Home › States & Territories › The 50 States
North Dakota
The Peace Garden State, northern plains and badlands
North Dakota sits at the northern edge of the Great Plains, a wide, open state that climbs gently from the flat Red River Valley in the east to rougher, higher country in the west. The Red River, running north toward Canada and Hudson Bay, drains some of the flattest and most fertile land on the continent — an old glacial lakebed now planted in wheat and sugar beets. Westward the plains roll and dry, breaking at last into the colorful, eroded Badlands along the Little Missouri River.
The Badlands are the state's scenic surprise — banded buttes and ravines carved into the soft plains, protected within Theodore Roosevelt National Park and roamed by bison. White Butte, the high point at 3,506 feet (1,069 m), rises among them. Beneath the western prairie lies the Bakken, one of the largest oil fields in the country, which reshaped the region's economy. Thinly populated and far from the coasts, North Dakota is grain, grass, and sky, with Fargo on the Red River as its largest city.
Economy
North Dakota was transformed by the Bakken shale boom into one of the top oil-producing states, and energy - oil, coal, and wind - now drives its economy alongside its traditional base of agriculture, where it leads the nation in crops such as durum wheat, canola, and several others. Food processing adds to the mix.
Politics
North Dakota carries 3 electoral votes and votes reliably Republican in presidential elections, one of the most consistently Republican states, with a small and heavily rural population.