History
Before the arrival of white settlers, present-day central North Dakota was inhabited by the Mandan Native American tribe. The Hidatsa name of Bismarck is mirahacii arumaaguash ("Place of the tall willows"); the Arikara name is ituhtaáwe . In 1872 the future capital city was founded at what was then called Missouri Crossing, since the Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed the river there. The new town was called Edwinton, after Edwin Ferry Johnson (1803–1872), engineer-in-chief for the Northern Pacific Railway. In 1873, however, the Northern Pacific Railway renamed the city Bismarck, in honor of German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, in hopes of attracting German investment. The discovery of gold in the nearby Black Hills the following year was the real impetus for growth. Bismarck became a freight-shipping center on the "Custer Route" from the Black Hills. In 1883 Bismarck became the capital of the Dakota Territory, and in 1889 the state capital of North Dakota.
Read more about this topic: Bismarck, North Dakota
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