Bismarck is the state capital of North Dakota. It sits in the center of the state, on the hills overlooking the Missouri River. Bismarck is the trade center for a large spring-wheat, livestock and dairying region. The city is also a financial and telecommunications center and the development of oil reserves in the nearby Williston Basin is important too.
The first settlers in the area were the explorers Lewis and Clark, who camped there in 1804-1805. When traffic on the Missouri River started in the 1830's, a steamboat port called the 'Crossing on the Missouri' emerged at Bismarck's current location. In 1872, Camp Greeley, which was later renamed Camp Hancock, was erected to protect workers building the Northern Pacific Railroad. When the railroad reached the fort a year later, a town was laid out, subsequently named Bismarck in the hope of attracting German investment in the railroad. Bismarck boomed as a river port and railroad center, a gateway for western expansion and supply point for the 1874 Black Hills gold rush. It became the territorial capital in 1883.
Accommodation and restaurants are available in Bismarck. The city is 2135 km northwest of Washington D.C.
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