WHY NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA NEED TO KISS, MAKE UP, AND UNIFY ALREADY
Because two is just WAY too many...
North Dakota and South Dakota: the more forgettable “north and south” state gimmick. I’ve seen the joke made in shows repeatedly about the two fusing into one big Dakota, making 49 states. But, let’s envision this a bit further… what would Dakota look like? And would it be better than splitting the two up?
THE HISTORY:
The land collected from the British Cession of 1818 and Louisiana Purchase created the Dakota Territory, but these roots go back a bit further than this territory… parts of both Dakotas started off as the western-most potion of Michigan Territory. Once Michigan became a state, this became Wisconsin Territory, and once Wisconsin became a state, it became Minnesota Territory, and then finally, when Minnesota was admitted to the union, the Dakota territory was formed. Its capital city? Yankton, modern-day South Dakota. At least for a bit. In 1883, they made the switch to Bismarck, modern-day North Dakota. If they didn’t have twin troubles already, this certainly didn’t help. Yankton is on the Nebraska-South Dakota border, while Bismarck is much closer to the geographic center of both.
Augustana University Professor Michael Mullin mentions there may have been a political reason to split it into two states, as they worried Republicans would be favored in South Dakota and Democrats in North Dakota.
The 1889 Omnibus Bill was passed under outgoing-president Grover Cleveland, splitting the territory into both North and South Dakota (and also splitting Montana and Washington State), and when admitting them to the union, President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the papers to make sure neither got preference, it was sheer coincidence that alphabetically, North Dakota was admitted to the union before South Dakota.
WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU DO THAT:
There could be political reasons, but I have a better reason than anything else: the “North and South” state gimmick has already been done before. North and South Carolina couldn’t be more different… size, shape, demography, there is almost nothing North and South Carolina share besides a name. But, North and South Dakota both have one primate city of over a hundred thousand, comparatively unpopular capital cities, similar native tribes lived there before white people killed them off and gave them reservations… neither Dakota have a rivalry against each other.
WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE:
Combining the two would see Dakota becoming the fourth largest state in the country, being just under California, Texas and Alaska, but being above Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona on the ranking. Meanwhile, population-wise, Dakota would be home to more than 1,670,000 people, making it a larger populace than Hawaii and New Hampshire, but less than West Virginia and Idaho. Bismarck would likely be the capital again due to its general placement, ease of access, and population base.
Dakota wouldn’t have many big companies, but North Dakota has one Fortune 500 company: MDU Resources, which places 498… I can’t tell exactly what it’s supposed to do? It might be a general holding company... but what I know for certain is that it does several different things, like electricity and natural gas, and it also does construction and operates out of 48 states.
Neither Dakotas are known for their great educational institutions, but South Dakota has the better schools (according to Niche), yet North Dakota has the larger student body in North Dakota University.
Agriculture dominates both industrial sectors, and Dakota would have 56,900 farms… which would make place it thirteenth in the country in number of farms, slightly above Indiana but below Kansas. Crude oil production would also be a lucrative industry, but mostly because North Dakota was the third largest producer in 2022 (South Dakota hardly produces any).
The Sioux are the largest Native American group in either state, so it would be both the largest native community and the second largest ethnic group (behind Caucasian/Western European), and Christianity would be, by far, the largest religious group in the mega-state.
Dakota would heavily rely on Minneapolis-St. Paul, both the cities and the airport. Almost all passenger air flights go to or come from MSP, Denver, Phoenix, or DFW (mostly the former), and, to the surprise of nobody, Sioux Falls Airport has the most connections of all airports in this mega-state. US Routes 10, 81, and 85 all go through either North or South Dakota, and 10 is most notable for connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul with Fargo by road, US Highway 81 connects Dallas-Fort Worth to both Fargo and Yankton, and 85 rides the west sides of both states from El Paso.
Politically speaking, a merging of the Dakotas would be an incredible benefit to the Democratic Party, as the state would lose two of its US Senators, meaning that the Republican Party would lose two of its safest seats… although Democrats have won elections to the Senate and House in the past twenty years, it’s incredibly unlikely it happens again in this age of politics.
The 10 largest cities in this state would be:
Sioux Falls
Fargo
Rapid City
Bismarck
Grand Forks
Minot
West Fargo
Aberdeen
Williston
Brookings
Although it’s improbable it would happen, the idea of the Dakotas fusing is not impossible, which is the most important thing to note in this hypothetical. Would Dakotans be infuriated by the idea? Would there be special elections for all statewide offices? How would the tax structure look like? Just a few questions for a potential part two of this idea…