North Dakota

E

Music and Theater

The early settlers brought with them a great love for music and pageantry that continued in their new land. Almost every community has a band and singing group, and there are a number of amateur theater groups in the state. Grand Forks, Fargo, and Minot sponsor community symphony orchestras. Other communities offer annual concert series by visiting musicians, and various towns have associations for the study and exhibition of art. Grand Forks is home to the North Dakota Ballet Company, and Fargo is the site of the Fargo-Moorhead Civic Opera Company.

VI

Recreation and Places of Interest

North Dakotans participate in a variety of winter sports. These include skating, sleighing, and tobogganing. Ski trails and tows are being opened at various locations in the state, and the larger cities hold winter sports carnivals. People are also attracted to annual summer pageants depicting historical events associated with North Dakota and to the numerous agricultural fairs in the state.

The state’s many wildlife refuges (more than any other state) offer bountiful opportunities to observe animals. Bison, antelope, and bighorn sheep can frequently be seen, as can the hundreds of different species of birds that make the state home.

A

National Parks

The two units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park encompass 28,509 hectares (70,447 acres) of rugged Badlands. Inside the park, near Amidon, is an area where burning underground coal beds emit an intense heat through a fissure in the earth’s surface. Prehistoric plant and animal fossils, as well as several petrified forests, are found at this location. Buttes, domes, and cones that resisted erosion rise up on both sides of the Little Missouri River. Mineral deposits cause these rock towers to cast hues of lavender, green, yellow, and red.

---

---

The Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, near Stanton, contains the location of large Native American villages encountered during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. The Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is a reconstruction of the fort that was the major trading center of the northern plains in the early 1800s.

International Peace Garden, which lies partly in North Dakota and partly in Manitoba, Canada, features a formal garden, lakes, and picnic areas and honors the long friendship between the two nations. It is operated by a nonprofit corporation.

Two national grasslands, Sheyenne and Little Missouri, are strongholds for dozens of wildlife species. Sheyenne, located in the southeastern portion of the state, is well known as a stopping ground for migratory songbirds. Little Missouri grassland is located on North Dakota’s western border.

There are 17 national wildlife refuges and preserves dotted across the state. One of the country’s biggest game preserves is Sully’s Hill, where bison, elk, and deer can be seen in their natural environment.

B

State Parks

Most of North Dakota’s 16 state parks have picnicking and camping facilities. Several others offer fishing opportunities. The wooded Turtle River State Park attracts visitors with its many lakes ideal for swimming and boating.

C

State Forests

While usually thought of as a prairie state, a variety of trees grow in North Dakota’s four state forests. The aspen, bur oak, green ash, and balsam poplar that grow in Homen and Turtle Mountain state forests are ideal habitat for moose and deer, as well as a variety of smaller creatures. Tetrault Woods State Forest is a mixture of woods and wetlands, while Sheyenne State Forest is dominated by hardwoods such as elm, green ash, and oak.

	More from Encarta
	•  Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be discontinued. Learn more. •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain