Bismarck, ND has been the capital of North Dakota since statehood and was even capital of the Dakota Territory from 1883-1889. The city is on the site of Camp Hancock (formerly Camp Greeley), an Army post founded in 1872 to protect railroad crews in the area.
Bismarck got it's name in 1873 as a compliment to Germany's "Iron Chancellor" as an intended inducement for Germans to invest in the railroad. Since Bismarck was both a railway terminal and a riverboat port, it early became a boomtown. After the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874, the area exploded with prosperity.
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