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CHAPTER
II GENERAL
CHARACTERISTICS Originally
the area now known as Morton County became a part of the United States through
the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The area was part of the Louisiana Territory
from 1803 to 1812, part of the Missouri Territory from 1812 to 1834, part of
Nebraska Territory from 1834 to 1861, and became part of the Dakota Territory on
February 26, 1861. The Dakota Territory was opened for settlement on January 1,
1863. Morton
County was named after Oliver Perry Morton, the Governor of Indiana, a man who
actively supported the United States administration during the Civil War.
Several attempts at organization were made before Morton County finally
became successful in establishing a permanent county setup.
Originally, Morton County covered a vast expanse of land reaching west to
the Montana State line and south to the Black Hills. The County was actually
founded in 1878 but in 1879 the Territorial Legislature annexed an 18-mile wide
strip of Morton County (including Mandan) to Burleigh County, leaving the
remainder of the County unorganized. Morton County was reunited and organized
for the second time in 1881. The
present boundaries of the County were established in 1916 after the
splitting-off of Sioux County in 1914 and the creation of Grant County in 1916.
The present land area of Morton County is 1,228,928 acres or 1,920.2 square
miles, not including water surface area. The county encompasses 15,232 acres or
23.9 square miles of water. Evidence
of inhabitation of the Morton County area dates back over 9,000 years. These
original inhabitants were both nomadic and sedentary or agrarian people. Native
American groups included members of of what are now known as the Mandan,
Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, and Assiniboine. Each of these groups depended on the
Buffalo, particularly the Lakota and Assiniboine who were more nomadic. The
Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa maintained a sedentary, agrarian lifestyle with
regular hunting expeditions for buffalo and other wild game. A flourishing trade
in furs, shell, and Knife River Flint by the Mandans and other native groups
resulted in contacts with other cultures reaching out to both coasts of the
North American continent. The
earliest record of non-Indian visitors to the Morton County area indicates a
1738 French expedition led by Louis Verendry visited the Mandan Indian villages
near what is now the City of Mandan. Verendry
was followed by MacKenzie who was seeking passage to the Pacific Ocean.
Following MacKenzie, in 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition made their winter
camp approximately 50 miles upstream of the current location of the City of
Mandan and approximately 12 miles west of current location of Washburn. The
non-Indian visitors brought with them several infectious diseases such as
smallpox which resulted in the deaths of thousands of native peoples who, having
never been exposed, had not developed a resistance to the diseases. Trappers and
fur traders followed the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and by the early 1860’s,
military outposts began to spring up. Mandan,
located along the Missouri River in the northeastern corner of the County serves
as the County Seat and is the largest urban area in the County.
Mandan is the second oldest incorporated city in the state, having filed
for incorporation on February 21, 1881. This
second incorporation of a North Dakota city occurred six years after Fargo was
incorporated. Colonists
from Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota settled Glen Ullin in May
of 1883. The town name was derived
from the Gaelic word, “Glen”, meaning valley, and “Ullin” which comes
from a favorite English ballad; “Lord Ullin’s Daughter”. Glen Ullin was incorporated in 1910. New
Salem (originally just Salem) was renamed because a Salem already existed in the
southern half of the Dakota Territory. New
Salem, like Glen Ullin was settled in 1883 and later incorporated as a village
in 1911. Flasher
was founded in 1902 and was incorporated as a village in 1914.
It was named for Mabel Flasher, whose homestead is now a part of the
townsite known as West Flasher. Hebron
(originally called Knife River) derived its name from a traveling minister who
recommended the name change because the valley here reminded him of the Biblical
vale of Hebron. Settlement began
here in 1885 and the incorporation of the city came about in 1916. Almont,
the youngest of the incorporated communities in this report (incorporated in
1936), was named for the local buttes, the Altamont Moraine. Translated from Latin, alta means high, montis means
mountain. Although
the simultaneous settlement of several other smaller communities in Morton
County was occurring in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the following have not
become incorporated municipalities: Breien, Ft. Rice, Huff, Judson, St. Anthony,
and Sweet Briar. GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY AND
DRAINAGE Morton County topography generally slopes east-southeast
toward the Missouri River Valley from a high point of about 2,460 feet near
Hebron, located in the western end of the county, to an elevation of about 1,600
feet in the southeast corner of the county (see Exhibit 1). Big Muddy Creek and
Sweet Briar Creek drain the northern portion of the county and flow southeast
into the Heart River, which flows into the Missouri River south of the city of
Mandan. The south part of the county is drained by the Cannonball River and many
smaller intermittent and perennial streams that flow generally east-southeast
into the Missouri River, including Little Heart River, the northwest branch of
Cantapeta Creek, Rice Creek, Louse Creek, and Dogtooth Creek. Morton
County is located on the east edge of the Williston Basin, a large structural
depression extending from Canada to South Dakota. The basin contains sedimentary
rocks from the Cambrian Period (from 570 to 500 million years ago) through the
Quaternary Period (from 3 million years ago to present). Over 12,000 feet of
sedimentary rocks underlie the west end of Morton County. Surface geology of the
county consists of the Fox Hills, Golden Valley, Hell Creek, Cannonball,
Sentinel Butte, and Ludlow Formations. Glacial till (Coleharbor Group) is
preserved on upland surfaces in the eastern end of the county. Most soils of the
county formed on the poorly consolidated sand, silt, and clay of these upper
Cretaceous and Tertiary formations (from 100 million to 3 million years ago).
Other soils formed atop glacial till and alluvium deposited after glaciation of
the region (see Exhibit 2). Large deposits of “scoria” (clinker) are located
in the west end of the county. These deposits formed as the result of heat from
burning lignite coal veins found in the Sentinel Butte Formation.
Exhibit 1 – County Shaded Relief / Contour Map
Exhibit 2 – STATSGO Soils Map of Morton County Lignite
coal beds are located primarily in western Morton County and to a lesser extent
in the eastern part of the county (see Exhibit 3). These beds are associated
with the Ludlow and Sentinel Butte Formations. Most of these beds are not
considered currently economically viable, although historically coal mining
(both surface and subsurface) was extensive. Scoria was mined on a commercial
level near Glen Ullin in the early 1900’s. Clay resources from the Golden
Valley Formation are currently used in an economically viable brick making
industry located in Hebron. Gravel for road building is also a mineral resource
of the county. The
most extensive underground aquifer in Morton County is the Fox Hills Aquifer.
This aquifer is exposed in the southeast corner of the county and is located
about 1,500 feet below the land surface in the northwest part (see Exhibit 4).
Most groundwater in the county contains a fairly high concentration of minerals.
Both the Hell Creek and Sentinel Butte Formations are considered to be of
limited use in the county because these formations are either discontinuous or
exposed at the land surface within the county. Water is generally available and
suitable across the county for livestock consumption but not for large-scale
irrigation except in areas adjacent to the Heart River and Missouri River (see
Exhibit 5). Large-scale irrigation has the potential to decrease water quality
of aquifer recharge water because of increased levels of dissolved solids,
including salt, in the recharge water.
Exhibit 3 – Lignite Coal Locations
Morton County typifies the meteorological extremes
and variability of the Northern Great Plains. The people of the area have shown
an ability to adapt to those extremes. Morton County is often warm or even hot
in the summertime. Occasional cool spells may be followed by very hot days when
the temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The winters are very cold, with
surges of arctic air over the area. The climate offers one of the greatest
ranges of temperature found on the North American Continent, varying in excess
of 135 degrees in the course of a year from summer to winter. Occasionally
temperature changes as great as 50 to 70 degrees may be observed within a
24-hour period. Severe weather events often may accompany such extreme changes,
including strong thunderstorms with severe wind or hail. Thunderstorms that dump
up to 6 inches of precipitation in a short time are not unusual. Records from the Automated Weather Data
Network (ADWN) were used to develop the average temperatures and precipitation
for Morton County over a 30-year period from 1961 to 1990. Data from recording
stations at Carson, Center, Mandan, New Salem, Richardton, and Shields were all
averaged. The results are plotted on the graph (Exhibit 6) following this
section. In Morton County the normal average January
temperature for the 30-year period was 10.2 degrees with a normal average low
temperature of –0.3 and a normal average high of 20.7 degrees. In two out of
10 years there will be temperatures colder than 32 degrees below zero. For five
out of ten years, the last freezing temperature below 24 degrees in spring is
later than April 26 and the last temperature below 32 degrees is later than May
15. In July the normal average temperature is
70.0 degrees with a normal average low of 56.3 degrees and a normal average high
of 83.6 degrees. In two out of 10 years the hottest temperatures will exceed 103
degrees. For 9 years out of ten, there are 111 frost-free days where the
temperature remains above 32 degrees. For 5 out of 10 years, the first frost
below 32 degrees is earlier than September 21 and the first frost below 24
degrees occurs earlier than October 10. The average precipitation for the period from 1914
to 1993 was 15.76 inches per year. The annual average precipitation for Morton
County from 1961 to 1990 was 16.86 inches. Precipitation ranges from an average
minimum of approximately 12.6 inches per year to an average maximum of 18.7
inches per year. Exhibit 6 – Climate Summary
Native
vegetation on rangeland in Morton County consists of a wide variety of grasses,
forbs, shrubs, and trees. Dominant species remain constant when left
undisturbed. However, when the site is disturbed by activities such as grazing,
construction or mining, species composition changes as other plants invade the
site. Some of the more common species include, but are not limited to, the
following: 1)
Native
grasses, legumes and herbaceous plants include: Approximately 60 species of
grasses, sedges, and worts, which comprise the most widespread native plants of
the prairie. 2)
Native
wetland plants include: Smartweed, wild millet,
wildrice, saltgrass, cordgrass, rushes, sedges, and reeds. 3)
Native
shrubs include: Plum, juneberry, common
chokecherry, silverberry, buffaloberry, sumac, western snowberry, leadplant
amorpha, hawthorne, woods rose, fringed sagebrush, and silver sagebrush. 4)
Native Tree
species include: American elm, plains
cottonwood, green ash, boxelder, bur oak, quaking aspen. 5)
Some
nuisance and exotic species include: Leafy spurge, Canadian
thistle, green and yellow pigeongrass, field bindweed, wild oats. Morton
County's wide variety of habitat supports a number of fish and wildlife species.
Wildlife populations are currently lower that they were before the area was
settled but habitat quality and diversity are still good. Although farming has
reduced the area of natural rangeland habitat, farming has established a habitat
for ring-necked pheasant and gray partridge, which are introduced species. Some
other of the more common species include, but are not limited to, the following:
sharp-tailed grouse, white-tailed deer, ducks, geese, herons, shorebirds,
raptors, cottontail rabbit, fox squirrel, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, mink,
raccoon, badger, striped skunk, red fox, coyote, muskrat and beaver. Fisheries
include walleye, northern pike, white bass, crappie, catfish, perch, largemouth
bass, small mouth bass, goldeneye, bluegill, and bullhead. Economic
growth in Morton County is dependent on primary sector industries. Primary
sector industries are those that export products or services to bring in new
money from outside the area. Examples of these are the energy industries such as
the Amoco Refinery, the Heskett Power Plant and the Dakota Gasification Plant
near Beulah. Many Morton County residents commute to work at one of the nearby
coal mines or power plants. Coal mining operations include the Freedom and Knife
River Mines near Beulah, the BNI Mine near Center, and the Falkirk Mine near
Washburn. Export and manufacturing businesses located in Morton County include
the agriculture and livestock industries, Hebron Brick, Cloverdale Foods,
Concepts in Wood, Kohler Industries, North Country Thermal Line, and Dakota
Country Cheese. Other businesses that could be considered primary sector
businesses for Morton County include government services, hospitals, nursing homes, and
auction barns. Tourism in Morton County also brings in a portion of outside
capital. A
rapidly growing area of the primary sector economy in Morton County is the
information technology (IT) business that exports processed information.
Examples of these businesses are Pro Mart One, Impact Telemarketing, Laducer
& Associates and North Central Data Cooperative. Morton County realizes the importance of retaining and expanding existing primary sector business and attracting new primary sector business. Exports generated by primary sector businesses bring dollars back to the local area that are then used to purchase other goods and services within the County. It is these businesses that bring in new wealth that allow the other retail and service sector businesses to hire additional people and increase workers’ wages. The economy of Morton County will grow in proportion to the value of its exported goods and services. The diagram on the following page (Exhibit 7) illustrates how dollars flow through a community. Exhibit # 7
·
Agriculture ·
Federal Activities ·
Tourism ·
Energy ·
Manufacturing ·
Exported Services Agriculture
includes agricultural sales for final demand, including both grain and
livestock. Also included in this
sector are the transition payments provided by the Federal Agricultural
Improvement and Reform Act. Exhibit
8 shows that Tourism, Manufacturing and Federal Activities have increased
through the 12-year period. Agriculture and Energy have not declined, they
simply have not grown as rapidly in proportion to the other three sectors. The
state’s agricultural sector has actually grown by 3.8% (from $3,928,485,000 to $4,078,221,600) in
constant 1996 dollars.. The state’s energy sector has grown by 9.0%
(from $1,336,588,000 to $1,457,347,200) in constant 1996 dollars. North
Dakota contains an estimated 351 billion tons of lignite, the single largest
deposit of lignite known in the world. North Dakota also contains an estimated
35 billion tons of economically mineable coal, enough to last for well over 100
years at the present rate of 32 million tons per year. As the demand for energy
continues to increase, the value of this vast natural resource will also
increase, lending stability to the local economy.
Almost
two-thirds of Morton County’s economy is energy based.
The County’s economy has nearly paralleled the state for the last 10
years, with the exception of energy, which has played a larger role in the
County. In order to protect the
County from the economic impacts of large, uncontrollable swings in the
worldwide oil market (influencing Amoco Refinery profits), it will be important
to promote continued diversification of business.
This diversification would include encouraging efforts to upgrade
facilities for tourism, expansions of the information technology industry and
export manufacturing. Exhibit 8 – Primary Sector Income
Morton
County population has grown over 20% in the last 60 years and the projections
are for the county to continue to grow (see Exhibit 9).
The growth has not been steady as can be seen in the population chart
(Exhibit 10) following. The City of
Mandan has grown the most with the smaller cities staying nearly the same or
with only slight declines. The
rural areas have lost the most with over a 40% decline, however, the 1990’s
have shown a slight increase in the rural areas.
Some of the same factors that are impacting the United States and North
Dakota are also true for Morton County. The
number of farms continues to decline as farm sizes get larger.
The size of families continues to get smaller, especially in the rural
areas. The population is aging.
This is highlighted by the fact while the city of Mandan has grown during
the last 20 years the number of students in school (public and private) has
grown by only one! The shift from rural to urban is also a factor. Table
in the appendix shows that this shift has been quite dramatic.
In 1940 only 1/3 of the county population was “urban” with nearly 50%
being rural. By 1990 the urban
population was nearly 2/3 and the rural was less than 23%.
The following population projections are from the North Dakota State Data
Center.
There are two series of
projections presented here. “They
represent different migration scenarios in that the assumptions regarding births
and deaths are the same for the two series.
Series 1 was developed by applying the 1990 to 1997 county-specific
migration rates by age and gender to the 1997 population estimates.
The 1997 base population was segmented into 17 five-year age cohorts by
gender and an 18th cohort representing the population above the age
of 84. Series 1 reflects a moderated growth pattern. MORTON COUNTY RECENT POPULATIONS
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