Travel Oracles 50 States: North Dakota
As part of my summer series - Travel Oracles 50 States - I am revisiting each os the fifty American states as an overview on travel culture and history. Today: North Dakota
Joined: North Dakota and South Dakota Were Admitted to the Union. After controversy over the location of a capital, the Dakota Territory was split in two and divided into North and South in 1889. Later that year, on November 2, North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted to the Union as the 39th and 40th states.
Original Indigenous Peoples: The tribes which have had a great influence on today's North Dakota are the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara; the Yanktonai, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Hunkpapa and other Dakota/Lakota/Nakota (commonly known as the Sioux) tribes; and the Chippewa and Metis.
First Settlers: The first permanent trading post in North Dakota was established in 1801 at Pembina. American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived at Mandan and Hidatsa villages in 1804 near present-day Bismarck. The first permanent white settlement in present-day North Dakota was made at Pembina by Scottish pioneers from Canada.
History moment: 1818, following the War of 1812, what is now North Dakota became part of the Missouri Territory when the 49th parallel was agreed to as the boundary between the U.S. and Great Britain.
Known for: North Dakota is known for its Badlands, now part of the 70,000-acre Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Roosevelt's journey to the Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt bison was among his Western ventures that instilled in him a fervor for preservation of natural lands, and ultimately the first national parks.
Places: Fargo, Bismarck
Movie setting: Fargo, Leprechaun, Northern Lights
Musicians from: Lawrence Welk, Peggy Lee
Surprising facts:
North Dakota is a massive expanse of rolling prairies under intense blue skies, much of it unchanged since the expeditions led by Lewis and Clark in 1804 and 1806. This rectangular state straddles the Canadian border between Minnesota and Montana. The eastern edge, marked by the Red River, is rich soil on land so flat you can see the horizon as an uninterrupted straight line. The Badlands are home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a remarkable area that's been described both as "the Grand Canyon in miniature.” Let’s travel to North Dakota
My Experience: Never been (yet) but some of the national parks are on my list to see - here is a list of things to do in North Dakota
Nature: There are 3 National Parks including Theodore Roosevelt National Park, South Unit. and Lewis and Clark State Park
Ranking in US: Per the annual US News report, North Dakota is currently ranked #14 out of 50 in 2021 and #15 in 2019.