What's your preferred North Dakota city?

This is a total vanity post. Please elaborate below!

:spank:

I-94 and US-85. Greyhound stop. Airport code DIK.

I've never been there either quite frankly. I'll swing around someday. Been to all the others listed though.

Williston overall looks a LOT nicer. I think the place in ND where you get the most bang for your buck is Williston. It looks a lot bigger than a town of 13-15,000 people.

...and it's close to a really wonderful National Park. The north unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP is a real gem...and at the peak of tourist season it's campgrounds aren't more than half full.
:)

Aparently has a dinosaur museum, but the stupid museum is closed from September-May....

er, maybe I missed the point?

Though it'd be just fine if San Diego moved up here!

sounds intriguing

The freepest city in freeperland.

Such biblethumpers they want to change the name of the town.

But perhaps there is hope -- the school district defeated (albeit narrowly) a random drug testing plan.

Maddock, ND. Population 550.

I've been everywhere!

In the very first verse.

Across the desert something... I've been everywhere...

It's some old C/W song (forgot who sung it) that talks about all the places he's been to really fast in each verse.

There were old commercials back in the late '80's here in the Red River Valley for the US West (now Qwest) phone book company that did that song, along with emphasis on the "Fargo" part at the beginning of the ad, showing parts of the city and population signs, etc.

I think Grand Forks is a SHITHOLE. You can quote me on that. I drove up to the Bison/Sioux game in GF last month, and took a thorough drive around town. And after further review, the ruling on the field stands: Grand Forks is a DUMP.

Grand Forks is sprawling out too but it's at least a little more controlled than Fargo and Bismarck's drunken curves.

Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm attending UND now though, you filthy Bison. :P

:9:9:9:9

I'm originally from Fargo, lived in Minneapolis for 11 years, moved back up here to go to college.

Nice. I'm not originally from North Dakota but I figure I'm going to stay and try to straighten things out. If things don't go well -- hey, I can leave like everyone else.

Pretty soon there won't be enough people here, and South Dakota will have to annex us.;-)

The weird thing is that if we hypothetically ever seceded from the US, we would be the largest nuclear power in the world.

So NOBODY better fuck with us!!}(

Yes... yes...

Let's give Joe Satrom the launch codes in 2004!

Freezin's the reason!

I have searched for the answer so long!

So you east and west-coasters can get an idea of how sparse it is :-):

1) Fargo-100,000 (180,000 Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Metro)
2) Bismarck-58,000 (95,000 Bismarck-Mandan metro)
3) Grand Forks-50,000 (95,000 GF/EGF Metro)
4) Minot-38,000
5) West Fargo-17,000
6) Mandan-17,000
7) Dickinson-16,000
8) Jamestown-16,000
9) Williston-13,000
10)Wahpeton-9,000 (13,000 in Wahpeton-Breckenridge)

Dickinson is 13,000. Williston is 12,000. Jamestown is 9,000.

...and also some city government estimates.

Here's the EXACT census 2000 populations of these towns:

1) Fargo - 90,599
(It has grown to over 100,000 this summer, according to the city's reports)

2) Bismarck - 55,532
(I put 58,000 in accordance with growth trends)

3) Grand Forks - 49,321
(Went down to 43,000 after the flood in 1997, back up to 49,000+ by the census in 2000. A few new housing developments means an estimate of 50,000)

4) Minot - 36,567
(Again, I put it at 38,000 with growth trends)

5) Mandan - 16,718
(Ditto with Minot and Bismarck)

6) West Fargo - 14,940
(As the fastest-growing city in the state, it has definitely gone up to at LEAST 17,000. You'll know what I mean. Housing developments are popping up like wildflowers over there.)

7) Dickinson - 16,010
(It's basically flatlined in the past 20 years in terms of population at right around the 16,000 mark. 16,097 in 1990, 15,924 in 1980.)

8) Jamestown - 15,527
(Again, flatlined in the past 20 years. There's a little more urban area outside the city limits, so I added a little more. Remember, the census does NOT count outside the city limits.)

9) Williston - 12,486 (THIS IS MISLEADING!!!)
(Here's the reason why: There are a good few THOUSAND people living JUST OUTSIDE the Williston city limits on the north side. These are unofficial "suburbs" named after the neighbourhoods they're in. Williston has gone a little down (about 900 people) in the past 20 years INSIDE THE CITY LIMITS, but in the past 10 years, there have been new developments being built by the airport and on the shores of Sakakawea. Therefore, Williston has more like 15,000 people in the whole city.)

And this is also in my interest area, too, so I know where to find the info. I've been into city populations for many years now, ever since I was a little kid. I've also been keeping track of the latest figures online for many years as well.

I lived there for about a year with my dad when I was 5-6 years old.

Ok... but it's off the mainline. Bigger than Devils Lake though.

Back when F-M had less people, we used to call Wahpeton-Breckenridge "The Mini F-M". Nowadays, no one pays real attention to the place. I think the city's heyday was probably back in the '80's. Close to half of the RRV radio stations used to be based in Wahpeton.

Used to be an annual destination for hippies when I was a young whippersnapper.
John
Plus, my buddy Mike B's dad was born in ND. That's about all I know about the Peace Garden State, except that it's known as the Peace Garden State.

Teddy Roosevelt is an adopted son of our state...

anytime. People who live in places where your tires freeze flat creep me out. If it's too cold to drink Margurita's, it's too cold for me.

We camped there this summer. Do you know that there is petrified wood lying all around and NO ONE IS SELLING IT? (Like in the southwest) Anyway, the lake was beautiful......all those weird gray-green shrubby-trees. What are they? The air smelled so sweet.And the birds.....we would flush birds out with every step when we'd walk through the wild wheat fields surrounding the lake. The sky..........oh, that sky.........and then the STARS at night!!! I take it you can tell I LOVE ND!!!

It's a short drive from Minot and Bismarck too.

Where did you camp out exactly?

or right, depending on your source...

http://lewisandclarktrail.com/sacajawea.htm

It's on the maps. It's spelled right as far as I care.

Bird-Woman. Actually, we were following the Lewis and Clark Trail.

I can't remember the name of the park.....we drove through fields of these brilliant yellow crops (not sunflowers) and camped right near the lake. It was one of my favorite campsites and I've camped all over US and Canada. I don't know, but there was something magical about it.........maybe because the weather was perfect and we had the place pretty much to ourselves.

You're talking about Lake Sakakawea State Park by Pick City -- near the Garrison Dam.

I've been there. Nice town.

OK.........that's my pick, Pick city. There were postings all over the place........."In case of tornados, the siren will sound so many blasts. Go to the base of the damn and hide" or something like that. We really felt isolated at night.........but in a good way. I'm a true agoraphile. (or whatever the lover of wide-open spaces is.)

Which side of the river did you travel up? The east or the west?

following the Yellowstone in Montana to ND. Can't remember where we ran into the Missouri again or if we took 2 and went down or 94 and went up. Loooooong trip around the US..........started in PA , went south, then west, then up to CA, ORE, WA, then headed back east to PA. I can't remember all lot of the routes, but I tell you, North Dakota stands out........I don't know why more poeple don't travel there. SSSHHH......I better shut up, don't want to ruin it!!!

Personally I'd like us to be known for state of the art space launch facilites ;)

It's sad that we're the only state that's not growing in population. I refuse to believe we're shrinking a lot though. I think we're basically flat-lining in population, and have been for at least 10 years. But I'd really like to see at least 750,000 people in this state by 2020.

We have to pull hard for the Democrats next year!

or the big mountains......of course, when I tell people I've been to North Dakota.........they all say."Did you see Mt Rushmore?" Maybe you could somehow trick tourists into skipping SD and mis-direct them to ND? You just have to get them up there......it's beautiful!!!!

Then we lead them to those pretty Lake Sakakawea shores when they think they're going to Mount Rushmore!! Then we'd tell them, "Uh... We never said 'Mt. Rushmore'. We meant... Mt Flushmore. Yeah, that's it. That geyser made out of toilets right over there."

Either that or the place where the "Enchanted Highway" is: outsize sculptures of dinosaurs and whatnot on the road leading into town...

What highway would that be?

wherever those are...

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NDREGenchant.html

If the media's dire depopulation predictions are true, North Dakota will soon have less residents than giant concrete and metal creatures. Spunky North Dakotans say "BITE ME!" to out-of-touch urban doomsayers, with their weepy laments of prairie beauty. The state's weak tourist magnetism is a fixable problem. There's no better example of ND-can-do spirit than the Enchanted Highway, a 32-mile stretch of paved county highway between Regent and Gladstone, reaching I-94.





Kewl!

...you haven't seen this state. Try coming through on US-2, US-52, or US-281...

and if you're really in for a treat -- US-85 through the Badlands...

I lost my virginity there

:-)


I have lived in:

Linton
Valley City
Dazey
Bismarck
Fargo

Went to Bismarck State and NDSU

Student in architecture here.

GOOOOO BISON!!!

I wasn't expecting so much excitement over such an admittedly dull state!

even though my father grew up in Los Angeles, he was born in Tioga. :-)

Just a bit out of the way between Stanley and Williston...

I didn't think he was a North Dakotan when I met him.

nt

But then again, my communications teacher (with his lip piercings and spiked, punked-up hair) looks like he'd fit right into Uptown Minneapolis, and he's from Bowbells.

Pump it up!

Mommy! lol
ok I really dont know and I dont have any plans to go there anytime soon. I know what North Dakota is, I knew where it was when I was 5.

But my Carrington-born wife didn't want to live there.

We first moved up to Detroit Lakes. Fargo's fine, but I was I was back in DL a block from the lake.

I was there for the 2000 State Fair. I took a tour of the Upper Midwest that year (dubbed the Flat Earth Tour) with the idea of escaping the hot SC summer. Minot was where I gave it up; as the temperatures were peaking at 108, I just said "heck with it" and turned around to go back home. But I liked Minot a lot, in spite of the temperature. (Don't think I could handle the wintertime, though)

the 2000 State Fair was cool but it was really hot.

It's not cold up here all the time!

It has a giant fiberglass cow that you can see from 20 miles away on I-94. It's so freaking huge, why it's almost 35 feet tall!

See the towns as they are... not for the tourist traps...

Hitler!

so sayeth Homer J. Simpson.

Sorry, but that Simpsons repeat was on this afternoon. :D

:-)

I have been there. Many years ago, we took a trip to the Black Hills, me Mrs Ironflange, and the 3-yr-old son in tow. We came back through North Dakota, and one of the places we saw was Strasburg. Now, our son Allyn at that time was a huge Welk fan, he absolutely loved to dance to the music every week when it aired on PBS. So, when he learned that this was the town Lawrence lived in when he was a little boy, that was just the shiznit. We went down main street and found a little park called, naturally, Welk Park, and Allyn was beside himself with joy at the playground within. He'd ride on the swing yelling "This is the swing Lawrence Welk played on!" Then the slide, monkey bars, etc, all with the same comment. Then it got really freaky. We finally dragged him back to the car, only to see tha car that had parked next to it had a vanity plate that read "ALLYN." Boy, that was a weird coincidence.

We went through Bismarck, and let me tell you, take the tour of the state capitol if you want to be treated to vast area of some of the most gorgeous woodwork you'll ever see.

Glad you had a good time.

down there.