and Statehood

64. The Dakota Territory was established in 1861.
65. In 1863, most of the land opened up for homesteading.
66. North Dakota’s first newspaper, The Frontier Scout, was published and issued at Fort Union in 1864.
67. The city of Fargo was founded in 1871.
68. Bismark became the capital of the territory in 1883.
69. On November 2, 1889, North and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states. President Harrison shuffled the papers before signing them, so they are considered to have joined at exactly the same time.
70. In 1897, the first free public library was opened in Grafton, North Dakota.

Twentieth-Century Milestones

71. In 1911, North Dakota’s first motor vehicle licenses were issued.
72. In 1918, an influenza epidemic killed 2,700 people in North Dakota.
73. In 1922, WDAY began broadcasting at Fargo. It was the state’s first radio station.
74. That same year, voter registration was repealed in the state. Today, North Dakota remains the only state not to have voter registration.
75. When the Garrison Dam was completed in 1960, Lake Sakakawea was formed.
76. A bill was passed in 1987 to make English the official state language of North Dakota.

Floods Along the Red River

77. Most of the city of Grand Forks was destroyed in 1997 due to the Red River Valley flooding.
78. Due to the rising of the Red River in 2009, thousands of residents were asked to evacuate their homes in Fargo.

Faith, Inventions and Famous North Dakotans

79. North Dakota has more churches per capita than any of the other state.
80. There are twice as many Protestants as Catholics in North Dakota.
81. David Henderson Houston of North Dakota invented the Kodak camera. He named the camera by scrambling the first four letters of the state and adding a “K” to the end to make Kodak.
82. The famous breakfast staple Cream of Wheat was first made in Grand Forks, North Dakota by wheat millers in 1893.
83. Harold Schafer invented the bubble bath liquid Mr. Bubble in North Dakota in 1961.
84. Famous North Dakotans include singer Peggy Lee, blues musician Jonny Lang, actors Kellan Lutz and Josh Duhamel, actresses Angie Dickenson and Leslie Bibb, news reporter and commentator Eric Sevareid, bandleader and musician Lawrence Welk, Western novelist Louis L’Amour, and rapper Wiz Khalifa.
85. Baseball legend Roger Maris was born in Minnesota but raised in North Dakota.
86. Movies filmed in North Dakota include Fargo, My Father’s Garden, Dakota, and Wooly Boys.

Record-Setting Events

87. The Guinness World Record for the most snow angels made simultaneously in one place was once held by North Dakota. 8,962 people made snow angels, although the record has since been beaten by a school board in Ontario, Canada.
88. In Rutland, North Dakota, the largest hamburger in the world was eaten. More than 8,000 people were invited to the meal, with the burger weighing 3,591 pounds (1,628.85 kg).
89. 34,818 pancakes were served at the Fargo Kiwanis Club’s 50th Annual Pancake Karninvale in North Dakota, setting a world record.

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