Mandan North Dakota History & Facts

Mandan is a city on the eastern border of Morton County and the eighth-largest city in North Dakota. Founded in 1879 on the west side of the upper Missouri River, it was designated in 1881 as the county seat of Morton County. The population was 24,206 at the 2020 census. Across the Missouri River from Bismarck, Mandan is a core city of the Bismarck-Mandan Metropolitan Statistical Area.

While Native Americans had long established settlements in the area along the river, the first white explorer was Frenchman Sieure de la Verendyre, whose expedition arrived in 1738. Not until the early 1800s did Euro-American frontiersmen come to the area with any regularity, the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804 and 1806, George Catlin in 1832, and Prince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer in 1834 being the most notable. In 1830 the American Fur Company established the Fort Clark Trading Post 40 miles upstream on the Missouri River to support trappers. To provide protection for the approaching rail line from the east and the homesteaders who would surely follow, the US Army established two outposts in the area in 1872 and 1873. Fort Greeley (later renamed Fort Hancock) was founded first on the river's east side. On the west side, an infantry post, Fort McKeen, was constructed on bluffs above the confluence of Heart and Missouri Rivers. In 1873 Congress authorized the addition of a cavalry post and changed its designation to Fort Abraham Lincoln when foot soldiers were deemed ineffective against their mounted adversaries. A permanent civilian settlement known as Lincoln was adjacent to the fort's north side.

When the Northern Pacific Railroad announced a pending river crossing in 1872, land speculators rushed to establish claims at probable locations for the inevitable city to be established on the west side of the crossing. But due to the national financial crisis in 1873, Northern Pacific postponed the river bridge project. Once its final location was announced, about five miles north of Fort Abraham Lincoln, a work camp appeared on the west riverbank in December 1878, complete with its own post office. The settlement also served as the base for the westward survey of the rail line.

On March 3, 1879, the post office was moved from the west bank of the Missouri River to the railroad's city site within blocks of Mandan's first railroad depot and freight building at Main Street and Stark Avenue (today's Collins Avenue). Four city names coincided exactly with four postmasters. The original railroad work camp's post office in 1878 was known as Morton. The name Mandan stuck for only eight days in March 1879 before being renamed Cushman by a postmaster with that surname. In September 1879, the post office returned to its designation of Mandan.

The City of Mandan was formally incorporated on February 24, 1881, and was named for the Mantani Indians, or "people of the bank." Mandan became the county seat for the replatted Morton County after the North Dakota legislature restored the prior county boundaries in 1881 after Burleigh County's land grab in 1879. The city of Lincoln had been county seat from 1878 to 1879.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 11.13 square miles (28.83 km2), of which 11.03 square miles (28.57 km2) is land and 0.10 square miles (0.26 km2) is water.

Famous Peoples From Mandan North Dakota

Darin Charles Erstad

(born June 4, 1974) is an American former professional baseball player and the former head coach of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team. Prior to 2007, he had played with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim franchise (1996–2006) before signing with the Chicago White Sox in 2007. Erstad batted and threw left-handed. He was a two-time MLB All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner.

Erstad graduated in 1992 from Jamestown High School in Jamestown, North Dakota. He was a placekicker and punter on the school football team, logging a school-record 50-yard field goal. Erstad also played hockey (36 goals and 24 assists in 26 games) and participated in track and field (winning state titles in 110 and 300-meter hurdles).

Erstad played American Legion baseball (Jamestown had no high school baseball team) and hit .492 with 18 home runs and 86 RBI for Jamestown in 1992. He was also 10-2 with a 2.18 ERA as a pitcher, and was named AP North Dakota Athlete of the Year in 1992.

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