Bismarck is the capital of the US state of North Dakota. The city’s history began in 1872, when it was founded by settlers on the banks of the Missouri River. The new town was called Missouri Crossing, which thus marked the place where the famous Lewis and Expedition had crossed the great river in the years 1804-1806. Later, the Missouri Crossing was called Edwinton after Edwin Ferry Johnson, who was chief engineer of the Northern Pacific Railway, which expanded the railroads in North Dakota.

In 1873 the railway company renamed Edwinton Bismarck after German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the hope of attracting German settlers and German investment in the railway company. In 1883, Bismarck became the capital of the Dakota Territory, which became a US state in 1889. Since then, Bismarck has grown to be the state’s second largest city after Fargo.

Today, Bismarck is a modern city, where in several places in the downtown you can see some sights that lead back to the city’s early history. Downtown is located on the streets north and northwest of the Bismarck Depot, which was built by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1900 in Spanish-inspired architecture. From here you can walk west on Main Avenue to the Camp Hancock State Historic Site. Camp Hancock was established as a garrison in 1872 to protect the construction of the railroad through the area, which took place 1872-1877.

Today, Camp Hancock is designated as a historic site, and you can see the Bread of Life Church from 1881, which was moved to here in 1965. In the downtown streets, you can also see buildings such as the World War Memorial Building and the former McKenzie Hotel, located opposite the railway station. The hotel opened in 1911 and was the city’s leading hotel throughout the 20th century with guests such as Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

On the periphery of downtown there are other interesting buildings. You can see, for example, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, which was built 1941-1945 in elegant art deco architecture as the city’s Catholic cathedral. There are many fine details in the decoration of the church, such as the stained-glass windows. If you walk east from the cathedral along Avenue B, you come to Trinity Lutheran Cathedral and St. George’s Episcopal Memorial Church, noted for its stained-glass windows, partly derived from English churches destroyed during WWII German bombing.

The former governor’s residence of North Dakota’s governor is close to the two churches. The fine house was built in 1884 by Asa Fisher as a private residence, and it was the governor’s residence from 1893 to 1960. The house is now open as a museum and furnished like in the early years as the governor’s residence.

In Bismarck you can also see the North Dakota State Capitol, which is the government building of the state of North Dakota. The Capitol was built in art deco in the years 1931-1934 as the state’s tallest building, and the 73-metre-high office tower was called the skyscraper of the prairie. In addition to the central tower, there are also other buildings in the complex around the Capitol, such as the neoclassical Liberty Memorial Building from 1924 and the residence of North Dakota’s governor.

Southeast of the Capitol, you can visit the North Dakota Heritage Center, which is the state of North Dakota’s museum of history. In the museum’s interesting exhibitions, North Dakota’s history and cultures are explained, and the collections include, among many other things, finds of dinosaurs and a skeleton of a mastodon.