History of Bismarck, North Dakota History of Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck is the capital of the state of North Dakota, the county seat of Burleigh County, and the second most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. The city was formed in 1872 as "Edwinton" after Edwin Ferry Johnson, a chief engineer for the Northern Pacific Railway company, when the railroad reached the eastern banks of the Missouri River. The name was changed less than one year later, honoring German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, in an effort to attract German immigrants. The discovery of gold in the nearby Black Hills in 1874 was the first
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