Fun things to do in North Dakota

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Watford City is a town of just over 1700 located in Western North Dakota not too far from the Montana border. Watford City was founded in 1914 and is the county seat for McKenzie County; but I did not seek out the courthouse as I was rushing to get to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I really want to explore this town further. It did have a nice historic district with several buildings of historical and/or architectural interest.

There is also lots of beautiful scenery nearby along with Theodore Roosevelt Memorial National Park.

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Portland is a small town with about 600 residents located in East Central North Dakota. The town was founded in 1882 and has a small but nice historic district with a few buildings of historic and/or architectural interest. Portland also has a nice Veterans Memorial.

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Lisbon is the county seat of Ransom County and has a population of slightly over 2000. Lisbon and Ransom County are in the southeast corner of the state. Lisbon was founded in 1880 by Joesph L. Colton, who named the new city after Lisbon, New York, his wife's hometown.
Lisbon has a nice little historic district that has several buildings of historic and/or architectural interest. A few are on the National Register of Historic Places. Lisbon also has a few nice murals.

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Larimore is a small town with about 1300 residents and falling. It is located in East Central North Dakota just down US Highway 2 from Grand Forks. The most interesting thing in town to me was the Larimore Museum, which houses displays on music, the military in the area, along with rooms redone in a nostalgic/historic manner.

On the museum grounds they planted this tree as a memorial to those who died on September 11th.

Also on the grounds was this memorial to area firefighters.

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Killdeer is a fairly small town of about 750 located in West Central North Dakota. The town was established in 1914 at the end of a branch of the North Pacific Rail Line. The town catered to area ranchers and has a nice historic district with a few buildings of historic and/or architectural interest. I especially liked the wooden building housing the saloon/dancehall.

Killdeer Mountain State Historic Site: Killdeer Mountain, called "Tachkawute" by the Sioux (Nakota Dialect), is the site of an attack by a military force under General Alfred Sully on several groups of Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota (Sioux) tribes on 28 July 1864. Sully attacked the encampments, which included women and children, with cavalry and cannons. Many of the Sioux escaped across an opening in Killdeer Mountain called "Medicine Hole". Unfortunately, many of the tribe members attacked had not participated in earlier attacks and this action further embittered many of the Northern Plains Indian Tribes, and helped precipitate the Sioux Wars of the 1870s.

For more information see my Killdeer Page.

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Kathryn is a very small town on the prairie that was settled in the 1870s but did not really prosper until the railroad came through in 1900 and the town installed a grain elevator. Population as of 2010 was only 52.

I heard a neat story from one of the locals. Something you would not otherwise ever know. The gap between the two buildings you see here used to be a bar. When the state started registering and licensing bars, this one in Kathryn was the first to be registered. Wish it was still there would have been neat to get a drink there.

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Hatton is a fairly small town of 777 residents located in extreme eastern North Dakota. Hatton was founded in 1884.

The Hatton Carl Ben Eielson Museum is located in the childhood home of Polar Aviator Carl Ben Eielson. The museum is dedicated to Eieleson and his plane the "Alaskan" which is on display every Sunday afternoon from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

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Fort Ranson is a tiny town with under 100 residents but an interesting history. There are lots of historical sites, to include Fort Ransom State Park, Fort Ransom State Historic Site, T. J. Walker State Historic Site, and Standing Rock State Historic Site, in and around the town. Definitely worth a stop.

See separate tips for these sites.