State Governors North Dakota Veterans Photographs Resources Trails to the Past Needs Volunteers, to adopt a county contact Marie Miller North Dakota State Administrator Being a County Administrator is fun and rewarding.  If you have an interest in the history of North Dakota and the genealogy of it's residents please consider it.  If you think "there is no way I can do this" there are many people ready and willing and able to help you.  It's not near as difficult as you might think. site search by freefind History Of North Dakota Much of present-day North Dakota was included in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Much of acquired land was organized into Minnesota and Nebraska Territories. Dakota Territory, making up present-day North and South Dakota, along with parts of present-day Wyoming and Montana, was organized on March 2, 1861. Dakota Territory was settled sparsely until the late 1800s, when the railroads entered the region and aggressively marketed the land. A bill for statehood for North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington titled the Enabling Act of 1889 was passed on February 22, 1889 during the administration of Grover Cleveland. After Cleveland left office, it was left to his successor, Benjamin Harrison, to sign proclamations formally admitting North and South Dakota to the Union on November 2, 1889.The rivalry between the two new states presented a dilemma of which was to be admitted first. Harrison directed Secretary of State James G. Blaine to shuffle the papers and obscure from him which he was signing first and the actual order went unrecorded. However, since North Dakota alphabetically appears before South Dakota, its proclamation was published first in the Statutes At Large. Since that day, it has become common to list the Dakotas alphabetically and thus North Dakota is usually listed as the 39th state. It is believed that nobody recorded which paper was signed first, thus nobody can actually know which of the Dakotas was admitted first.  Bismarck is the state Capitol of North Dakota. A round of federal construction projects began in the 1950s including the Garrison Dam, and the Minot and Grand Forks Air Force bases. There was a boom in oil exploration in western North Dakota in the 1980s, as rising petroleum prices made development profitable. The original North Dakota State Capitol burned to the ground on December 28, 1930, and was replaced by a limestone faced art deco skyscraper that still stands today. List of Counties County County Seat Created Administrator Adams Hettinger 1885 Available Barnes Valley City 1875 Available Benson Minnewauken 1883 Available Billings Medora 1879 Available Bottineau Bottineau 1873 Available Bowman Bowman 1883 Marie Miller Burke Bowbells 1910 Available Burleigh Bismarck 1873 Available Cass Fargo 1873 Available Cavalier Langdon 1873 Available Dickey Ellendale 1881 Available Divide Crosby 1910 Available Dunn Manning 1883 Available Eddy New Rockford 1885 Available Emmons Linton 1879 Available Foster Carrington 1873 Available Golden Valley Beach 1912 Available Grand Forks Grand Forks 1873 Available Grant Carson 1916 Available Griggs Cooperstown 1881 Available Hettinger Mott 1883 Available Kidder Steele 1873 Available LaMoure LaMoure 1873 Available Logan Napoleon 1873 Available McHenry Towner 1873 Available McIntosh Ashley 1883 Available McKenzie Watford 1905 Available McLean Washburn 1883 Available Mercer Stanton 1875 Available Morton Mandan 1873 Available Mountrail Stanley 1873 Available Nelson Lakota 1883 Available Oliver Center 1885 Available Pembina Cavalier 1867 Available Pierce Rugby 1887 Available Ramsey Devils Lake 1873 Available Ransom Lisbon 1873 Available Renville Mohall 1873 Available Richland Wahpeton 1873 Available Rolette Rolla 1873 Available Sargent Forman 1883 Available Sheridan McCluskey 1873 Available Sioux Fort Yates 1915 Available Slope Amidon 1915 Available Stark Dickinson 1879 Available Steele Finley 1883 Available Stutsman Jamestown 1873 Available Towner Cando 1883 Available Traill Hillsboro 1875 Available Walsh Grafton 1881 Available Ward Minot 1888 Available Wells Fessenden 1873 Available Williams Williston 1890 Available

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