President James Buchanan signed the bill creating Dakota Territory out of the present-day states of North Dakota, South Dakota, most of Montana, and most of Wyoming.
President Abraham Lincoln appointed his physician, Dr. William Jayne, as the first governor of Dakota Territory.
Yankton, in the southeast corner of present-day South Dakota, was the first capital of Dakota Territory.
By 1868, Dakota Territory consisted of only North Dakota and South Dakota.
A bill to make northern Dakota “Pembina Territory” was brought before the U.S. Congress about a dozen times but was never passed into law.
Alexander McKenzie, Burleigh County sheriff, was an agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.
The town of McKenzie and McKenzie County were named after Alexander McKenzie, who was nicknamed the “Boss of North Dakota.”
The nine-member commission, which was appointed to choose a new location for the territorial capital, had a secret meeting aboard a moving train in Yankton.
Bismarck became the capital of Dakota Territory in 1883.
On November 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill granting statehood to North Dakota and South Dakota.
The north-flowing Red River and the south-flowing Missouri River were the two major transportation routes for goods traded into and out of North Dakota in the early 1800s.
The Métis invented the Red River cart, which became the primary means of transportation for the fur trading companies between Fort Garry (Winnipeg), Pembina, and St. Paul.
The Yellowstone was the first steamboat on the Missouri River in North Dakota.
The Upper Missouri is the northern part of the Missouri River.
The Far West, piloted by Grant Marsh, carried the news to Bismarck of Custer’s defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.
The Anson Northrup was the first steamboat on the Red River in North Dakota.
North Dakota’s last steamboat on the Missouri River was in 1890. The last steamboat on the Red River was in 1912.
The Minnie H steamboat operated on Devils Lake every summer for 25 years.
Stagecoaches carried passengers to Deadwood, South Dakota, during the gold rush in the Black Hills.
The railroad put both steamboats and stagecoaches out of business.
President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill to build a transcontinental railroad through present-day North Dakota.
The Jay Cooke & Company banking business was in charge of raising money for building the transcontinental railroad.
The first train locomotive entered northern Dakota on June 6, 1872.
The Northern Pacific Railroad was the first railroad to enter North Dakota.
When the Northern Pacific rails reached the Missouri River, Jay Cooke & Company went broke and halted construction.
Northern Pacific Railroad renamed Edwinton “Bismarck” after Otto von Bismarck, the German leader.
The railroad bridge at Bismarck was completed in 1883, 10 years after the railroad had reached the Missouri River.
Jim Hill was in charge of building the Great Northern Railway, the second transcontinental railroad to cross North Dakota.
Jim Hill was nicknamed the “Empire Builder.”
The Soo Line, running diagonally across the state from southeast to northwest, was the third major railroad built in North Dakota.
Depot agents used Morse code to send telegraph messages for the railroads.
Train locomotives were turned around on giant turntables in buildings called roundhouses.
