Least visited state by tourists
North Dakota has the poor distinction as the least visited state of the lower contiguous states, and is often the last state people visit when visiting all 50 states even among Alaska and Hawaii. It’s unfortunate too, because North Dakota has some great tourist attractions. Its biggest tourist draw are the Badlands and the broader Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The town of Medora has become a major tourist destination, chiefly for its highly praised Medora Musical. Medora is soon to be home to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library too. Many others would enjoy the beautiful serenity of the International Peace Gardens, historic sites like Fort Abraham Lincoln where General Custer was posted, or the many roadside attractions like the Enchanted Highway. It’s also a fishing and hunting haven.
North Dakota’s State Capitol and Governor’s residence were built on a cemetery
The land housing the North Dakota State Capitol, and other state buildings, including the Governor’s Residence – located southwest of the Capitol, was gifted by the Northern Pacific Railway with the intended purpose of housing a Capitol, then for Dakota Territory, when the capital was relocated from Yankton. Turns out, it was the site of Bismarck’s first cemetery, known as Boot Hill Cemetery, then about a mile north of city limits. At the time, it was referred to as the knoll near town.
At least fifty bodies were unearthed when the original capitol was constructed between 1883-1884, and an additional 13 when a streetcar line was constructed in the early 1900s connecting the Capitol to downtown. Five more bodies were discovered when a new Governor’s Residence was constructed there in 1959.
Because the graves were unmarked, it isn’t known how many bodies were buried there or how many remain. Considering Bismarck was averaging one murder per day during its untamed early years, it’s safe to assume it’s more than the 68 discovered. Bismarck’s oldest official cemetery – Saint Mary’s – didn’t open until 1878 – 6 years after the city’s founding; Boot Hill was used for all those years in addition to a burial site near one of the churches.
Parking meters are banned
Park on any street in North Dakota and the one thing you will never find is a parking meter. That’s because parking meters have been banned in North Dakota since 1948 when it appeared on a signature-initiated ballot – the only state with such a ban. It was considered an unfair tax by many of its citizens, especially in rural areas, who advocated that it created disparities between rich and poor. Major cities unsuccessfully challenged the law, and it was briefly repealed in 1951 only to be upheld again by voters.
North Dakota’s Sweet: #1 honey producer, #2 sugar producer
North Dakota is known as an agricultural state. It’s a top producer of several crops, including multiple types of wheat (producing about half of the country’s spring wheat), flaxseed, sunflower, and canola. What many may not know is that North Dakota is also the top honey-producing state in the nation, yielding almost 40 million pounds of honey in 2023 – double that of the second and third highest honey producers combined. North Dakota is also the nation’s second-largest sugar beet producer, behind only neighboring Minnesota.
Second-most water area of states that don’t border the gulf, ocean, or Great Lakes (and second-largest land made lake)
You might not associate waterfront property with North Dakota, but if you exclude states that border the gulf, ocean, or a Great Lake, North Dakota is state with the second-most water surface area of any other state, behind only Utah and its Great Salt Lake. This is partly because North Dakota is home to the nation’s second-largest manmade lake by area – Lake Sakakawea, formed by damming the Missouri River in the early 1950s.
Critical to national security: world’s third-largest nuclear power
Since the cold war, North Dakota has been critical to national security. There are two U.S. Airforce bases in the state, one in Minot and one in Grand Forks. Their locations were considered strategic positions to counter potential Soviet threats approaching from the north. North Dakota has a vast nuclear arsenal as well. In fact, if the state were a country, it would have been the third-largest nuclear power in the world at its peak before half of the nuclear missiles were disarmed in the 1990s.
Geographic center of North America
North Dakota is the geographic center of North America, a title the city of Rugby proudly touts with a monument placed there in 1931. Apparently the geographic center moved with the highway because the obelisk marking the center was relocated to be closer to U.S. Highway 2 in 1971. Regardless, the geographic center is indeed in North Dakota.
First mosque in the United States
The first mosque in the United States is said to have been built by homesteaders from Syria and Lebanon in 1929 in Mountrail County. While there were previous mosques in the country, this was the first built specifically for that purpose. It was demolished in 1979 after falling into disrepair but reconstructed in 2005.
“Kodak” = North Dakota?
The inventor of the portable camera using rolled film, David Henderson Houston, was a North Dakota famer. He patented the concept a decade before rolled film itself was even invented. When deciding on a name he shuffled the words “Dakota” and added the letter K to form Kodak. He later sold his patent and trademark to George Eastman.
More cattle and cars than people
With 1.8 million head of cattle and a human population of less than 800,000, there are more cattle than people in North Dakota. There are also more registered vehicles than humans in the state.
North Dakota’s 5 biggest population centers are bigger than both South Dakota’s and Montana’s
While both South Dakota and Montana have overall bigger populations than North Dakota, if you add up the top 5 population centers from each state… North Dakota’s are the most populated of these three states.
With Montana it’s easy to see this lead on the surface.
Comparing South Dakota is a bit more complicated. Looking at only the cities themselves, they are basically a tie with South Dakota’s five biggest cities only having 4,000 more combined residents. But North Dakota’s two biggest cities have populated sister cities. West Fargo, especially, is North Dakota’s 5th most populated city in its own right – larger even than South Dakota’s third most populated city. That’s not accounting for Moorhead on the Minnesota side of the Red River either. Bismarck’s twin city, Mandan, is almost as populated as South Dakota’s third most populated city. These also don’t account for the thousands of people living on North Dakota’s two air force bases just outside Minot and Grand Forks.
When looking at entire metropolitan areas… which moves Williston into the fifth most populated statistical area for North Dakota since West Fargo is part of Fargo’s metropolitan, North Dakota’s combined top 5 population centers are the biggest of this tristate region despite being the state with the lowest population of them. The leads South Dakota’s top two cities have over North Dakota’s becomes marginal.
What’s also interesting is the geographic disbursement of the top population centers of each state. In South Dakota, with the exception of Rapid City, all of its most populated cities are located on the east. Whereas North Dakota’s top cities are more spread out.
4th-youngest population
North Dakota’s median age of 35.4, according to the 2020 Census, is among the lowest in the country, ranked the fourth lowest of the 50 states. Unlike neighboring states where the median age is either stagnant or rise, the median age in North Dakota decreased significantly from 2012-2019. This is attributed to the oil boom bringing in young laborers to work the oil fields. While it has slightly increased since, it’s still far below its peak high.
Skyscraper on the prairie
Nicknamed skyscraper on the prairie, North Dakota’s Capitol is not only the tallest capitol in the United States and the tallest building in North Dakota, it is the tallest building between Minneapolis and Billings east-west and from the Canadian border to Omaha north-south. The Capitol is also the fifth-newest state capitol building, completed in 1934. That’s because its original capitol was destroyed by fire in 1930.
Even aside from the State Capitol, North Dakota has four other buildings taller than South Dakota’s tallest – with the remainder being located in Fargo and Grand Forks. Minot has one with more floors, but its overall height is shorter.
Tallest manmade structure
From 1963-1974, and again from 1991-2008, North Dakota was home to the world’s tallest manmade structure – the KVLY television tower. It remained the tallest manmade structure in the western hemisphere until 2019 when its highest antenna was removed demoting this distinction.
Tech sector: home to Microsoft’s second-largest campus
Far from silicon valley, it may surprise some to learn that tech is one of North Dakota’s top economic sectors, next to agriculture, energy, and healthcare. Specifically, Microsoft has a strong presence in Fargo where it was once Microsoft’s second-largest campus, outside of only Redmond, Washington. In 2001, Microsoft acquired Great Plains Software, based in Fargo, from Doug Burgum for just over $1 billion. As a result of the acquisition, Doug Burgum became North Dakota’s first billionaire. Burgum has since served as North Dakota’s Governor and is currently serving as Secretary of Interior for President Trump, after making a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Leading energy producer: oil, coal, natural gas, and wind
North Dakota is one of the leading energy states in the nation, producing large quantities of oil, natural gas, and coal, in addition to being a leader in wind energy. North Dakota is now the second-highest oil producing state, behind only Texas. Oil was first discovered in North Dakota in the 1950s. It ranks 11th in the United States for natural gas production, most of which collected as a byproduct of its oil production.
Discovered in the 1870s, North Dakota possesses the largest deposit of lignite coal in at least North America, some sources say the largest in the world, perfect fuel for steam locomotives of the past that helped form the state.
Fourth windiest state
North Dakota has more than 2,200 wind turbines. That’s because it is the fourth windiest state in the nation.
Which fact surprised you most, and which top fact did we miss? Let us know in the comments and I’ll continue the series in another video.
