The North Dakota landscape is occasionally described as a stairway rising westward. It is not a long stairway, and each step certainly differs in height. Nevertheless, the stairway metaphor is a good descriptor.
The Red River Valley of course is the lakebed of glacial Lake Agassiz. It is as flat as flat can be. In North Dakota, it roughly occupies the eastern border counties from Pembina County on the Canadian border south to Richland County on the South Dakota state line. It is interesting to note that the lowest elevation in the state is in Pembina County where the Red River flows into Manitoba with an elevation of only 751 feet above sea level.
Immediately west of the Red River Valley is the Glaciated Plains. Its western boundary is roughly from western Dickey County northward to Stutsman County then northwestward to Divide County. As the name implies this portion of the state was actively glaciated during the last ice age and may be characterized as having a rolling topography. Elevation here is higher than the Red River Valley. For example, the airport at Fargo is 902 feet above sea level while the airport at Jamestown is 1,407 feet.
Westward of the glaciated plains, the landscape rises a few hundred feet to the Missouri Coteau that lies on a bedrock high that was not actively glaciated during the last of the ice age. It is a band of quite hilly country several miles wide between the Glaciated Plains and the Missouri Valley.
There is, however, a big step downward at the Missouri River Valley, and to a degree on the adjacent land to the north and east. The Coteau Slope is a narrow band of land between the Missouri Coteau and the Missouri River Valley which has evidence of both erosional and glacial activity. It runs roughly west and south of a line from central McIntosh County northward to central Kidder County then northwestward to the northeast corner of Mountrail County, then westward through northern Williams County
The land south and west of the Missouri River is highest landscape in the state. Generally considered unglaciated, it is a broad sweeping landscape and contains the characteristic buttes of the west. The airport at Bismarck sits at 1,685 feet above sea level, and is located low on the landscape in Bismarck. Compare that to the Dickinson airport, at an elevation of 2,411. And the highest point in North Dakota is White Butte southeast of Amidon, rising 3,506 feet above sea level.
Chuck Lura
Natural North Dakota is supported by NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center and Dakota College at Bottineau, and by the members of Prairie Public. Thanks to Sunny 101.9 in Bottineau for their recording services.
