North Dakota

North Dakota

Capital	Bismarck
Nickname	The Peace Garden State
Governor	John Hoeven, R
Senator	Kent Conrad, D (202) 224-2043 Contact
Senator	Byron Dorgan, D (202) 224-2551 Contact
Ratification of Constitution/or statehood	November 2, 1889 (39th)
Flag of North Dakota	Motto: "Liberty and Union Now and Forever; One and Inseparable"

North Dakota is a northern Midwestern state; it is part of the Great Plains and became the thirty-ninth state to enter into the union on November 2, 1889. It entered on the same day as South Dakota, but is given status first because of alphabetical order. Its capital is Bismarck, and largest city by population is Fargo. North Dakota is the only state that has a state-owned bank in the nation. North Dakota is located in the center of the North American continent. The exact geographical center is located 97 miles NE of Bismarck, 15 miles SW of Rugby.

Since 1940 it has voted Republican for president (except in 1964), but elects many Democrats to Congress. The current governor of North Dakota is John Hoeven, a Republican.

Population

The original native American tribes in what is now North Dakota qwere the Mandan, Sioux, Arikara, Chippewa, Cheyenne, Assiniboine, and Hidatsa. Today only the Sioux and Chippewa remain; they comprise about 4% of the population.

Three out of four residents today are descended from German and Norwegian pioneers who arrived 1880 to 1914. Many of the German speakers came from Russia, and are known as "Russian Germans." Religion is strong, especially in Lutheran and Catholic churches.

Norwegian folk came to North Dakota with a reputation for honesty, hospitality, and thrift; they soon acquired new traits involving good manners, a greater respect for women, more democratic ideas, and disregard for European class distinctions. "In Norway," one pioneer recalled, "we were in many respects a helpless tool in the hands of the state. There we had the state church. The child must be baptized or a fine must be paid." Ole Lima said that when his people came to America they became "a more wideawake people and more independent thinking. . . . The Norwegian, who has lived a while in America, is more civilized than if he had not been here. He has seen more, experienced more, thought more, and all this has opened his eyes and broadened his view."

Energy

North Dakota has considerable fossil fuel reserves. Coal is extracted from large surface mines in central North Dakota. Substantial crude oil and natural gas reserves are located in the Williston Basin, in the western part of the State. Although a low population largely accounts for the State’s low total energy consumption, North Dakota’s per capita energy consumption ranks among the highest in the Nation, in large part due to high demand for heating during cold winters and an energy-intensive economy. Industry accounts for nearly one-half of the State’s total energy consumption.

Petroleum

North Dakota is a substantial crude oil-producing State with an output typically equal to roughly 2% of total annual U.S. production. The State is also an entrance point for Canadian crude oil transported via pipeline to U.S. Midwest refining markets. A small petroleum refinery near Bismarck refines crude oil extracted from the Williston Basin, which covers eastern Montana and the western Dakotas, as well as a small amount of Canadian crude. The refinery produces transportation fuels primarily for the northern Great Plains States and the Twin Cities area. A small new refinery has been proposed on the Fort Berthold Indian reservation in western North Dakota. If constructed, it would be the first new crude oil refinery in the United States in decades.

Ethanol is produced at four ethanol plants in North Dakota, and a fifth is under construction, giving the State considerable ethanol production capacity. North Dakota is a moderate consumer of ethanol in blended motor gasoline, although it is one of the few States in the Nation that allow the statewide use of conventional motor gasoline. (Most States require the use of specific gasoline blends in non-attainment areas due to air-quality considerations.)

Natural Gas

North Dakota typically produces roughly 1% of the Nation’s annual natural gas production. The majority of the State’s supply is transported via major pipelines originating in Montana and western Canada on their way to U.S. Midwest consumption markets. North Dakota has the distinction of being one of only two States that produce synthetic natural gas. The single largest source of synthetic gas in the United States is the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in Beulah, North Dakota, which annually produces more than 54 billion cubic feet of gas from coal. Overall State usage of natural gas is low, with the industrial sector leading State consumption. Over two-fifths of the households in North Dakota use natural gas as their primary source of energy for home heating.

Coal, Electricity, and Renewables

Electricity generation and demand are both low in North Dakota, commensurate with the State’s population. Coal-fired plants provide nearly all of North Dakota’s electricity generation. Most of the coal used for power generation is supplied by several large surface mines in the central part of the State. State coal production is substantial, and North Dakota brings in only small amounts of coal from other States. Hydroelectric dams account for most of the State’s non-coal-generated electricity. The Garrison Dam, located about 75 miles northwest of Bismarck, is North Dakota’s fifth largest plant in electricity generation capability. The vast majority of the State is rich in wind energy potential, a dozen wind power projects are currently operational, and the State has plans for further development. Nearly three-tenths of North Dakota households use electricity as their primary energy source for home heating.

Notable people from North Dakota

• Dick Armey, a former US Representative who played a significant role in the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994, was born in Cando.
• Louis L'Amour, an author who specialized in writing Westerns, was born in Jamestown.
• Sacagawea, who served as a guide on Lewis and Clark's expedition, spent several years living in a village in what is now North Dakota.

Further reading

• Arends, Shirley Fischer. The Central Dakota Germans: Their History, Language, and Culture. (1989). 289 pp.; the state's largest ethnic group
• Berg, Francie M., ed. Ethnic Heritage in North Dakota. (1983). 174 pp.
• Blackorby, Edward C. Prairie Rebel: The Public Life of William Lemke (1963), radical leader in 1930s online edition
• Collins, Michael L. That Damned Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and the American West, 1883-1898 (1989). Teddy was a rancher here in the 1880s
• Cooper, Jerry and Smith, Glen. Citizens as Soldiers: A History of the North Dakota National Guard. (1986). 447 pp.
• Crawford, Lewis F. History of North Dakota (3 vol 1931), excellent history in vol 1; biographies in vol. 2-3
• Danbom, David B. "Our Purpose Is to Serve": The First Century of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. (1990). 237 pp.
• Eisenberg, C. G. History of the First Dakota-District of the Evangelical-Lutheran Synod of Iowa and Other States. (1982). 268 pp. now part of ELCA
• Ginsburg, Faye D. Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community. (1989). 315 pp. the issue in Fargo
• Hargreaves, Mary W. M. Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains: Years of Readjustment, 1920-1990. (1993). 386 pp.
• Howard, Thomas W., ed. The North Dakota Political Tradition. (1981). 220 pp.
• Hudson, John C. Plains Country Towns. (1985). 189 pp. geographer studies small towns
• Junker, Rozanne Enerson. The Bank of North Dakota: An Experiment in State Ownership. (1989). 185 pp.
• Lamar, Howard R. Dakota Territory, 1861-1889: A Study of Frontier Politics (1956).
• Lounsberry, Clement A. Early history of North Dakota (1919) excellent history by editor of Bismark Tribune; 645pp online edition
• Lysengen, Janet Daley and Rathke, Ann M., eds. The Centennial Anthology of "North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains." (1996). 526 pp. articles from state history journal covering all major topics in the state's history
• Morlan, Robert L. Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League, 1915-1922. (1955). 414 pp. radical-left NPL came to power briefly
• Peirce, Neal R. The Great Plains States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Nine Great Plains States (1973) excerpt and text ssearch, chapter on North Dakota
• Robinson, Elwyn B., D. Jerome Tweton, and David B. Danbom. History of North Dakota (2nd ed. 1995) standard history, by leading scholars; extensive bibliography
  • Robinson, Elwyn B. History of North Dakota (1966) First edition online
• Schneider, Mary Jane. North Dakota Indians: An Introduction. (1986). 276 pp.
• Sherman, William C. and Thorson, Playford V., eds. Plains Folk: North Dakota's Ethnic History. (1988). 419 pp.
• Sherman, William C. Prairie Mosaic: An Ethnic Atlas of Rural North Dakota. (1983). 152 pp.
• Smith, Glen H. Langer of North Dakota: A Study in Isolationism, 1940-1959. (1979). 238 pp. biography of influential conservative Senator
• Snortland, J. Signe, ed. A Traveler's Companion to North Dakota State Historic Sites. (1996). 155 pp.
• Stock, Catherine McNicol. Main Street in Crisis: The Great Depression and the Old Middle Class on the Northern Plains. (1992). 305pp. online edition
• Tauxe, Caroline S. Farms, Mines and Main Streets: Uneven Development in a Dakota County. (1993). 276 pp. coal and grain in Mercer county
• Tweton, D. Jerome and Jelliff, Theodore B. North Dakota: The Heritage of a People. (1976). 242 pp. textbook history
• Wilkins, Robert P. and Wilkins, Wynona Hutchette. North Dakota: A Bicentennial History. (1977) 218 pp. popular history
• Wishart, David J. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (2004), many articles by scholars on many topics

Primary sources

• Benson, Bjorn; Hampsten, Elizabeth; and Sweney, Kathryn, eds. Day In, Day Out: Women's Lives in North Dakota. (1988). 326 pp.
• Maximilian, Prince of Wied. Travels in the Interior of North America in the rears 1832 to 1834 (Vols. XXII-XXIV of "Early Western Travels, 1748-1846," ed. by Reuben Gold Thwaites; 1905- 1906). Maximilian spent the winter of 1833-1834 at Fort Clark.
• University of North Dakota, Bureau of Governmental Affairs, ed., A Compilation of North Dakota Political Party Platforms, 1884-1978. (1979). 388 pp.
• WPA. North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State (2nd ed. 1950), the classic guide online edition
• Young, Carrie. Prairie Cooks: Glorified Rice, Three-Day Buns, and Other Reminiscences. (1993). 136 pp.