1/22/2012:
J. A. Kitchen, North Dakota’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor, proposed a resolution to the State Legislature on this date in 1923. The resolution asked that the state’s name be changed from ‘North Dakota’ to simply ‘Dakota’ in an effort to make the state sound “less chilly.” “North Dakota isn’t such a cold place,” he argued, “but when people hear the first half of the name they immediately begin to shiver and begin to see visions of blizzards and ice fields…” A fellow supporter, Dean Shepard of the Fargo Agricultural College, argued that ‘Southern Canada’ sounded warmer than ‘North Dakota.’
Kitchen believed changing the name would make the state more attractive to potential settlers, and increase immigration to the state. However, as you may have guessed, the measure never passed and North Dakota kept its North.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican . Monday, January 22, 1923 (Evening ed.): p. 9.