In Bismarck stands a heroic statuary group, Pioneer Family, by Avard Fairbanks; behind it, gleaming white against the sky, towers the famous skyscraper capitol. One symbolizes the North Dakota of wagon trains and General Custer. The other symbolizes the North Dakota that has emerged in recent years—a land where a thousand oil wells have sprouted, dams have harnessed erratic rivers, vast lignite resources have been developed, and industry is absorbing surplus farm labor created by mechanization.

At various times, Spain, France, and England claimed what is now North Dakota as part of their empires. French Canadian fur trappers were the first Europeans to explore the land. With the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark crossed Dakota, establishing Fort Mandan. The earliest permanent European settlement was at Pembina with the establishment of Alexander Henry's trading post in 1801. Settlers from the Earl of Selkirk's colony in Manitoba arrived in 1812. The first military post at Fort Abercrombie served as a gateway into the area for settlers. The Dakota Territory was organized on March 2, 1861, but major settlement of what later became North Dakota followed after the entry of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the early 1870s.

This is a fascinating land of prairies, rich river valleys, small cities, huge ranches, and vast stretches of wheat. Bordering Canada for 320 miles to the north, it shares straight-line borders with Montana to the west and South Dakota to the south. The Red River of the North forms its eastern boundary with Minnesota. The Garrison Dam (see) has changed much of the internal geography of the state's western areas, converting the Missouri River, known as "Big Muddy," into a broad waterway with splendid recreation areas bordering the reservoir, Lake Sakajawea. In addition, the Oahe Dam in South Dakota impounds Lake Oahe, which stretches north almost to Bismarck. To the southwest stretch the Badlands in all their natural grandeur, amid the open range about which Theodore Roosevelt wrote so eloquently in his Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail.

North Dakota's wealth is still in its soil--agriculture, crude oil, and lignite (a brown variety of very soft coal). It is estimated that one-third of the state is under oil and gas lease, and it ranks high in the nation for the production of oil; the largest deposits of lignite coal in the world are here. The same land through which Custer's men rode with range grass growing up to their stirrups now makes North Dakota the nation's number one cash grain state. North Dakota leads the nation in the production of barley, durum, spring wheat, pinto beans, oats, and flaxseed. Nearly 2,000,000 head of cattle and more than 165,000 sheep are produced on North Dakota grass.

While the rural areas comprise the economic backbone of North Dakota, attractions attributed to a "big city" can be found. In July 1981, blackjack became a legal form of gambling, causing a number of casinos to open statewide. High-stakes games and slot machines can be found in casinos operated by Native Americans on four reservations. Pari-mutuel horseracing was legalized in 1987. All gambling profits, above expenses, go to nonprofit and charitable organizations.

This is the state in which to trace 19th-century frontier history, to explore the International Peace Garden (see BOTTINEAU), to stand at the center of the continent, to watch Native American dances and outdoor dramas, to fish in the 180-mile-long Lake Sakajawea, or to watch the 10 million migratory waterfowl that soar across the sky each spring and fall.