North Dakota: Images of the Peace Garden State

Alan Taylor
March 29, 2020
33 Photos
In Focus

North Dakota is home to about 760,000 people—the fourth-smallest population of any state in the U.S. It is primarily farmland, with about 90 percent of its area used for agriculture. North Dakota is also home to a recent oil boom, based on new drilling technologies like fracking, which has changed both the landscape and the population. Here are a few glimpses of the terrain of North Dakota and some of the animals and people calling it home.

This photo story is part of Fifty, a collection of images from each of the United States.

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An eastbound coal train swings through the curves at Sully Springs, North Dakota, passing an oil well in the process. #

Mike Danneman / Getty

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A huge cumulonimbus cloud forms in the sky near Bowman, North Dakota. #

John Finney Photography / Getty

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Vanessa Kummer walks on a storage-bin catwalk on her family farm near Colfax, North Dakota, on August 6, 2019. #

Dan Koeck / Reuters

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In 2016, a Christmas Day rainfall coated everything with a thick layer of ice, including this cattail slough. Photo taken south of Kulm, North Dakota, in the Kulm Wetland Management District #

Krista Lundgren / USFWS

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Downtown Fargo and the Fargo movie theater photographed on July 12, 2016 #

David Harmantas / Shutterstock

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Housing for oil workers off of U.S. Hwy 85 in McKenzie County, North Dakota, photographed on September 24, 2013. The current oil boom in the Bakken Formation, based on new drilling techniques including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), began early in the 21st century, attracting thousands of workers to the state. #

Ken Cedeno / Corbis via Getty

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Natural gas is flared near pumpjacks at an oil well near Buford, North Dakota, in the Bakken oil fields. #

William Campbell / Corbis via Getty

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The historic Hi-Line railroad bridge crosses the Sheyenne River in Valley City, North Dakota. #

CJ Cagney / Shutterstock

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A sharp-tailed grouse, photographed in North Dakota’s prairie pothole region. In the spring, sharp-tailed grouse form mating grounds, or leks, where they congregate to compete for territories and perform mating displays. #

Rick Bohn / USFWS

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A close view of a hoodoo, with other hills and rock formations visible in the background in the badlands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. #

Kelly vanDellen / Shutterstock

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An abandoned church stands in the small community of Heil, North Dakota. #

CC BY-SA Andrew Filer

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An oil drilling rig is seen in an aerial view during the early morning hours near Bismarck, North Dakota, on July 30, 2013. #

Andrew Burton / Getty

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A pronghorn runs across a North Dakota prairie. #

Kelly vanDellen / Shutterstock

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White pelicans fly along the water’s surface in Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The white pelican is one of the the largest birds in North America, with a nine-foot wingspan, and the refuge is home to one of the biggest white-pelican nesting colonies on the continent. #

Rick Bohn / USFWS

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Abandoned railroad tracks, photographed on a summer day, on a flat stretch of land in North Dakota #

David Harmantas / Shutterstock

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The North Dakota State Capitol building stands in Bismarck, North Dakota. #

Paul Brady Photography / Shutterstock

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The 49th Annual United Tribes Powwow takes place in Bismarck on September 8, 2018. More than 900 dancers and musicians gathered to compete for prizes and to celebrate Native American culture. #

Pierre Jean Durieu / Shutterstock

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A short-eared owl perches at Kellys Slough, part of North Dakota’s Devils Lake Wetland Management District Complex. #

Brianne Hoffman / Shutterstock

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Winds blow snow across a highway during a storm near Harwood, North Dakota. #

Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo / Getty

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An abandoned building stands in Crystal Springs, North Dakota. #

CC BY-SA Andrew Filer

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A horse drive takes Percheron geldings down 20 miles of roads and across the plains of western North Dakota to a ranch in Round Prairie Township, west of Williston, on October 25, 2013. #

Ken Cedeno / Corbis via Getty

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Wildflowers and grassland as far as the eye can see, near Bowman, North Dakota #

John Finney Photography / Getty

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Sun dogs, atmospheric optical phenomena, form in the sunlight shining through ice crystals above the frozen ground in North Dakota’s prairie pothole region. #

Rick Bohn / USFWS

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The intersection of Main Street and Center Avenue in Mayville, North Dakota. #

CC BY-SA Andrew Filer

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A view of barren buttes made of bentonite clay above a green river valley in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. #

Mark Meyers / National Park Service

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A bison walks through the Little Missouri River in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. #

Kelly vanDellen / Shutterstock

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Farmer Doug Zink checks the quality of soil in his soybean field near Carrington, North Dakota, on August 8, 2019. #

Dan Koeck / Reuters

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New apartments and condos for oil-field workers sit on the edge of Watford City, North Dakota. #

William Campbell / Corbis via Getty

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Dead sunflowers stand in a field near idle oil drilling rigs stacked in Dickinson, North Dakota, on January 21, 2016. #

Andrew Cullen / Reuters

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Jake Henderson walks his horse at sunset after an all-day drive, west of Williston, North Dakota, on October 25, 2013. #

Ken Cedeno / Corbis via Getty

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Evening light settles across Theodore Roosevelt National Park. #

Kelly vanDellen / Shutterstock

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A massive flock of migrating snow geese, photographed north of Woodworth, North Dakota. The flock was estimated to be one mile long and several hundred yards wide, consisting of more than a million birds. #

Rick Bohn / USFWS

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A barn stands in a North Dakota sunflower field, photographed in August of 2013. #

Karen Bleier / AFP / Getty

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