A farm in North Dakota was right on the southern border, and when a new survey showed the farm was actually in South Dakota, the farmer said, "Well, the winters will be milder."
I heard it different. An old widow lived alone on her farm just south of the 49th parallel. Surveyors came one day and told her the farm may be in Canada. After the survey was completed, the surveyors told her the property was still in ND. The old woman was relieved and said, thank goodness, I heard those Canadian winters were really cold.
Just like Saskatchewan just above it... 1.0 million people in a huge area... Same climate, same ethnic mix essentially of Germanic immigrants and indigenous peoples... Personally I think Saskatchewan and Manitoba should merge into Saskitoba with a combined population of 2.3 million... But as an Albertan, that's just me wanting to address some political shortchanging that ALWAYS happens here...
@@stickynorth Alberta and Saskatchewan should join the US. Whether combined to make 1 state or 2 I believe together we could form a better Union. Canada is so far Left and controlled by London I don’t think there is much hope left, but for those 2 provinces to join the US I believe there is more hope for the US. Note: I don’t say Manitoba as I don’t think London and Ontario will let them go and give the US access to the Hudson Bay. Wouldn’t hurt either to have some of the Northern Territories though to create a railroad from Alberta to Alaska!
@@JPJ432What does London, UK have to do with controlling Canada except as a member of the Commonwealth? The UK is on the verge of losing Scotland. That is more than enough to concern themselves with. Their influence on Canada, anyway, especially in the Prairies is negligible.
They were never a territory, more of a province under the British throne before the revolution. This history is on Wikipedia and some older South Carolina text books.
There were 8 nobel royal's of England that had claimed Carolina. They split the land up because the 8 didn't get along. People also ask Who were the 8 nobles who founded South Carolina? This charter issued by King Charles II of England proposed the formation of the Lords Proprietors and gave the lands of Carolina to the eight proprietors: the Earl of Clarendon, Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley, Sir George Carteret, William Berkeley and Sir John Colleto
That's what I thought when seeing the title of this video, if we're asking why there's both a North and South Dakota, we should also ask why there's a North and South Carolina. And also, why is there a Virginia and West Virginia
@@alvexok5523 The Virginia split was because of the Civil War. Or rather, the events leading up to it. Virginia seceded from the Union to form the Confederacy, but the people in the northwest area didn't approve of this and eventually (roughly 2 years later) voted to secede from Virginia and apply for statehood, which was granted soon after. They're the only state that "switched sides", having joined the Union after its ratification into statehood.
@@AO968 Yes, that's right. It's been many years since I took American history in school and I forgot learning about the Virginia split and other details of the Civil War. And I guess I've never gotten around to googling it either, same with why the Carolinas were split up into North and South, I'll go ahead and google it.
The same thing happened in Canada. We got Saskatchewan and Alberta because Ontario was afraid one new province would become too powerful and threaten Ontario's monopoly on power. (Canada does NOT have a equal representative senate.) So, keep everyone else small to keep Ontario in power.
A lot that I’ve learned about Canadian history and geography (which is admittedly not much since I’m from the US) seems like it boils down to Ontario and Quebec being petty lol
I knew why there are two Virginia states (the Civil War and all that) but I didn't know why there are two Dakota states. Thanks for informing me about this lesser known bit of American history!
Also, more details. There was a corrupt territory gov at the time named Ordway. He moved the capital from Yankton to Bismarck through lots of bribery and direct payments. Also, took bribes to choose county seats. Later he was removed from office and faced legal consequences. But the moving of the capital had a lot to do with the local N v S split. There's no really good reason for there to be two Dakota's. The population warrants one state in 1889 and in 2023. It's really silly.
No one would question this if these two sparsely populated states had different names. Like Dakota and South Canada (for example). But because they are both called Dakota folks question why there are two of them. With their small populations you could also question why Idaho and Wyoming are two different states, or Montana and Wyoming....why not one state?
The New England state of Maine used to be a part of Massachusetts. what happened ? Had Maine been a state during the revolution, there’d have been 14 colonies.
if you don't have a video on the (almost) State of Sequoyah, it would be a good topic for you! It's almost the exact opposite of how the US wound up with two Dakotas, with the a sprinkle of anti-Indigenous racism added in (just like how New Mexico was refused admittance for so long partly because even the Democratic party wasn't all in on a majority-Hispanic state).
Great video. Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland in the election of 1888 (only by winning the Electoral College however). It's actually during Harrison's administration that ND, SD, MT, ID, WY and WA enter the union--the first three in 1889 and latter three in 1890. Grover Cleveland when on to win a non-consecutive re-election in 1892.
Yes, but the agreement to let the Dakotas Washington and Montana into the Union as states was signed by President Grover Cleveland in February 22, 1889. They were admitted later like you said but the agreement to let them in was signed by Cleveland in 1889.
if dakotas, virginias and carolinas united, we would have 3 empry state slots for portorico, US virgin islands and mariana islands (combined with guam)
I understand that the party in power in Congress when you they were made states decided on 2 states in order to add 4 more senators to their power base.
@user-ti9lh4di1j rural people used to vote for their best interests, instead of voting for Republicans who want to hurt them in exchange for a promise to mass exterminate the people they find "racially inferior."
As a North Dakotan, I think we have bigger small towns than South Dakota just from driving through. It’s amazing how it feels like South Dakota feels like a barren wasteland before hitting the massive Rapid City lights at night. People are used to driving long distances so we have been to every major city several times all over the state. The people here are nicer too. Everything is cheaper. As a former southern CA native, I like it up here in the north way better. It was refreshing to know places and people like this still exist without having to do the impossible of traveling back in time.
Wages are higher in Nodak because of the oil & coal industries. Nodak has a division 1 hockey team(UND) with 8 national championships & a division 1 football team (NDSU) with 9 FCS championships. SDSU finally got one but you have a long way to go to catch up. Congrats. Sodak may be a few degrees warmer in winter, but I wouldn't call it Florida. Sodak has Sturgis & Mt. Rushmore if you're into that type of stuff. Hey Sodak, get a hockey team. Then you might be as cool as Nodak. Either way, the rest of the US has no clue where No/So Dakota is anyway so what does it matter. That might be a good thing.
The use of the word “ceded” when referring to the theft of land from indigenous peoples is pretty passive and doesn’t accurately represent the ways the land was acquired. I get that you mentioned the way it was acquired, but using passive language like ceded undermines that.
@@coasterblocks3420 that was conquered too genius but you can have it back it’s worthless. Take the coast of commiefornia while you’re at it and Portland and Seattle please!!
@@MAXIMUSMINIMALIST no, Hawaii is illegally occupied. Look it up. As for Democrat governed California, the U.S. Democrats can’t even be regarded as left, by global measure, as they’re to the right of most mainstream right wing parties in the developed world.
Maybe the American thieves should return to Europe and leave this land for Russia or China…. Errr I mean the native Americans to defend with there bows and arrows
Tim Cahill : "It is said that as a somewhat deflated George Armstrong Custer lay bleeding in the Montana dirt at the Little Big Horn, he turned his glazed and dimming eyes east and said, 'At least we won't have to go back through South Dakota. "
Oregon territory also went up into what would be barely into what would become BC because when the British gave independence to Canada the western part was not in control of British and Canada but then they eventually joined Canada a lot of people don’t know this. But it very hard to find the map.
Please look up the watershed map. Back when rivers made natural boundaries, the state lines made some sense. However, after 100 years of elected officials failing to address the water scarcity west of the Mississippi River, it seems only a threat to re-draw state lines according to the watershed map could make something positive happen.
The Carolinas each have a lot of people so they aren't being unfairly overrepresented in the national government by having 2 states instead of 1. The same isn't true for the Dakotas.
Geoff, you were close to the correct answer by recognizing that federal politics was the key factor in maximizing the number of states Republicans could create in the Land Rush era, but you missed the fact that the Republican Congress added SIX new states during the Harrison administration, not just four.
Enjoyed the video. A bit of advice (not that you did anything wrong): slow down a bit when narrating. Not a race. And add some personality to the narration. Too serious and “flat.” I’ve wondered why many videos are rushed when an extra minute or two would be nicer. Great volume … so many “whisperers” making videos these days. Nice job!
What's the big deal here. North Dakota, South Dakota, North Carolina, South Carolina. Virginia, West Virginia. Minnesota has the state of the Twin Ciries and the state of Rural Minnesota. Everyone knows this but you.
Imagery is featured prominently in this video that falsely represents the area described. Monument valley is located in northern Arizona along the southern Utah border.
There is more people in the Sacramento California area (Sacramento and Placer counties) than the whole state of North Dakota and most of S. Dakota combined lol. I live in northern cali
Politics is also we maintain some teeny-tiny states in the NE that should be one state. It's got to be a pain for the people there - different laws within an easy drive.
What else is a pain is that states like the Dakotas, Alaska & Idaho have the same voting power in the Senate as states like Texas, New York & California.
Nice Video that shows how many times one can say variations of the same thing over and over, to make a lengthy Video. All this could have been said within a minute, and real depth is missing.
Not so much in North Dakota, but South Dakota is bisected almost exactly in the middle by the Missouri River. Having been born and raised in Rapid City, people in South Dakota still refer to things as "East River" or "West River", so it might have actually made more sense to have "East Dakota" and "West Dakota" instead of north and south.
I visited rapid city for work several years ago... It was at a cement plant.....I loved it... I can't remember the casino I would visit after my shift but it was pretty cool and it was awesome how coming into rapid city you could see the whole city down in a valley surrounded by mountains and hills....
As a viewer from Rapid City, I still find it odd that they went north-south instead of east-west. the differences are a bit more pronounced going east to west vs north south, especially geographically.
As the Supreme Leader, I'm obligated to say NORTH DAKOTA, BEST DAKOTA! Some North Dakota facts, the world's largest French fry feed is held every year in Grand Forks, during Potato Bowl USA. A new record was set on September 10, 2015, when 5,220 pounds of French fries were served. It is believed to host the geographic center of North America, Rugby, and is home to the tallest man-made structure in the Western Hemisphere, the KVLY-TV mast. It took an act of Congress in the US and Royal Assent in Canada to build the International Peace Garden which is a beautiful symbol of peace and friendship straddling the border of North Dakota and Manitoba. North Dakota is also home to more wildlife refuges (63!) than any other state.
@@Tyler1318 And ND is #2 in Honey production and top 5 in a whole range of products that feed the world. And they just found a MASSIVE rare earth deposit. The find is so rich in minerals to be feasible to commercially mine it must be 300 parts per million. The ND mine is 2,600 per million.
So not true. North Dakota is beautiful and has been #1 on many lists such as happiest, healthiest, friendliest, hardest working, safest, income opportunities, cost of living, and others. We have some beautiful places up here and the people are very friendly amd kind.
I have to disagree. North Dakota is beautiful and has been #1 on many lists such as happiest, healthiest, friendliest, hardest working, safest, income opportunities, cost of living, and others. We have some beautiful places up here and the people are very friendly and kind.
I live in Manitoba Canada, so naturally the most travelled to state for me, is North Dakota. But second, is South Dakota (likely for most Manitobans, second would be Minnesota). I love the Dakotas. I love the prairies.
yes! where the prairies are still the prairies! I live in south east Texas where prairie meets coastal areas of swamps and forests of SE TX. And there used to be something called the “Katy Prairie” a once vast prairie which was once known as the largest migration area of yall’s snow geese in all of North America. Alas! No longer. Unfortunately because of the massive growth of Houston and surrounding cities, most of the Katy Prairie is now cities and suburbs and subdivisions. Me, I am not a radical environmentalist so I am not opposed at all to people building houses for themselves and moving in… it is just human existence… Yet, also, the hunter and outdoorsman side of me does simultaneously “mourn” or “bemoan” the loss of the once vast Katy Prairie. Fortunately we still have lots of others prairies in TX but not as much as SD or ND or Manitoba!
I went to high school in Minot so our closest big city was Winnipeg. After graduation we moved home to California and I was in line to register for classes at a community college. In the line next to me was a woman from Brandon. Of course we became friends but I have lost touch with her over the decades since. I went back to The Peg in summer 2019; the new museum and the Royal Canadian Mint were two of the highlights of my visit. Oh, one more thing, unlike South Dakota, much of North Dakota drains to the Arctic through Manitoba because of being north of the Laurentian Continental Divide.
@@Zeyev Interesting that you're from Minot. Growing up, I live on a farm in Pierson Manitoba, which is like 20 min from the US border. We used to go shopping in Minot. it was much easier to get across back then, and Minot was closer than Brandon! Winnipeg was a real treat it was the "big" city. Even though it's not all that big.
@@larryroyovitz7829 "From" Minot? Not exactly. My father was in the US Air Force and we lived north of town for 2 years. In those days, the coinage of both countries circulated easily; Canadian paper dollars were valued at 90 cents. The border was not a big deal in the 1960s. According to Google Maps, I was only about an hour away from Pierson. One of my classmates lives in Boissevain and became a Canadian citizen. Another of our classmates was the son of an RCAF officer and lived on the base. I suppose it's more difficult now to have such cross-border friendships.
A century ago, though, ND and SD politics were quite different. In the 1920s, ND was "full of Communists" and SD was Hoover's most loyal state. Over time, the land has changed the people.
Calling it communism is not being historically accurate, the non-partisan league was a populist movement unique to North Dakota in order to fight back against out-of-state interests looking to extract money and resources from the state at the expense of its people, which is why it has the only state-run bank and grain mill in the country despite being solidly center-right, it's the same reason why it is the only state to not require voter registration.
@@williammerkel1410 I definitely understand. It was not Communism, but many conservatives of the day thought it was, hence the quotation marks. I actually adapted the quote from a 1946 book on US geography. Thanks for pointing that out!
@@lucasmetz2403 More on the lines of the Democrat Farm Labor party in Minnesota, but the NonPartisan League (later the Democrat-NPL) did have socialist roots placing them far to the left of most of the conservative Christian population. Fun Fact: My grandfather was a prominent state level republican politician. In the early part of his career the NPL leaders tried to recruit him several times to run for the US Senate. My grandfather was a strong proponent of small government, so I don't know why they tried so hard, but politics often breeds strange bedfellows. 😉
I just visited North Dakota last week (I live up in Manitoba). It was the first time I visited the USA in over 9 years. I'm somewhat familiar with the story of why there are two Virginias, but it would be cool to hear you cover that in detail.
Your map is out of date at 5:43. ND and SD were the 39th and 40th states, so at the time, Nevada (36), Nebraska (37), and Colorado (38) were already states. Looking at the Missouri River going through the Dakotas, it really makes you think they should've been divided East Dakota and West Dakota, especially with the fact Fargo, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Bismarck, Sioux Falls, and Pierre are all on the eastern side of the river. The western side is more rural than the eastern, plus they were settled differently with the west side being settled by miners while the eastern side was settled by people coming from Chicago like you mentioned! And sure, they were split up for political reasons, but really, what state wasn't formed for political reasons when you really get down to it? All the way back to the original 13 colonies who rebelled and became states!
Thank you. By the reasoning this video uses, states shouldn't be states because it was a political calculation. That's every state. People today just hate it for political reasons. Had we called one state Dakota and the other Cheyenne or something, people wouldn't even be talking about this.
The History Guy does a great rundown on why the states split apart. They were ultimately split for political expediency but there’s was a lot of animosity growing between the states with included relocating the territorial capitol from Yankton, SD to Bismarck and that caused a lot of consternation. I think splitting the territory was going to happen no matter what.
This is a great video! Thank you for this! NOT a complaint, just think you’d want to know: you verbally stated Sioux Falls as “Sioux City” at about 4:24.
Sioux City however is factually Accurate, thats why he said Sioux City I'm sure. Sioux Falls now has a bigger airport, but SIoux City is more industrial and is the one connected to chicago by rail and the world by the river.
usa is babylon it will be destroyed by my beautiful Heavenly Father Almighty The Most High, Father to much evil and wicked been let out this fake holographic fake reality realm will have to be destroyed by fireeeeeeeeeee!!! this time !!!
If you talk to people in Eastern Montana, they’ll tell you that the western part of the state is 2% actual Montanans and 98% yuppie Californians. It’s a fair assessment. 🤣🤣🤣
Really interesting video, always wondered about how states west of the original colonies got their boundaries. If you're looking for another interesting topic like this, I'd like to know more about why the part of Ohio I live in was part of Connecticut. I'm in the Western Reserve region and always found that interesting since the boundary starts at the PA state line.
@@AdamG1 Well yeah, it's not ALWAYS a river. Sometimes it's some other geographical feature or major city, and they draw a line from there to the nearest river.
In the case of Ohio it was really arbitrary. New York and Pennsylvania were considered big enough already. Connecticut and Massachusetts extended their existing north and south borders on the other side of NY and PA claiming land all the way to the Mississippi until Congress passed the Northwest Ordinence. You can see something similar in the south in a map toward the end of this video.
