Soon after the first shipment of livestock arrived in 1883, livestock raising became a substantial enterprise in southwestern North Dakota. Dickinson became the main trading center for a one-hundred-and-fifty-mile radius. The Medora and Black Hills Stage and Express Line operated here in the 1880s when the Marquis de Morès established his various enterprises in Medora. The growth in farming led to the establishment in 1905 of the Dickinson Agricultural Experiment Station. Education also was an important economic engine, and in 1918 the North Dakota legislature established the Dickinson State Normal School (SK10) for teachers. In the 1920s Dickinson became a center for the brick and pottery industry, as well as a shipping point for lignite coal. Dickinson adopted the name “Queen City of the Prairies” in 1906, but has recently rebranded itself “The Western Edge,” which has a more modern ring.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.