48. North Dakota

I have so much to say about the wonders of so many great states of this country! But, when it comes to North Dakota, I don’t have much.

North Dakota suffers from the same issues that most of the other Great Plains states do where there is just so little that is interesting. And spoiler, you may see a few others not too far ahead of it.

On one of my many road trips to Montana I convinced my dad to go slightly out of the way to make our trip go through North Dakota. Luckily, it only added an hour, so it wasn’t a heavy lift. But I can't say I remember much. What I do remember is how gosh darn bored I was the entire time. 

And you may say, “Of course you were bored! You were on a road trip when you were like 10! You probably just played on your Gameboy the whole time.” First off, how dare you, imaginary person I just made up to prove my point. Second off, I spent nearly all the time during most of my road trips looking out the window, or playing games with the billboards, or at least something engaging with the environment. So I trust 10 year old me! North Dakota now is mostly just cattle ranchers and people who moved for the oil jobs. Doesn’t really scream “neat”, does it?

What does North Dakota have, I ask you? I’ll wait… Minot, you say? Alright I’m done here.

Or am I! I did want to give a chance to shout out a piece that is arguably part of the state but is within the state border. And that is a section of the Standing Rock Reservation. In 2016, my dad and stepmom spent 4 months there to support the movement to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. I won’t go too much into it because I wasn’t there, however what my parents saw in that community and their fight to protect their land from the construction of an environmental hazard was remarkable.

However, while that part of the reservation is within state lines, whether this community is a part of North Dakota is debatable, especially because it is a sovereign territory. But what is inarguably a part of the state were the group of state police officers that committed horrible actions against the protesters that my family saw with their own eyes. I think the state placement is justified. 

Please take some time to learn more about the protests here: https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/plains-treaties/dapl