Interesting Facts
Originally conceived of in 1928 by Dr. Henry Moore of Ontario, Canada, the International Peace Garden was intended to establish a memorial to perpetual peace between Canada and the United States. Encompassing 2,339 acres within North Dakota and the Canadian province of Manitoba, the park attracted 50,000 visitors to its grand opening and dedication on July 14, 1932.
Attempts to drop the word “North” and rename the state “Dakota” were defeated by the legislature in both 1947 and 1989.
In 1999, a teenager discovered a “dinosaur mummy” on his uncle’s ranch near Marmarth. The 67 million-year-old duck-billed hadrosaur was so well preserved that much of its bones, tendons and ligaments remained enclosed in skin.
Theodore Roosevelt, who once credited his time spent in the North Dakota Badlands as critical to becoming the 26th president of the United States, fostered a legacy of resource conservation that has been memorialized by the creation of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Comprised of three distinct units in western North Dakota, the park covers more than 70,000 acres.
The geographical center of North America—marked by a 21-foot monument constructed out of stones—lies in the town of Rugby, North Dakota.
Agriculture is North Dakota’s leading industry, which employed nearly 24 percent of the state’s residents in 2010. The largest producer of about a dozen crops, North Dakota supplied 90 percent of the nation’s canola and 95 percent of its flaxseed in 2010.
