We all know there are 53 counties in North Dakota. It hasn’t always been that way. And in the history of this state and territory, there were numerous counties with names that don’t exist today.

As you might imagine, Pembina County was the first organized county in this part of Dakota Territory in 1867. It encompassed a lot more property than the Pembina County we know today.
After that, things were quite until 1873 when 15 new counties were established in Dakota Territory. Not all of them were in what is now North Dakota. However, some were.

As an example, Burbank County was established in 1873, but was renamed Barnes County two years later. Gingras County was also established that year, but was renamed Wells County in 1881. Howard County was established in 1873 from unorganized territory that later became Allred, Dunn, McKenzie and Wallace counties. Stevens County was established in 1873, but was abolished in 1892 when parts of McLean and Ward counties were named.

In 1896, Allred County became part of Billings and in 1901 was re-created from Billings County. In 1903 it was attached to Williams County and in 1905, it was abolished and became part of McKenzie County.

Also in 1896, Wallace County was abolished and became part of Stark and Billings counties. Then, in 1901, it was re-created from Billings and Stark counties and in 1905, it was abolished again and became part of McKenzie County.
Emmons County was formed in 1879, but before that was part of a much larger Campbell County that was established in 1873. Today, Campbell County borders Emmons County on the South Dakota side of the state line.

The newest county in the state is Grant that was part of Morton County until 1916 when the southwest part of Morton was partitioned to be a new county named for the former president Ulysses Grant. Carson became the county seat.

Other counties that were formed since 1900 include Dunn in 1901, formed from Starner and Mercer counties; Hettinger, also in 1901, formed from Stark; McKenzie in 1901, formed from Stark; Adams in 1907, formed from Stark; Burke and Renville in 1910, formed from Imperial Ward County; Divide, also in 1910, formed from Williams; Golden Valley in 1912, formed from Billings; Slope in 1914, formed from Billings and Sioux County formed in 1915 from the Standing Rock Reservation.
Officially Ward County was formed in 1885, but was called Imperial Ward County because of its huge land mass that took up a substantial portion of northwestern North Dakota. It included two counties that no longer exist, Stevens and Wynn. In 1908, residents began to petition to have the county split off into separate counties which helped to create Renville, Mountrail and Burke counties.

Mountraille County was actually created in 1873 but was annexed into Buffalo County. In 1885, it lost part of its territory to Garfield County, later became attached to Ward County for judicial purposes and finally became its own county in 1909 with Stanley as the county seat.

McKenzie County with Watford City the county seat, is the largest in the state with 2,861 square miles which is actually larger than Rhode Island or Delaware. Eddy County, with New Rockford as the county seat is the smallest. Its entirety is 644 square miles.

It’s no surprise that Cass County has the greatest population with approximately 196,000 people since it has Fargo, the largest city with 133,000 population. Part of the significant population growth is coming from outlying communities around Fargo such as West Fargo, Horace, Kindred, Mapleton and Casselton.

Slope County has the fewest number of people at 727. The county seat, Amidon, was the smallest county seat in the United States with 24 until the 2020 census was taken. It is now the second-smallest behind Brewster, Neb., which has only 17 people.

It’s interesting to note that if you include county commissioners, the Slope County courthouse has more employees than does the entire town of Amidon.

And finally, a small patch of land known as “Lost Dakota,” existed as a remote exclave of Dakota Territory until it became part of Gallatin County, Montana Territory in 1873.