North Dakota is definitely not in the mainstream of pop culture. Most people’s only reference point to the state is the film “Fargo.” But North Dakota is found in other stories too.
You may have read “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. His character Jay Gatsby might be the most famous fictional North Dakotan. He was raised on a farm in the state, attended some college in Minnesota, and fought in World War One before he built his fortune in New York in the early 1920s.
In Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road,” two North Dakota farmer boys hitchhike on a flatbed truck with Kerouac’s character Sal Paradise. Kerouac himself traveled through North Dakota by bus in 1949. The bus became stuck in a snowdrift and traffic jam near Dickinson. Kerouac was impressed by the locals who came to dig out the vehicles. He wrote: “In Dickinson, the café was crowded and full of Friday-night excitement about the snow jam. I wish that I had been born and raised in Dickinson, North Dakota.”
In “Travels with Charley,” John Steinbeck reportedly visited Fargo, Alice, Bismarck-Mandan, the Badlands and Beach around this date in 1960 when he drove across America with his poodle, Charley. Details of his trip have been called into question, such as his encounter with a Shakespearean actor near Alice, but his stop at a motel in Beach has been substantiated.
Other books set in North Dakota include “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” by Wallace Stegner; and “The Bones of Plenty” by Lois Phillips Hudson.
When it comes to film, several have references to North Dakota. “Warpath” from 1951 has scenes set at Fort Abraham Lincoln just before Custer’s Last Stand. A North Dakota farm girl is the main character in “A Star is Born” from 1937, and “Woman Walks Ahead” from 2017 is set on the Standing Rock Reservation.
North Dakota appears in a few songs, too. “I’ve Been Everywhere” sung by Johnny Cash mentions Devils Lake, Fargo and Larimore. “The Shake” by Neal McCoy mentions Bismarck. And in the song “I Gotta Gal I Love” Frank Sinatra sings:
I got a gal I love in North and South Dakota
There ain't no difference in my love, not one iota
I guess that two gals puts me one above the quota
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
- McGrath, Charles. 2011, April 3. A reality check for Steinbeck and Charley. New York Times. Retrieved from: nytimes.com/2011/04/04/books/steinbecks-travels-with-charley-gets-a-fact-checking.html
- The Bismarck Tribune. 2010, December 4. Page 8A
- Briggs, T. 2022, February 16. One of America’s greatest writers once wished he had been born and raised in North Dakota. Forum News Service. Retrieved from: inforum.com/lifestyle/one-of-americas-greatest-writers-once-wished-he-had-been-born-and-raised-in-north-dakota
- Steigerwald, B. Reason. (April 2011). Sorry, Charley. Retrieved from: reason.com/2011/04/04/sorry-charley-2/
- The New Yorker. (1998, June 14). On the road again. Retrieved from: newyorker.com/magazine/1998/06/22/on-the-road-again-jack-kerouac
- Fitzgerald, F.S. (1925). The great Gatsby. Scribner: New York, NY
- Kerouac, J. (1959). On the road. Penguin Group: New York, NY
- Steinbeck, J. (1962). Travels with Charley: In search of America. Penguin Group: New York, NY
