History & Heritage - The Spirit Lives On!

The spirit of adventure lives on in western North Dakota!  Famed explorers like Lewis & Clark traversed this region during the time when the great plains teemed with buffalo and other wild game.  Pioneers followed the railroads that pushed west across the country.

In fact, Dickinson began as Pleasant Valley Siding when the Northern Pacific Railroad reached this point in a wide valley on the Heart River, halfway between the Missouri River and the Montana Territory border.

By 1881 people started building frame shacks on the prairie surrounding the railroad tracks.  The first private building, a saloon, was made of lumber with a canvas top.  Another shack went up and became a store, supplying the buffalo hunters, rail workers and frontiersmen.  The population of the settlement was estimated at 50 that first year. 

One of Pleasant Valley's first visitors in the fall of 1881 was Wells S. Dickinson who was in charge of land grants for Northern Pacific.  He was joined by a cousin, H.L. Dickinson.  Soon the name of the town was changed to Dickinson and a post office was established in October 1881.

Growth and development of the small town was rapid.  By the end of 1882, there were almost 100 buildings of all sizes, shapes and colors spread along the railroad tracks.

The Dickinson area experienced agricultural growth, especially beef and wheat production,  along with business growth throughout the 1880s. The community gradually became the main trade center within a 150 mile radius.

The period before the dawning of the 20th century was the day of great ranching spreads in western Dakota Territory.  The influx of immigrants and settlers was only a trickle, the range was open and free for the use of the rancher and his large herds.  The cowboy kept to a schedule of branding, herding, shipping and wintering livestock.

Statehood was achieved for North and South Dakota in 1889.  From this time on, immigration increased by leaps and bounds.  Settlers from every part of Europe poured into the United States and North Dakota received its share. They gathered in communities of their own, providing a variety of cultural influences, and most of them came to farm the land.

By the end of 1910, Dickinson was the center of a golden circle of grain crops.  Dairying and the raising of livestock continued their growth.  The Dickinson Horse Sales Company was one of the largest and best equipped in the country, selling thousands of horses a year, with buyers from every state in the union.  Dickinson had become a center for the brick and pottery industry, as well as a shipping point for lignite coal.

By the time Dickinson was 30 years old, it had changed from a shanty town along the railroad tracks to a strong, healthy, hustling town.  With its two flour mills, bottling works, warehouse, hotels and business places, the city was a growing metropolis of the plains and well deserved its name "Queen City of the Prairies."

Dickinson now proudly claims to the be "The Western Edge" because it is truly on the western edge of the Dakotas.
Source: Dickinson Convention & Visitors Bureau 

Other History and Heritage Resources

Dickinson Convention & Visitors Bureau

Dickinson Museum Center

Dakota Dinosaur Museum

Ukrainian Cultural Institute

North Dakota Heritage Center

Germans from Russia Heritage Collection