Millions of years of history in 20,000 square feet. Fossils to fossil fuels. People, places, and things.
It’s difficult to sum up the Heritage Center’s Main Gallery is just a few words. The Main Gallery is the focal point of the State Historical Society’s exhibits program. Incorporating the disciplines of palenotology, archeology, and history, the Main Gallery explores North Dakota’s history through seven exhibit areas. Thousands of objects and photographs are on display, each with their own story to tell. Walking through the Main Gallery is like walking through time - stand under a mastodon, sit in a 2,500 year old dwelling, smell a bison, or read the North Dakota state constitution.
Corridor of Time
Two exhibits showing what life was like in present-day North Dakota millions of years ago, before human habitation. The Corridor of Time depicts life during the Late Cretaceous (about 65 million years ago) and early Paleocene (60 million years ago) periods – a time when the region’s climate and environment resembled that of the Florida Everglades. Paleontological exhibits at the Heritage Center and other Society administered sites, have been developed in cooperation with the North Dakota Geological Survey (NDGS). The North Dakota State Fossil Collection and NDGS state Paleontologist are located in the North Dakota Heritage Center.
First People
How did the first people come to what would be North Dakota and how did they live? Archeological investigations have documented the presence of big game hunting cultures after the retreat of the glaciers and later settlements of hunting and gathering, and farming peoples. Featuring objects from 10,000 B.C.E. to the 18th century, including a reproduction of the oldest house ever excavated in North Dakota, 550-410 B.C.E.
Era of Change
Euro-Americans first came to what would become North Dakota in the 18th century – they came to explore, to trade, and later to settle. When they arrived, distinct Native American groups already called the northern great plains home. These included the Dakota, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara. Groups of Chippewa moved into the northern Red River valley around 1800, and Cree, Blackfoot, and Crow frequented the western buffalo ranges. Over the course of a century and a half, Native groups witnessed their population decimated by disease, the bison herds almost exterminated, the land surveyed and opened for settlement, and eventually their way of life constrained in the boundaries of reservations.
Settlement Era
Euro-American settlement of the Northern Plains commenced in earnest after 1861, when Dakota Territory was organized by Congress. New railroads hastened settlement and a first settlement “boom” occurred between 1879 and 1886 with a second following after 1905. The majority of these new residents were farmers, often immigrants, so many that by 1915 over 79% of North Dakotans were either immigrants or children of immigrants. This area of the gallery explores the development of the state’s infrastructure and the people who were its foundation.
Bright Dreams and Hard Times
The Great Depression of the 1930s both slowed progress and sped change. Heavy farm debt loads and low commodity prices caused a crises of farm foreclosures and bank failures. Years of crop failures, dust storms, and weather extremes only added to the crisis. As farms failed rural populations diminished and urban centers grew. At one point, over 70% of the state’s population required one form or another of public assistance.
In the midst of these hardships, the state of North Dakota visibly modernized. A new skyscraper State capitol was finished in 1935. Federal programs improved highways, state parks and city services. State departments addressed public health and safety programs. Public utilities extended their reach through development of electric cooperatives.
Birds of North Dakota
As food, symbols, and sources of pleasure, birds have always been important to the people of this region. North Dakota is home to almost two hundred kinds, or species, of birds – those that nest in this state. In addition, the state plays host to millions of migrating birds every year, which stop to rest and eat on their journeys along the central flyway of North America.
Dakota Kids
An area of the Main Gallery about and for kids. See toys and games of the past. Drive a car, ride a horse, or get thrown in jail. Throughout the gallery there are also coloring sheets and take-home activities.
Address:
612 East Boulevard Ave.
Bismarck, North Dakota 58505
Get Directions
Hours:
Exhibit galleries and Museum Store: 8am - 5pm M-F; Sat. & Sun. 10am - 5pm.
State Archives: 8am - 4:30pm., M-F, except legal holidays, and 2nd Sat. of each month, 10am - 4:30 pm.
State Historical Society offices: 8am - 5pm M-F, except legal holidays.
Contact Us:
phone: (701) 328-2666
fax: (701) 328-3710
email: histsoc@nd.gov
