History of Bismarck, North Dakota Dakota. Some Bismarck citizens raided Jamestown for the state records. After the state records were back in Bismarck, construction of the capitol was completed in 1884, and talk of moving the capital city of North Dakota to Jamestown stopped. The first hospital for the Dakota Territory, Saint Alexius, was founded in 1885. Like most of the country, the 1890s were hard times for North Dakota. The Panic of 1893 was the nation's worst economic hardship to that point, and North Dakota's strong agriculture-based economy was directly affected. To make things worse, Bismarck was struck by a severe fire in August
North Dakota State Hospital were converted to a medium-security prison facility beginning in 1998. Currently, the hospital provides: North Dakota State Hospital The North Dakota State Hospital, on the southern rim of the James River valley overlooking Jamestown, North Dakota, has since 1885 been North Dakota's primary institution for treating the mentally ill and confining the criminally insane. The North Dakota territorial legislature authorized a "hospital for the insane" in 1883. On May 1, 1885, the State Hospital opened, four years before North Dakota was granted statehood. Along with the University of North Dakota, it is the only institution in North Dakota to predate