North Dakota State Capitol—Peace Garden State

On our continual quest to tour all the U.S. State Capitols, we took a trip to Bismarck, North Dakota to check out the North Dakota State Capitol Building.

Sadly, I had heard a few derogatory comments about this capitol, about it not being a real capitol, but I feel they were WAY wrong. This is a gorgeous capitol and very unique. There are only 3 other capitols that I know of that have the same style:  Florida, Nebraska, and Louisiana.

The current North Dakota State Capitol Building has 19 floors and is 241 feet 8 inches in height. It was completed in 1934 at slightly under its $2 million dollar limit. With merely 80 percent usable space, it cost merely 46 cents per cubic foot. Amazing! It is the tallest building in North Dakota and is known as the Skyscraper on the Prairie.

The one thing that I didn’t really like about this capitol was that there were no self-guided tours and had to make sure we were there at a certain time to catch a guided tour. However, this wasn’t really a bad thing as we learned a lot from our tour guide. She was very enthusiastic and seemed to really like the capitol and wanted us to enjoy it as much as she did. She was also very nice and let our group walk around the bottom floor after the tour to take pictures and such.

During our tour we made several stops along the way including the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. What I really liked was the bronze columns in the galleries of both chambers. They are beautiful and quite unique. Another unique piece of the capitol building is what they call the Monkey Room.

The wood in this room is a California Walnut, and is very rare.   This is known as a wild figure veneer.  If you look close and use your imagination a bit, you can see a bunny jumping out of a lettuce patch.  Many different types of faces can be seen in this wood.  You need to see this room to appreciate the many designs in the wood. What was really interesting was that it was sent to the capitol in mistake, but they were never able to determine who the rightful owner was, so eventually it became theirs. It is very beautiful.

Toward the end of the tour we were taken up to the 18^th floor which they call the Observation Tower. The views from up there are incredible. They also have a lot of pictures of the old capitol building before it tragically burned down on December 28, 1930. There is definitely a lot to see as you walk around the building looking at the views from all four sides. It definitely reminded me of the one in Nebraska.

The whole North Dakota State capitol was great, but the thing that I really liked the most was their Great Seal of North Dakota. It is amazing. It is metal,  six feet in diameter and weighs over 400 pounds! There is also a descriptive plaque below the seal which weighs 500 pounds. It is really a beautiful piece of art. Of course we had to take a picture in front of it. 

Not only is the North Dakota State Capitol Building a piece of art, the grounds are also spectacular. There are two parks Myron Atkinson Park and the Capitol Park, as well as the Arboretum and Prairie Trail. While walking around you will certainly come across several of the statues throughout the grounds.

The two most prominent statues on the grounds are the Pioneer Family and All Veterans Memorial statues. Make a point of seeing them while at the capitol. We had a great visit and really enjoyed our tour. I feel sorry for those that may have looked down at this incredible capitol building. It is beautiful!