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North Dakota State Symbols

Image credits – Nokota horses:By Nokota_Horses.jpg: François Marchalderivative work: Dana boomer (talk) – Nokota_Horses.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9456234

Welcome to the Peace Garden State>! North Dakota’s roster of state symbols is lean and mean. The state flower is the wild prairie rose. Of course, a Great Plains state has to has to have a state grass (western wheatgrass), and the state bird is that Great Plains icon, the western meadowlark. (Continued below)

North Dakota State Flag
Nicknames & Slogans
Nicknames The Peace Garden State, Flickertail State, Roughrider State, Sioux State, Land of the Dakotas 1957
Symbols of State
Motto Liberty and Union Now and Forever, One and Inseparable
Latin Motto Serit ut alteri saeclo prosit 2011
Song North Dakota Hymn 1947
EcoSymbols
Flower wild prairie rose (Rosa arkansana) 1907
Tree American elm (Ulmus americana) 1947
Grass western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii) 1977
Fruit chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) 2007
Bird western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) 1947
Honorary State Equine Nokota Horse (Equus caballus) 1993
Fish northern pike (Esox lucius) 1969
Insect convergent lady beetle (Hippodamia convergens) 2011
Fossil † teredo petrified wood (Plantae) 1967
Soil Williams (unofficial) Unofficial
Cultural Symbols
Railroad Museum Mandan Railroad Museum 1989
Beverage milk Redundant Symbol 1983
Dance square dance Redundant Symbol 1995
March Flickertail March 1975
Art Museum The North Dakota Museum of Art (on the North Dakota University Campus at Grand Forks) 1981
Language English Redundant Symbol 1987

More unique is North Dakota’s state fruit and horse, the chokecherry and Nokota Horse. The state fish seems a logical choice: northern pike.

North Dakota’s state fossil, teredo petrified wood, recalls a time when the Great Plains were covered by shallow seas. Some people wish North Dakota’s grotesque flag, with its psychedelic bald eagle, could be buried at sea. Ironically, North Dakota has one of the most beautiful state coats of arms. The arms inspired the Governor’s flag, which is far more attractive than the people’s flag.

If a great state deserves a great flag, a Great Plains state like North Dakota deserves an even greater flag. What do you think?

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If you think state flags and flowers are nothing more than trivia, guess again. A thorough exploration of the more than 1,500 items adopted as state symbols embraces geography, history, and psychology.

You have found the best state symbols website, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The introduction above is adapted from Geobop’s State Symbols and My State Symbols Book, by far the biggest and most detailed state symbols references ever. You can learn still more about the symbols of the 50 states in the books Flag Quest and Grading the States. (Learn more about them here.)

After you spend some time exploring your favorite state’s symbols, you can come back here and tell us what you think about them.

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