Let's Talk About North Dakota

By Tim Condon

Since almost no one in the Free State Project has been paying any attention to North Dakota (including me) up until recently, this essay is offered as a general review and history about the state.

First fact: The topography is pretty much flat in North Dakota. The last "ice age" ended about 12,000 years ago, and before that ice covered most of the upper part of North America, including North Dakota. Geologists believe there have been dozens of ice ages in history, featuring glaciers "several miles thick," which means that North Dakota and other parts of the upper midwest have been "sanded down" pretty thoroughly (although the state does have some small mountains that get up to a few thousand feet).

The first "modern people" to live in the area were American Indians, including the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsas. Other tribes that inhabited the area at different points were the Cheyenne, Cree, and some Chippewa who came into North Dakota from Minnesota. The best known tribe were Dakota, also known as the Lakota or Sioux (the word "Dakota" means "friend" or "ally" in the Dakota or Sioux language). The area was first "officially explored" by white men during the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-1806.

In the late 1800's, after North Dakota became a state in 1889, it benefitted from waves of immigrants from northern European countries that were spurred on by the new railroads (which at one time owned nearly 1/4 of North Dakota by virtue of being given the land by the federal government). The immigrants who flooded in came mainly from Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. By 1900 the state's population was 319,000, and by 1920 it hit 577,000 (compare that with today's population of 642,000, slated to increase by only 9,000 over the next 20 years).

North Dakota is one of the top farming states in the U.S. It ranks #1 in production of barley and sunflower seeds, and #2 in wheat production (behind only Kansas). It was settled as a "place to farm," with some of the richest farming soil in the world found along the Red River Valley (the river forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota on the east). Overall, the state is very green, and in mid-summer much of it looks like a vast and endless grass meadow interspersed with flowers.

To "cure the problem of oversupply" of farm crops in the 1960's, the federal government started the "Soil Bank," paying farmers not to plant their fields. Eventually almost 10% of the state's farmland was idled. Then in the 1980's the federal government followed up with the "Conservation Reserve Program," which took thousands of acres more out of farm production. Now, under President George W. Bush, a new "farm subsidy program" has been signed into law that will expend about $170 billion over the next ten years. All of these programs doubtless contribute to the fact that North Dakota is the worst state on the FSP's "final 10 list" for "government dependency" (that is, citizens of North Dakota overall receive $1.95 back from the federal government for every $1.00 paid in taxes; however, it's not clear that the federal largesse actually goes to people as opposed to being corporate welfare for large agribusiness concerns).

Today North Dakota is trying to diversify its economy. Many ranchers have taken up herding Bison which are slaughtered for meat. The state is also trying to lure high tech industry, like most other states, and is having some success with a nascent high-tech sector in the city of Fargo.

Politically the state is a mixture. Currently it has a Republican Governor, John Hoeven, elected in 2000 for a 4-year term (term limits have been voted into existence in North Dakota, but the current governor is not subject to them); he followed another Republican governor, Edward Schafer, who was in office from 1993 to 2000. But the two U.S. Senators are both Democrats, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan (up for re-election in 2006 and 2004 respectively). And the state's single member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Earl Pomeroy, is also a Democrat (re-elected in the 11/5/02 election).

The state's bicameral legislature, however, which meets only every other year, has Republicans outnumbering Democrats by wide margins: In the 2001 legislative session the North Dakota House of Representatives had 69 Republicans and 29 Democrats, while the state senate had 32 Republicans and 17 Democrats.

Interestingly, North Dakota is the only state in the U.S. that has no voter registration rolls, having abolished them in 1951. Even so, though, there has been no documentation of widespread voter fraud in the state. In order to vote in a North Dakota election, a voter must be at least 18 years old on the day of the election, a U.S. citizen, a legal resident of the state, and must have lived in the voting precinct for at least 30 days preceding the day of the election.

With respect to geography, there are three land area "types" in North Dakota: The Red River Valley on the east, with its extraordinarily fertile farming land; the "drift prairie" to the west of the valley, which features rolling hills, lakes, and streams; and the "great plains" which covers an area farther west (the Great Plains in the center of North America runs from Canada to Texas). Another famous part of the state is the "Dakota Badlands" in the southwest portion (the area got its name from the first French explorers who called it "mauvaises terrest a traverser" or "bad lands to travel through"). The elevation of the state varies from the lowest point of 750 feet above sea level to small mountains that get up to a maximum of 3,506 feet at White Butte in the badlands.

North Dakota has large amounts of water, both above and below ground. There are large lakes and reservoirs, and large rivers including the Little Missouri, the Missouri River, the Red River, and many others. Lake Sakajawea is a huge reservoir that backs up behind one of the largest earth-filled dams in the United States, Garrison Dam. However, there has been flooding: After the winter of 1996-97, heavy snow and then heavy rain totally flooded the city of Grand Forks on the upper part of the Red River along with other cities along the Missouri and Red rivers.

Okay...climate. We've gotta talk about climate. There's lots of sunshine, rain, and snow in North Dakota (at least we Porcupines wouldn't have to put up with long bouts of dreary grayness, even if the temperatures are numbingly cold). The first freezing temperatures occur around the middle of September, and January is the coldest month with an average daily high of 16 degrees Fahrenheit and an average low of 7 below zero. July, the warmest month, on the other hand, features an average daily high of 84 degrees Fahrenheit and an average daily low of 58 degrees (nice!). Says one Porcupine who has visited North Dakota extensively: "When you consider that they get more sunshine than the eastern U.S., and that they have lower humidity, ND's climate may compare very favorably to many of the states on the Free State list...I think all the people talking about livability would be pleasantly surprised at North Dakota."

Further information from a North Dakota savant: "The reason that North Dakota has a bad climate reputation lies in its continental climate. With the great plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Circle, and no large bodies of water, there is nothing to stop or moderate great weather systems from sweeping in from either direction. Instead of saying ND has a bad climate, it would be more accurate to say it has a climate of rapid and radical changes."

The rainy season in North Dakota is in the spring and summer, with June being the rainiest month. Then rainfall drops off rapidly in the autumn.

North Dakota has less forested land than any other state in the nation. Less than 1% of the state is covered by forests. But for outdoors-type Porcupines, the state has plentiful hunting (bighorn sheep, whitetail and mule deer, antelope, and moose, as well as numerous species of birds and waterfowl) and fishing (perch, catfish, walleye pike and northern pike, rainbow trout, salmon, etc.). There's also a great hiking and biking trail in the grasslands part of the state that's 120 miles long; it meanders through the Little Missouri National Grasslands and is named the Maad Daah Hey Trail ("grandfather" in the Mandan language).

Bismarck is the state capitol, located in the south central part of the state, and Interstate 94 is the main east-west artery, going from Fargo on the east through Bismarck in the center, and the towns of Dickinson and Medora toward the west. Fargo is the biggest "city" in the state, with about 74,000 people; then come Grand Forks and Bismarck with about 49,000 each, then Minot in the north central part of the state (where there's a big military base) with about 34,500; and then the next two largest towns are Dickinson with about 16,000 and Jamestown with about 15,500.

Population density in North Dakota ranges from 1-3 inhabitants per square mile (19 counties), to 4-6 per square mile (17 counties), up to a maximum of 38-58 per square mile (4 counties, around Bismarck, Minot, Grand Forks, and Fargo). It's population is 95% white, 4% Native American and less than 1% each of Hispanic, African American, Asian and "other." The state's people are about evenly divided between urban dwellers (about 53%) and rural (47% on farms and in rural areas).

Says my North Dakota informant: "The reason its population is small and not growing has nothing to do with climate. It is the natural progression of the state's largest industry, agriculture. Thankfully for all of us, technological advancement means that continually fewer people are needed to produce increasingly more food and fiber. There is no reason the rest of us, no longer needing to grow food, can't thrive in any location where our individual talents are allowed to flourish. As for me, North Dakota sounds as good as any, and probably better than most."