Burleigh and Morton counties were involved in an interesting footnote of North Dakota history. Burleigh County is home to Bismarck, the state capital. And across the Missouri River in Morton County is Mandan, its sister city. But there was a time when Mandan was actually in Burleigh County.
The Dakota Territorial Legislature created Morton County in 1873 – named after an Indiana governor. The county government was organized in 1878, county commissioners were elected, and Mandan was appointed the county seat. But the 1879 legislature slashed off an eighteen-mile-wide strip of eastern Morton County and attached it to Burleigh County!
This gets referred to as the “beheading” of Morton County, for it left the rest of the county unorganized. Some blamed it on a “conspiracy” of the Legislature at Yankton. But subsequent legislation restored the strip back from Burleigh County, and on this date in 1881, Morton County was about to be made whole. Soon, the city of Mandan was incorporated, the governor appointed three new Morton county commissioners, and the county was re-platted.
1916 brought another big change, with Grant County being created from Morton County’s southern section. But despite that loss, Morton County remains one of the state’s largest counties, larger than the state of Rhode Island! But that’s actually no big boast – since you could fit 58 Rhode Islands into North Dakota!
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
https://www.co.morton.nd.us/?SEC=88F0AF96-E8B7-4DFC-94CE-76DE4543C684
http://www.mandanhistory.org/areahistory.html
https://www.ndaco.org/about-counties/county-histories/
Peterson, M.P. (ed.). (1976). Morton prairie roots. Taylor Publishing Company: Dallas, TX
