This map of North Dakota published by the George F. Cram Company in 1922 shows the former towns of Yucca and Whynot. OCLC 378465128

Recently, the North Dakota State Archives received permission from Doug Wick to digitize his 1988 book “North Dakota Place Names” and make it accessible on Digital Horizons. This invaluable resource includes nearly every place name in North Dakota and features the present-day county, location, and history of each place. 

To celebrate online access for Wick’s book, here are five tales of North Dakota place names. 

1. Yucca (Oliver County)

According to Wick, the town of Yucca was established in 1901 near the Heart Ranch trading post. Yucca was named for the area’s abundant yucca lilies. The local history book “Oliver County: 1885-1985” notes that Yucca was home to the first dairy operation and cheese factory in the area. Yucca also hosted a rodeo for several years, and the rodeo grounds even had a bowery for dancing! Though the yucca lilies remain, unfortunately Yucca’s post office closed in 1945.

Yucca Rodeo advertisement from the Bismarck Tribune, June 23, 1926, p. 2

Martin Old Dog Cross rides Going Some at the Yucca Rodeo, July 1927. After his rodeo days, Cross would go on to serve multiple terms during the period from 1944 to 1956 as chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes. SHSND SA 11517-00418

2. Kidville (Ransom County)

In 1898, Andrew J. Olson, Alfred Thompson, and a group of young men left Fort Ransom and established a rival town called Kidville. “Merchants in the older town coined the name to note that most of the residents in the new town were teenagers or very young adults,” Wick points out in his book. As noted in, “Fort Ransom Area History, 1878-1978,” the first telephone service in the area started in Kidville (kids … always so up on the new technology). The last business in Kidville closed its doors in 1919 (perhaps all the kids returned home).

3. Bachelor’s Grove (Grand Forks County)

This North Dakota town was literally called Bachelor’s Grove because the seven men who settled there in the late 1870s were bachelors. The meaning of the town’s name didn’t stick around for long—the bachelors married and started families. The townsite was abandoned in the late 1880s due to the railroad’s expansion in other parts of the county; however, the area remained an active social and recreational site for decades. A large pavilion for dancing, orchestras, and bands was on the site, followed by a skating rink, and eventually a youth Bible camp. Fun fact: Gov. Eli Shortridge (the first to live in what is now the Former Governors’ Mansion) farmed in the area and was often referred to as the “old grey farmer from Bachelor’s Grove,” according to the Bowbells Bulletin-Tribune. For the record, Shortridge was not a bachelor.

Grand Forks Herald article about the annual Bachelor’s Grove picnic, June 21, 1916, p. 10

4. Whynot (Grand Forks County)

Whynot was situated in the very southeast corner of Grand Forks County. The town was established in 1881 as the location of a general store owned by Erik K. Larsgaard. He was often asked why he set up shop there, to which his response was “why not?” Thus, Whynot got its name.

5. Sturgis (Morton County)

South Dakota’s 84th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally recently came to a close. Although the Sturgis in South Dakota is more well known than Sturgis, North Dakota, the latter predates it. According to Wick, this Mandan predecessor was established in 1877 near Fort Abraham Lincoln and named for Lt. J.G. Sturgis, who died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Meanwhile, the South Dakota Sturgis, named for Sturgis’ father, Maj. Samuel D. Sturgis, was established in 1878.

Territory of Dakota map, General Land Office, 1879. Zoom in on "Morton" and you will see Sturgis. OCLC 28283598

Bismarck Weekly Tribune article on the founding of Morton County’s Sturgis City, April 27, 1877, p. 4

Lt. John Sturgis of the 7th Cavalry, namesake of Sturgis, Dakota Territory. SHSND SA 00091-00548

As a seasonal interpreter at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, I get to share the history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s stay among the Mandan and Hidatsa peoples during winter 1804-5. Most visitors, however, do not know that an expedition eight years prior also came up the Missouri River and wintered among the Mandans. That expedition was led by John Evans, who was exploring for Spain.

In 1795, Spanish officials heard about a British fort among the Mandans, technically in Spanish territory at the time, with an “English flag” flying, according to fur traders who were there, though they probably meant a British flag given the colonial context. Spain hoped to get rid of the British by sending Spanish subjects up the Missouri River to deport the intruders. Spain also dreamed of building a line of forts from the upper Missouri all the way to the West Coast as a barrier against British or American invasions from the north or east. The governor of Spanish Louisiana offered a reward of 3,000 pesos to whoever could first reach the West Coast via the Missouri River.

Answering the call were James Mackay and John Evans. Mackay and Evans, who were Scottish and Welsh, respectively, but had become naturalized Spanish subjects, departed from St. Louis with 30 other men around September 1795. After wintering among the Omaha people in today’s Nebraska and setting up a trading post named Fort Charles, Mackay sent Evans ahead to the Mandan villages. Evans was charged with deporting the British fur traders, and if he had enough supplies and men, proceeding all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back. Evans also hoped to find out whether the Mandans, as some said, were descendants of pre-Columbian Welsh settlers. (He determined they were not.)

Routes to the Mandan villages in North Dakota taken by the Mackay-Evans expedition and the British. Wikimedia Commons, with trails added by author

Evans set out on June 8, 1796. He reached the Mandan villages on September 23 of that year and found some temporarily unoccupied British trading posts. The Mandans and Hidatsas in the area warmly greeted Evans and accepted the Spanish flags and medals he gave them. He soon took down the British flag from one of the trading posts and hoisted a Spanish flag instead.

John Evans likely hoisted this design of the Spanish flag over the trading posts at the Mandan villages. A portrait of King Charles IV of Spain was likely on the front of the peace medals with the phrase “al merito” (“to merit”) on the back. Wikimedia Commons

When fur traders came back from the north in early October, relations between them and Evans were cordial at first. Tensions flared in March when British trader René Jusseaume, who would later become an interpreter for Lewis and Clark, tried to kill Evans twice before returning north. (Jusseaume thought he could maintain British trade with the Mandans by getting rid of the man trying to halt it.) The British fur trade among the Mandans stopped while Evans remained with the Mandans. With the British fur traders out (for now) but lacking enough men and supplies to proceed west, Evans returned to St. Louis in July 1797. Thus ended the only Spanish-sponsored expedition to the Mandan villages.