North Dakota is a constituent state of the United States of America. It is bounded by Canada on the north, Minnesota on the east, South Dakota on the south, and Montana on the west. The state has an area of 70,702 square miles (183,119 square kilometres). The largest city is Fargo, and Bismarck is the centrally located capital.
Officially classed as one of the seven western north central states, North Dakota was admitted to the Union as the 39th state on Nov. 2, 1889. It is a land of generally clear skies, seemingly endless grain farms, and vast cattle ranches. The state is rural, agricultural, and sparsely populated. Its terrain rises through three regions from east to west, incorporating parts of the two major physiographic provinces that separate the Appalachian and the Rocky Mountain systems. The state's name derives from the Dakota division of the Sioux Indians who inhabited the plains before the arrival of Europeans.
Among the last regions of the American frontier to be settled, the area that became the state of North Dakota experienced comparatively little of the fighting, lawlessness, and gold-rush excitement that give other frontier areas a colourful and sometimes lurid history. Instead, the region developed first as the home of hunting and farming Indian peoples, later as a trading area for white fur traders and for steamboats working the upper Missouri River from St. Louis, and then as a rich farming land for white settlers. The cool, subhumid climate of its location made it ideal for spring wheat and for cattle ranching. The area subsequently developed a way of life dependent on outside centres of population, industry, and economic power. With adaptation to the environment, however, North Dakotans also developed constructive reactions to those conditions that underlie their state's dependency.
About two-fifths of the state is drained by the systems of the Red and Souris rivers, whose waters flow eventually into Hudson Bay. The Missouri Plateau and the James River system form a part of the drainage of the Missouri, which drains almost two-fifths of the state and flows into the Mississippi and thence into the Gulf of Mexico. West of the Missouri River the landscape has been shaped by running water that has carried away as much as 1,000 feet of sedimentary deposits. In some places, especially along the Little Missouri River, it has carved spectacular cliffs, buttes, and valleys that form a landscape known as the North Dakota Badlands.
North Dakota's cool, subhumid climate and its location far from the nation's markets have helped to shape its economy. Among the western north central states, North Dakota has one of the lowest farm incomes, the lowest average rainfall and temperature, the shortest growing season, and the least manufacturing. The discovery of oil at Tioga in 1951 led to North Dakota's becoming one of the largest producers of crude petroleum in the nation, and production of electrical power grew greatly after the mid-20th century. In that period also the economy was stimulated by construction of the Garrison Dam, air force bases, and highways and by rural electrification. Manufacturing accounts for only about 10 percent of the state's income, and its lignite, the largest supply of solid fuel in the United States, plays a relatively minor role in the state's economy.
North Dakota has several state parks, which draw about a million visitors each year, and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Of the state's historic sites, several are also in the National Register of Historic Places. The North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck is the most comprehensive of the state's museums, but many smaller museums of interest are to be found throughout the state, sometimes in very small centres of population. The individualistic character of North Dakotans is reflected in their sports and pastimes, which include fishing, hunting, and trapping. Snowmobiling, ice skating, skiing, and ice hockey are popular winter sports.
Intrastate and interstate traffic moves primarily over east–west and southeast–northwest routes in North Dakota and secondarily over north–south routes. Fargo is the main centre for intrastate traffic; interstate traffic moves between it and other trading centres in North Dakota and Minneapolis–St. Paul, the nearest metropolis, and the Pacific Northwest. North Dakota has a well-developed system of rail lines, and airlines provide scheduled service to a number of cities.
