Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck Blaze and the Bismarck Roughriders, but both teams left the city soon after they were formed. Bismarck once had a professional baseball team, the Dakota Rattlers, but the team moved to Minot after several seasons in Bismarck. 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 2017 at 72,865, while its metropolitan population was 132,142. In 2017, "Forbes" magazine ranked Bismarck as the seventh fastest-growing small city in the
North Dakota Secretary of State University. From the creation of the office with the state's constitution in 1889, to 2015 there had been 14 Secretaries of State, the least number among any of the state offices created in that year. This is attributed to the 34-year tenure of Ben Meier, which was the longest of any state-level Secretary of State in the US. the office had been held by the North Dakota Republican Party at all times except the period 1989 to 1992, when the state's Democratic Party was in office. The Secretary of State originally served a two-year term, but this was extended to