Dickinson

Dickinson, city, seat (1883) of Stark county, southwestern North Dakota, U.S. It lies on the Heart River, about 100 miles (160 km) west of Bismarck. Founded in 1880 as a stop on the Northern Pacific Railway and originally called Pleasant Valley Siding, it was renamed in 1882 for Wells S. Dickinson, a railroad official who platted the town site. Early Russian, Ukrainian, Scandinavian, and German settlers were attracted to the vicinity to farm the prairie soil. Dickinson is a regional commerce, health care, and entertainment centre and the trading centre for a large agricultural area that produces livestock, wheat, hay, oats, corn (maize), barley, and dairy products. The city’s economic activities include dairy processing, manufacturing (furniture, metal products, heating equipment, software, truck bodies, farm and mining equipment, and bakery products), and oil and coal production. The city is the seat of Dickinson State University (opened in 1918 as a state normal school). The Dickinson Dam, a part of the reclamation plan for the Missouri River valley, impounds Edward Arthur Patterson Lake just southwest of the city. The Dickinson Museum Center houses exhibits and collections pertaining to natural and regional history as well as cultural heritage. The Ukrainian Cultural Institute preserves the area’s Ukrainian heritage and hosts an annual festival in July. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Little Missouri National Grassland, Sully Creek State Recreation Area, and Chateau de Mores State Historic Site are in the North Dakota badlands, west of Dickinson. Inc. 1900. Pop. (2000) 16,010; (2010) 17,787.