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50 free North Dakota trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free North Dakota trivia questions with answers. Wide prairies, a state-owned bank and the coldest 41 days ever recorded in the lower 48. This quiz covers North Dakota from every angle: the Mandan villages and La Vérendrye, the shuffled statehood papers of 1889, the Nonpartisan League, the art-deco capitol in Bismarck, Fargo the city and Fargo the film, Theodore Roosevelt's Badlands, Lake Sakakawea and Garrison Dam, the Bakken oil boom, Rugby's centre-of-the-continent obelisk, Salem Sue and the Enchanted Highway, plus the North Dakotans who made it big: Lawrence Welk, Peggy Lee, Bobby Vee, Roger Maris, Phil Jackson, Josh Duhamel, Louise Erdrich and Carson Wentz. Forty-five questions from easy to expert. The easy questions ask which city is the capital and which national park is the only one named for a person; the hard ones want the state's high point, the fiberglass cow's height, the crops North Dakota grows more of than anyone else and how the President kept anyone from knowing whether North or South Dakota came first. It suits residents, road-trippers and anyone whose only reference is the wood chipper. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the state, its cities, landmarks and famous natives, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital of North Dakota?
Bismarck
Fargo is the largest city, home to nearly a fifth of the state's population.
Q 02North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted to the Union on the same day in which year?
1889
They became the 39th and 40th states on November 2.
Q 03How did President Benjamin Harrison settle the rivalry over which Dakota was admitted ahead of the other?
He shuffled the papers so nobody could tell
Because nobody knows, the states are numbered alphabetically, with North Dakota as 39th.
Q 04The word 'Dakota' comes from a Sioux word meaning what?
Allies or friends
The state is named for the Dakota and Sioux peoples.
Q 05Which two Canadian provinces border North Dakota to the north?
Saskatchewan and Manitoba
Minnesota lies to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west.
Q 06A stone obelisk in which North Dakota town claims to mark the geographic centre of North America?
Rugby
The USGS puts the real centre about 15 miles away, but the 1931 marker still draws visitors.
Q 07What is North Dakota's highest point, at 3,506 feet?
White Butte
It sits in the Badlands, near Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Q 08Lake Sakakawea, formed by Garrison Dam on the Missouri, ranks where among US artificial lakes by size?
Third largest
The dam itself, over two miles long, is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world.
Q 09The flat, fertile Red River Valley in the east is the bottom of which ancient glacial body of water?
Lake Agassiz
The Red River flows north into Lake Winnipeg.
Q 10What is the largest natural body of water in North Dakota?
Devils Lake
Sakakawea and Oahe are both reservoirs on the Missouri.
Q 11In winter 1935-36, Langdon set a contiguous-US record by staying below 0°F for how many straight days?
41
In 1918 Granville swung 83 degrees, from -33°F to 50°F, in twelve hours.
Q 12North Dakota is the only state to own which two institutions, both founded by farmer-populists a century ago?
A bank and a flour mill
The Bank of North Dakota is in Bismarck and the Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks.
Q 13Oil extraction from which shale formation drove North Dakota's 21st-century boom?
Bakken
Fracking unlocked it in the early 2000s; petroleum was first found in the state in 1951.
Q 21Which two Academy Awards did the film Fargo win?
Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay
Frances McDormand's Marge Gunderson is a seven-months-pregnant police chief in Brainerd.
Q 22Who created the FX anthology series Fargo, which shares continuity with the film?
Noah Hawley
Each season is a self-contained story.
Q 23Theodore Roosevelt National Park is unique among US national parks in what way?
It is the only one named for a single person
Q 14Which state overtook North Dakota as the second-biggest oil producer in March 2021?
New Mexico
As of June 2025 it ranks third.
Q 15North Dakota grows about what share of the US canola crop?
92%
It also grows 94% of the flax seed and 58% of the durum wheat.
Q 16Which sweet product is North Dakota the leading US producer of?
Honey
It is also the top producer of dry peas, beans and lentils, and second for sugarbeets.
Q 17The North Dakota State Capitol is what kind of building?
A 19-story art-deco skyscraper
It replaced the original capitol, which burned to the ground in December 1930.
Q 18The Northern Pacific Railway renamed Edwinton, the future capital, in 1873 in honour of whom?
The German chancellor Otto von Bismarck
It had briefly been called Edwinton after the railway's engineer-in-chief.
Q 19The state's largest city was originally called Centralia. Whom is it now named after?
William Fargo, founder of Wells Fargo
Fargo was also a director of the Northern Pacific Railway.
Q 20Where did the Coen brothers' 1996 film Fargo actually set most of its action?
Minnesota
Only one early scene, in a bar, takes place in Fargo itself.
Roosevelt first came to the Badlands to hunt bison in 1883 and invested in the Maltese Cross Ranch.
Q 24The town of Medora, gateway to the park, was founded in 1883 by a French nobleman and named after whom?
His wife
The Marquis de Mores wanted to ship refrigerated meat to Chicago by rail.
Q 25The Enchanted Highway is a 32-mile stretch of road lined with what?
The world's largest scrap-metal sculptures
Gary Greff's Geese in Flight is 110 feet tall and visible from I-94.
Q 26Salem Sue, in New Salem, is the world's largest what?
Holstein cow
The 38-foot fiberglass cow was built in 1974 for $40,000 to honour local dairy farming.
Q 27The International Peace Garden on the Manitoba border was established in which year?
1932
It covers 3.65 square miles and gave North Dakota its nickname, the Peace Garden State.
Q 28The KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota once held which record?
Tallest artificial structure in the Western Hemisphere
The state also claims North America's geographic centre at Rugby.
Q 29Norsk Høstfest, North America's largest Scandinavian festival, is held each September where?
Minot
Nearly a third of Minot's population is Norwegian-American, and the town has a stave church.
Q 30Roughly what share of North Dakotans are of Norwegian descent?
30%
In 1940 nearly 13% of the state still spoke Norwegian and 20% spoke German.