Fifteen North Dakota facts

1. North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border, about halfway between the Pacific Ocean and the Great Lakes.
2. Total Area: 18th among states, 183,123 sq km (70,704 sq mi).
3. The state capital is Bismarck and the largest city is Fargo.
4. International Peace Garden, which lies partly in North Dakota and partly in Manitoba, Canada, honors the long friendship between the two nations.
5. North Dakota was carved out of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with South Dakota.
6. Colonel Clement A. Lounsberry, a Bismarck journalist, won fame for his reporting of the route of General George A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
7. The Maah Daah Hey Trail, crossing about 100 miles of badlands in western North Dakota, is informally known as the Moab of the North, gaining national prominence as a mountain bike trail. Also a hiking and horseback riding trail.
8. North Dakota is considered to be in the U.S. regions known as the Upper Midwest and the Great Plains, and is sometimes referred to as being the "High Plains".
9. The restored boyhood home of band leader Lawrence Welk stands in Strasburg.
10. The third largest man-made lake in the United States, Lake Sakakawea was created out of the Missouri River by the Garrison Dam, the fifth largest in the United States. The 609-square-mile lake has 1,500 miles of shoreline.
11. Lewis and Clark spent more consecutive days in North Dakota than in any other state. Click here for more information.
12. A flowering monument to peace is the International Peace Garden, straddling the border between the United States and Canada. Near Dunseith, this 2,300-acre garden plants 100,000 flowers annually and features a Peace Chapel as well as an 18-foot floral clock.
13. The central region of the state is divided into the Drift Prairie and the Missouri Plateau.
14. North Dakota has more wildlife refuges (64) than any other state. California is second with 38 refuges; Florida follows with 29 refuges.
15. Overall, North Dakota is a very flat state, however, there are some significant hills and buttes in the western half of the state. Most of the state was covered in grassland (and today, mostly with farmland); only 2% of North Dakota was historically forest.