North Dakota: 10 things you didn’t know
1 North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the only US National Park named for a person. Before becoming the President, he was a rancher in the badlands of North Dakota. When Theodore Roosevelt came to Dakota Territory to hunt bison in 1883, he was a skinny, young, spectacled dude from New York. He could not have imagined how his adventure in this remote and unfamiliar place would forever alter the course of the nation. The rugged landscape and strenuous life that TR experienced here would help shape a conservation policy that we still benefit from today.
2 You can visit a “Cold-War” site that is the real thing. Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile and Oscar Zero State Historic Sites are actually a former working missile launch site and missile control site.
3 In 1881, a North Dakotan named David Henderson Houston filed a patent on the first roll film camera, which had actually been invented by his brother Peter. Eight years later he sold the patent to George Eastman, and also provided a suggestion for the name. He wanted to go with Nodak, an abbreviation of No[rth] Dak[ota], but Eastman decided to change the initial “N” to a “K,” and the rest is photographic history.
4 Lake Sakakwea, a reservoir about 50 miles outside of Bismarck, is the third-largest man-made lake in the U.S. It has a shoreline of 1,320 miles, just 30 miles fewer than that of the entire state of Florida.
5 Turtle Lake is home to the annual U.S. and World Championship Turtle Races, whose entrants have been known to set blazing speeds of up to a quarter-mile per hour.
6 The city of Rugby claims to be the geographic centre of North America, despite the fact that no one has actually verified that claim, but, eh, it’s probably close enough. Anyway, they went to all the trouble of erecting a monument, complete with U.S., Canadian and Mexican flags. Since no rival claimant has surfaced, I say we just let it stand.
7 Most of the movie “Fargo” actually took place in Minnesota, and, apart from a few exterior shots of Fargo itself, was filmed there, as well. Although the woodchipper scene in Fargo was set in Moose Lake, Minn., the actual movie prop is now on display at the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, complete with fake leg and trapper hats for your photoshopping pleasure.
8 North Dakota, as of 2013, ranks as the happiest state in the union, at least according to the Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index. The real shocker? Not only did it make the leap from being #19 in 2012, but it also edged out Hawaii, which had been holding on to the top spot for the last few years.
9 North Dakota has an underground bar/pub in Amidon. Amidon, in Southwest ND, was once known as the least populated county seat in the US, unfortunately losing that title in the past couple of years. Amidon is still known for its “Dummy” speed trap.
10 North Dakota is home to 65 wildlife refuges – more than any other state. All offer unparallelled opportunities for viewing birds and other wildlife in their natural setting.