Bismarck (North Dakota)

Bismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the second-most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. The city's population was estimated in 2016 at 72,417, while its metropolitan population was 131,635. In 2015, Forbes magazine ranked Bismarck as the seventh fastest-growing small city in the United States.Bismarck was founded by European Americans in 1872 on the east bank of the Missouri River. It has been North Dakota's capital city since 1889, when the state was created from the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union.Bismarck is across the river from Mandan, named after a historic Native American tribe of the area. The two cities make up the core of the Bismarck-Mandan Metropolitan Statistical Area.The North Dakota State Capitol, the tallest building in the state, is in central Bismarck. The state government employs more than 4,000 in the city. As a hub of retail and health care, Bismarck is the economic center of south-central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota.HistoryFor thousands of years, present-day central North Dakota was inhabited by indigenous peoples, who created successive cultures. The historic Mandan Native American tribe occupied the area long before Europeans arrived. They spoke the Hidatsa language. The Hidatsa name of Bismarck is mirahacii arumaaguash ("Place of the tall willows"); the Arikara name is ituhtaáwe.