The capital of the Great Plains frontier — where the Missouri River meets the Northern Cheyenne and the last spike of the Northern Pacific Railroad
Bismarck is the capital of North Dakota, a small Prairie city on the banks of the Missouri River that packs a surprising cultural punch: the Art Deco state capitol called 'the skyscraper on the Prairie,' the Fort Lincoln State Park where Custer rode out before Little Bighorn, and the nearby Standing Rock Sioux reservation that made global news with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The Missouri River sunsets are extraordinary.
The site of present Bismarck was a significant Mandan and Hidatsa village before Euro-American settlement. The city was founded in 1872 as a supply point for the Northern Pacific Railroad and named after the German chancellor to attract German immigrant investment. Custer's 7th Cavalry was stationed at nearby Fort Lincoln in 1876 before leaving for the Battle of Little Bighorn. Bismarck became the territorial capital in 1883; Theodore Roosevelt ranched in the Badlands 150 miles to the west.