Bismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota
, the county seat of
Burleigh
County
, and the second most populous city in North Dakota
after Fargo
. Its population was 55,532 at the
2000 census. Its metropolitan
population was 94,719 in 2000, but was estimated in 2008 to have
grown to 104,944. Bismarck was founded in 1872 and has been North
Dakota's capital since it gained statehood in 1889.
Bismarck
is situated on the east bank of the Missouri River, directly across
the river from Mandan
. The two cities make up the core of the
Bismarck-Mandan Metropolitan Statistical
Area
The
North Dakota
State Capitol
, the tallest building in the state, towers over the
central part of Bismarck. The state government employs many
people in the city.
As a hub of manufacturing, retail, and health
care, Bismarck is the economic center of a large portion of
south-central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota
.
History
At a place once known as Missouri Crossing, the city that would
become present-day Bismarck was founded in 1872 and given the name
Edwinton, in honor of Edwin Ferry Johnson (1803–1872), a
distinguished civil engineer who was engineer-in-chief for the
Northern Pacific Railway
from June 1866 to November 1870.
In 1873 the Northern Pacific Railway
changed the city's name to Bismarck, after the German
chancellor
Otto von Bismarck, in an effort to
attract German immigrants to settle along its route.
But the
discovery of gold in the nearby Black Hills
in 1874 was the first real impetus for
growth. Bismarck became the capital of the Dakota Territory in 1883 and of the state
of North
Dakota in 1889.
Geography
Bismarck is located at (46.813343, -100.779004) .
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city occupies 71.0 km²
(27.4 mi²); 69.6 km² (26.9 mi²) of it is land and
1.3 km² (0.5 mi²) (1.90%) is water.
Cityscape
Downtown Bismarck is near the center of the city, and is
distinctive because the city's major shopping center,
Kirkwood Mall, is there rather than in a
suburban setting.
Several other major retail stores are in the
vicinity of Kirkwood Mall, as is the Bismarck Civic
Center
. The two Bismarck hospitals,
St. Alexius Medical Center and
Medcenter One Health
Systems are both downtown, and the streets are lined with small
stores and restaurants.
Much recent commercial and residential growth has happened in the
northern section of the city, largely because of expanding retail
centers. Among the shopping centers in northern Bismarck are
Gateway Mall, Northbrook
Mall, Arrowhead Plaza, and the new Pinehurst Square "
power center" mall.
The
North Dakota
State Capitol complex is just north of downtown Bismarck.
The 19-story
Art Deco capitol is the
tallest building in the city, at a height of 241.75 feet (74 m).
The capitol building towers over the central part of the city and
is easily seen from
20 miles (30 km) away on
a clear day. Completed during the
Great
Depression in 1934, it replaced an earlier capitol building
which burned to the ground in 1930.
The capitol grounds house the North Dakota Heritage Center,
the North Dakota State
Library, the North Dakota Governor's
Residence
, the State Office Building, and the Liberty Memorial Building.
The
North Dakota State
Penitentiary is in eastern Bismarck.
The Cathedral District is a historic neighborhood near downtown
Bismarck. The neighborhood gets its name from the
art deco Cathedral of the Holy Spirit which stands
in the district. Some homes in this neighborhood date back to the
1880s, although many were built in the first decades of the 20th
century. For years, the city has put forth controversial proposals
to widen the streets in the neighborhood, but any such project
would require the removal of many of the towering
American elms which line the streets.
The
Ruth Meiers
Hospitality House, a 66-bed shelter for the homeless, is east
of downtown Bismarck.
Climate
Because
it is situated in the Great Plains
between the Rocky
Mountains and the Great
Lakes
, Bismarck possesses a climate similar to both
regions,{Clarify me|date=June 2009}} characterized by long, cold
winters with average snowfall, and warm summers, frequently hot and
humid. Thunderstorms occur in
spring and summer, but in general, the Bismarck climate is quite
dry.
The warmest month in Bismarck is July, where high and low
temperatures average 85°F (29 °C) and 56 °F (14 °C) respectively.
The coldest month is January, at 21 °F (-6 °C) and -1 °F (-18 °C).
The wettest month is June, with 65.8 mm (2.59 in) of
precipitation, and the driest month is December, averaging just
11 mm (0.44 in). The city receives an average of about of
rain and of snow per year.
| Monthly
Normal and Record High and Low Temperatures |
|
Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Rec
High °F (°C) |
63 (17.2) |
68 (20.0) |
81 (27.2) |
93 (33.8) |
98 (36.6) |
111 (43.9) |
114 (45.5) |
109 (42.7) |
105 (40.5) |
95 (35.0) |
79 (26.1) |
66 (18.9) |
| Norm
High °F (°C) |
21.1 (-6.1) |
28.5 (-1.9) |
40.2 (4.6) |
55.9 (13.3) |
69.1 (20.6) |
77.8 (25.4) |
84.5 (29.2) |
83.3 (28.5) |
71.6 (22.0) |
58.2 (14.6) |
38.2 (3.4) |
25.7 (-3.5) |
| Norm
Low °F (°C) |
-0.6 (-18.1) |
7.8 (-13.4) |
19.1 (-7.2) |
30.6 (-0.8) |
42.8 (6.0) |
51.6 (10.9) |
56.4 (13.6) |
54.7 (12.6) |
43.7 (6.5) |
32.1 (0.1) |
17.8 (-7.9) |
4.8 (-15.1) |
| Rec
Low °F (°C) |
-45 (-42.8) |
-45 (-42.8) |
-36 (-37.8) |
-12 (-24.4) |
15 (-9.4) |
30 (-1.1) |
32 (0.0) |
32 (0.0) |
10 (-12.2) |
-10 (-23.3) |
-30 (-34.4) |
-43 (-41.6) |
| Precip
in. (mm) |
0.45 (11.4) |
0.51 (12.9) |
0.85 (21.6) |
1.46 (37.1) |
2.22 (56.4) |
2.59 (65.8) |
2.58 (65.5) |
2.15 (54.6) |
1.61 (40.9) |
1.28 (32.5) |
0.7 (17.8) |
0.44 (11.2) |
|
Source: National Weather Service [9165] |
Demographics
At the time of the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 55,532 people,
23,185 households, and 14,444 families residing in the city. The
population density was
2,065.2/mi² (797.4/km²). There were 24,217 housing units at an
average density of 900.6/mi² (347.7/km²). The racial makeup of the
city was 94.78%
White, 3.39%
Native American, 0.89%
from two or more races, 0.75%
Hispanic or
Latino, 0.45%
Asian, 0.28%
Black or
African American, 0.17% from
other races and 0.03%
Pacific
Islander.
The top
six ancestries in the city are: German (57.9%),
Norwegian
(18.2%), Russian (7.7%),
Irish
(7.2%),
English
(5.0%), Swedish
(4.3%).
There were 23,185 households, of which 30.2% had children under the
age of 18 living with them, 50.1% were
married
couples living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. 31.0% of all
households were made up of individuals and 10.5% were someone
living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the city, the population was spread out with 23.5% under the age
of 18, 11.1% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to
64, and 13.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
36 years. For every 100 females there were 93.9 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.
The median income per household in the city was $39,422, and the
median income per family was $51,477. Males had a median income of
$33,804 versus $22,647 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$20,789. About 5.7% of families and 8.4% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 9.5%
of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.
Law and government
Bismarck operates under the
city commission style of
municipal government. Citizens elect five
at-large city commissioners. The president of the
city commission fills the office of mayor of the city. The current
mayor of Bismarck is
John Warford. The
city commission meets every second and fourth Tuesday of each
month.
Economy
With over
4,300 employees, the state government of North Dakota is the largest employer in Bismarck.
Bismarck's two major health care providers,
St. Alexius Medical Center and
Medcenter One Health
Systems, together employ about 4,100 people.
Other major employers
in Bismarck include Bobcat (now a
subsidiary of the Korean company Doosan Infracore
), Basin
Electric Power Cooperative, Coventry Health Care, Bismarck Public Schools, Midwest Motor Express, and the
United States
Federal Government.
Bismarck is the home of
MDU
Resources Group, which in 2009 was ranked number 473 on the
Fortune 500 list.
Education
Elementary, middle and high schools
The
Bismarck Public Schools
system operates 15
elementary
schools, three
middle schools
(Simle, Wachter, Horizon), two
public
high schools (
Century High
and
Bismarck High) and one
alternative high school (South Central High School). The system
educates 10,400 students and employs 1,500 people.
Three Bismarck Catholic parishes operate three
primary schools (
kindergarten through eighth grade): St. Mary's
Grade School, St. Anne's Grade School, and Cathedral Grade School.
St. Mary's Grade School, founded in 1878, is the oldest
continuously operating elementary school in North Dakota.
The city
has two private high schools,
St.
Mary's Central High School
and Shiloh Christian School.
Higher education
There are five colleges and a university in Bismarck. The
University of Mary, a four-year
university operated by the Sisters of Saint Benedict, is the
largest degree-granting institution in the city.
Bismarck State College is a two-year
public college and a member of the
North Dakota University
System.
United
Tribes Technical College is a two-year tribal college.
Rasmussen College, a two-year private
college, is the North Dakota satellite campus of the Rasmussen
College system.
Culture
The Belle Mehus
Auditorium, a historic
building in downtown Bismarck dating to 1914, is a center for the
arts in the metropolitan area. Performances of Northern Plains
Dance and
Bismarck-Mandan Symphony
Orchestra are held there.
Theater companies in Bismarck include Sleepy Hollow Summer Theatre,
the Shade Tree Players children's theater group, Dakota Stage Ltd,
University of Mary, Bismarck State College, and various high school
groups. The Gannon and Elsa Forde Art Galleries are at Bismarck
State College. The Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra, founded in
2000, is the community's newest orchestra and performs a variety of
musical genres.
Recreation
Bismarck has a large park system and an extensive network of
exercise trails. The Bismarck Parks and Recreation District,
established in 1927, operates many parks, swimming pools, and
several golf courses within the city.
Sertoma Park spans
more than three miles (5 km) along the banks of the Missouri
River
and contains several miles of biking trails, the
Dakota
Zoo
, and Super Slide Amusement
Park.
In total, the Parks and Recreation District operates roughly
2,300 acres (9 km²) of
public parkland.
There are five golf courses in Bismarck: four 18-hole courses
(Apple Creek Country Club, Hawktree Golf Club, Riverwood Golf
Course, and Tom O'Leary Golf Course), and one 9-hole course (Pebble
Creek Golf Course).
Hunting and fishing are popular with hunting seasons for deer,
pheasant, and waterfowl. Fishing is a year-round sport on the
Missouri River bordering Bismarck. There are public docks on the
River. From north to south, there is a dock at the Port of
Bismarck, from which the
Lewis and Clark passenger
riverboat plies the Missouri; Fox Island Landing, about a half mile
southwest of Riverwood Golf Course; and the Bismarck Dock at
General Sibley Park, where there is a boat ramp and picnic
facilities.
Near Bismarck are several dammed lakes, including McDowell Dam
Lake, six miles (10 km) east of the city, and two lakes a few
miles west of the city.
The extensive Lake Sakakawea
is70 miles (110 km) north
of Bismarck, upstream of Garrison Dam.
In February 2007, Bismarck broke the record for most
snow angels made in one place. A total of 8,962
participants came to the capitol grounds for the event.
Health care
Bismarck is a regional center for health care. The city has two
hospitals:
St. Alexius
Medical Center (285-bed) and
Medcenter One Health Systems
(238-bed).
When it was opened in 1885, St. Alexius was
the first hospital in Dakota
Territory and is the oldest health care provider in the state
of North
Dakota. St. Alexius and Medcenter One have joined
forces to form the Bismarck Cancer Center. Medcenter One was
founded in 1908 as Bismarck Evangelical Hospital, renamed in 1955
to Bismarck Hospital, then renamed again in 1984 to its present
designation, MedCenter One.
Media
Print
The only daily newspaper in Bismarck is the
Bismarck Tribune. The paper was
established in 1873 and is the oldest continuously operating
business in the city.
The Tribune is the official
newspaper of the city of Bismarck, Burleigh
County, and the state of North Dakota. The daily newspapers of other major cities
in North Dakota are also available at area newsstands.
Television
There are
six television stations based in
Bismarck, and all of them have rebroadcasters in Minot
, Williston
, and Dickinson
. The stations are:
Bismarck also carries
KWMK, an affiliate of
The CW, on cable channel 14, as well as a
public access channel,
Community Access
Television, on cable channel 12.
Radio
Bismarck supports some twenty-seven radio stations. All of the
commercial stations are owned by either
Clear Channel Communications or
Cumulus Media. Many of the lower
frequency stations are broadcasters of national
Christian radio networks. The local stations
are:
FM Radio
AM Radio
Transportation
The old Northern Pacific Railway
Depot, built in 1901 using the Mission Revival style.
The building now houses a Mexican restaurant.
Because
it is nearly in the center of North Dakota, Bismarck has become a major transportation
hub.
Bismarck
Municipal Airport
is south of the city and has the largest passenger
volume in western North Dakota and the second highest within the
state. The airport is served by
United Express,
Allegiant Air and
Northwest. A new $15 million terminal
opened in May 2005. The previous terminal was built in the
mid-1960s and expanded in the mid-1970s. A windstorm collapsed part
of the roof connecting the expanded terminal to the original
building, and eventually it was decided to demolish the entire
complex and build the new terminal.
The
Burlington
Northern Santa Fe Railway runs east-west through the city.
There has not been
Amtrak service in Bismarck
since the
North Coast
Hiawatha service ended in 1979.
The closest Amtrak station is in Minot, north of Bismarck, where the Empire Builder line runs.
Two federal highways pass through Bismarck.
Interstate 94 runs east and west through the
city and connects Bismarck and Mandan. The north-south
U.S. Route 83
merges in north Bismarck with Interstate 94 to run east for roughly
25 miles (40 km) beyond
which it again runs north-south.
The Capital Area Transit System (CAT) began operations in May 2004.
This public bus system is operated by the Bis-Man Transit Board and
has eleven routes throughout Bismarck and Mandan. Bis-Man Transit
also operates a taxi service for senior citizens and people with
disabilities.
Sports
Professional and amateur sports are popular in Bismarck.
Amateur
High school and college sports are the main feature of the local
athletics landscape. The athletic teams at the two public Bismarck
high schools,
Bismarck High
School and
Century High
School, are known as The Demons and The Patriots, respectively.
The
athletic teams at St. Mary's Central High
School, Bismarck's Catholic high school, are known as The
Saints. The teams at
Bismarck State College and
United Tribes Technical
College are known as The Mystics and Thunderbirds, and both
compete in the
National Junior
College Athletic Association. The teams at the
University of Mary are The Marauders and
compete in the
Northern Sun
Intercollegiate Conference. Bismarck has an
American Legion baseball team called the
Governors.
In the Fall, the accent is on high school and college football and
there are spirited rivalries among the several high schools in the
area. The University of Mary added the sport in 1988. Most
University of Mary football games are played in the Community Bowl.
Popular sports during the winter months include ice hockey,
wrestling and basketball. In Spring, baseball is one of the top
amateur sports in the city with each high school, Bismarck State
College, and The University of Mary providing teams. The University
of Mary also has a softball team. Another popular high school and
college sport during the Spring months is track and field. Summer
months see no high school or college athletics, but in the Summer
Bismarck has American Legion baseball and auto racing. The Fourth
of July holiday is the height of rodeo time with rodeos being held
in Mandan and Bismarck. The Summer months also see another popular
sport in Bismarck, slow-pitch softball. Bismarck is the host city
of the world's largest charity softball tournament, the Sam McQuade
Charity Softball tournament in which compete more than four hundred
teams from all over the United States and Canada.
Professional
One professional basketball team is based in Bismarck, the
Dakota Wizards of the
National
Basketball Association Development League. Professional sports
are a recent development in the area. The Wizards took root in the
mid- to late-1990s. The Wizards won titles during their
International Basketball Association and Continental Basketball
Association days and are the current champions of the National
Basketball Association Development League. Bismarck has also been
the home of two indoor professional football teams, but both teams
left the city soon after they were formed. Bismarck once had a
professional baseball team, the Dakota Rattlers, but the team
relocated to Minot after several seasons in Bismarck.
The
Bismarck Bobcats hockey team of
the
North American Hockey
League is made up of Junior players (age 20 and under,
sometimes age 21 if waivered).
Notable residents
Notes
- Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area
population and estimated components of change: April 1, 2000 to
July 1, 2008
-
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/Publication_List/pdf/geoinv/GI_3.pdf
- Information about Bismarck economy
- Sleepy Hollow Summer
Theatre website
- Shade
Tree Players website
- Dakota
Stage Ltd website
- Information about Bismarck Parks and Recreation
District
- Detroit radio station hopes to break snow angel
record
- Bismarck Cancer Center website
- Bismarck Tribune information
- Capital Area Transit information
External links
virtual
channel 5/ATSC RF ch. 31 (NBC)
virtual
channel 12/ATSC RF ch. 23 (CBS)
virtual
channel 17/ATSC RF ch. 16 (ABC)
virtual
& ATSC RF channel 26 (Fox)
88.7 FM
(Christian) BBN translator
89.1 FM
(Contemporary Christian music)
K-Love affiliate for nearby Lincoln
translator
91.7 FM
(Christian) American Family Radio
affiliate
93.7 FM (Christian)
3ABN affiliate
106.7 FM (Contemporary Christian music)
Radio 74 affiliate
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