North Dakota Trivia & Tidbits

Looking for North Dakota trivia? Try our list North Dakota little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

—Built in 1912 from logs and sod, the frontier post office in Grassy Butte still stands and today is a museum.

first appeared: 6/14/2009

—Named in 1967, the official state fossil is Teredo petrified wood, which bears the boreholes of the Teredo, a worm-shaped mollusk. Teredo wood is prized by collectors.

first appeared: 5/31/2009

—Completed in 1883, the brick Stutsman County courthouse in Jamestown (pop. 15,527) is the oldest existing courthouse in the state.

first appeared: 5/17/2009

—Founded in 1883, the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks (pop. 49,321) is the state's oldest and largest institution of higher learning.

first appeared: 5/3/2009

–Fashioned from more than 2,000 steel tire rims, the W'eel Turtle in Dunseith (pop. 739) stands two stories tall. It was built in 1982 by George Gottbreht. Dunseith is in the Turtle Mountains.

first appeared: 4/19/2009

—Founded in 1890, The Walsh County Record in Grafton (pop. 4,516) is the state's largest weekly newspaper. It has been operated since 1923 by the Rilie Morgan family.

first appeared: 4/5/2009

—An 8-foot-tall, 500-pound chainsaw carving titled "Wood-Chip Marge" commemorates character Marge Gunderson from the 1996 movie Fargo and stands at the Fargo Theatre. The statue was a gift from MGM Home Entertainment to the City of Fargo (pop. 90,599).

first appeared: 3/22/2009

—The state is ranked as having the most outgoing and agreeable people of any state in the nation, based on research that discovered regional personality traits. Results were published last year in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.

first appeared: 3/8/2009

—The Odalen Lutheran Church, near Edinburg (pop. 252), burned to the ground in 2007, but the community hasn’t forgotten it. They placed an 80-foot steel cross as a memorial for the 1897 church built by Norwegian immigrants. The cross stands among the pioneers’ gravestones.

first appeared: 2/22/2009

—In 1883, Theodore Roosevelt invested in the Maltese Cross Ranch near Medora (pop. 100) and stayed in the three-room Maltese Cross Cabin when he was in the Badlands. During his presidency, the log cabin was exhibited in Portland, Ore., and St. Louis before being moved to the Capitol grounds in Bismarck, then in 1959 to its present site near the Medora Visitors Center.

first appeared: 2/8/2009

—In 1934, golfer George Wegener, of Portal (pop. 131), scored an international hole-in-one when he drove the ball from the ninth tee in Canada into the hole on the ninth green in the United States in Portal.

first appeared: 1/11/2009

—Lake Sakakawea State Park near Pick City (pop. 166) is a trailhead for the North Country Scenic Trail, a hiking route that even-tually will course 4,000 miles and link seven states. About 1,600 miles of the trail have been marked.

first appeared: 12/29/2008

—Depressions left by the stage station and barn that served travelers from 1877 to 1880 along the trail between Bismarck (pop. 55,532) and Deadwood, S.D. (pop. 1,380) can be seen at the Cannonball Stage Station State Historic Site near Carson (pop. 319).

first appeared: 11/30/2008

—You’ll need hiking boots to visit the state’s only recognized waterfall, Mineral Springs, tucked into the Sheyenne State Forest in Ransom County (pop. 5,890). OHIO—In 1858, Samuel Patterson established the Berlin Fruit Box Co. in Berlin Heights (pop. 685) to provide fruit and vegetable baskets to local orchards and farms. Today, a sixth generation of family members continues to make the hardwood baskets.

first appeared: 11/16/2008

—Voter turnout is never large in Pillsbury (pop. 24), but it hit a new low last June when Mayor Darrel Brudevold ran unopposed for re-election as did two candidates for alderman seats. Turnout was “zero.” Even the candidates were too busy with work to make it to the polls.

first appeared: 11/2/2008

—To encourage a new generation of shepherds, the North Dakota Lamb and Wool Producers Association is giving starter flocks of 10 ewes to children ages 10 to 18 who write winning essays about their interest in the sheep industry and who meet other requirements.

first appeared: 10/19/2008

—The oil industry is booming in the state where the Bakken shale formation is located. The formation is believed to contain the largest accumulation of oil in the lower 48 states, with several billion barrels of oil. New technology is making it feasible to extract the oil from the rock.

first appeared: 10/5/2008

—The only state-owned milling complex in the United States is the North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association in Grand Forks (pop. 49,321). In 1922, voters approved construction of a mill so farmers could process, manufacture and market their own wheat products.

first appeared: 9/21/2008

—Almost 90 percent of the state’s land is used for farming or grazing. The state has about 30,100 farms and ranches with an average size of 1,309 acres.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—In 2003, residents of Jud (pop. 76) began transforming their community into a “Village of Murals” by painting colorful images on buildings around town. Artists since have painted more than two dozen murals on buildings of all sizes and shapes, including a grain bin that resembles a carousel.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

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