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 Capitol State Historical Society of North Dakota moved into the new North Dakota Heritage Center and in 1968, the North Dakota Department of Transportation occupied the building designed to provide it more office space. The Transportation Building is the last constructed on the campus to date, although a Judicial Wing was added onto the base of the capitol tower between 1977 and 1981. While the space needed by state government has increased since the original construction of the Capitol in the 1930s, the state's population has decreased. The state capitol grounds has six buildings: the capitol building, the Department of Transportation