Napoleon (North Dakota)

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Napoleon, North Dakota

Napoleon is a town in the south of the US state North Dakota .

Napoleon is located in Logan County and with about 700 inhabitants (2009) is the largest town in the county and its administrative seat .

history

Napoleon was founded in 1884 in what was then the Dakota Territory . The village was named after Napoleon Goodsill , the first shopkeeper in the village.
The infrastructure that Goodsill had created contributed immensely to the general settlement of Logan County at the time. A district court in Napoleon began work as early as 1885 . In addition, a post office , a newspaper publisher and the first hotel were built in the same year . In 1886 George A. Bryant founded the Napoleon Homestead, a newspaper publisher that still exists today. The current edition is around 1700 pieces.

In 1898 the railroad reached Napoleon. With it, more and more settlers came to the village and numerous companies and shops "sprang up like mushrooms".
With the increasing influx of people into the agricultural area of ​​Napoleon since the railway connection , the village developed more and more into an important regional trading center .

Infrastructure

Napoleon is 596 m above sea ​​level and has an area of ​​approximately 2.12 km 2 . Bismarck , the capital of North Dakota, is around 125 kilometers northwest. The nearest major city is Minneapolis . The largest city in the neighboring state of Minnesota is about 647 km to the southeast.

Demographics

Almost all of Napoleon's residents are white Americans (99.8%), with around two-thirds of German descent. In 2000, the median household income was US $ 36,042 per year.
With an average age of 50.2 years, the population of the village is very overaged, especially since the average age of North Dakota is 14 years lower at 36.2 years. Napoleon is therefore considered a typical retirement town .

In 1980, with around 1,100 inhabitants, much more populated than today, Napoleon today has to struggle with the same problems as many small, agricultural towns in the American Midwest , which have been confronted with strong rural exodus for around 30 years .
In this regard, Napoleon's population has been decreasing continuously for many years. During the 1990s, Napoleon's population decreased by about 8%. It is also assumed that the population of the village decreased by a further 12% between 2000 and 2005 alone. Since 2005 there has also been a population decrease of about 6%.

The rural exodus is a process that applies to all of North Dakota, which, according to the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service , has lost about 71,000 of its rural population since 1980.

Recently, however, Napoleon has been enjoying the influx of young people again, many of whom are former residents who had lived elsewhere for a certain period of time.

politics

The City Council of Napoleon has six members and the mayor . The current Mayor of Napoleon is Todd Moos (2017).

Sightseeing and tourism

The building currently used as a district court was completed in 1937 and is now recognized as a national historic building . The area around Napoleon is particularly popular with anglers and hunters. In this regard, there are numerous forests and bodies of water in the region .

Bibliography

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Homepage of the city administration (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Napoleon on City-data.com (English)
  3. ↑ Napoleon Homestead on Mondotimes.com (English)
  4. ↑ Napoleon on Eachtown.com (English)
  5. ↑ a b c Napoleon on Idcide.com (English)
  6. ↑ a b Napoleon on Citytowninfo.com (English)
  7. ↑ a b c d Commerce.nd.gov Small farm town of Napoleon, ND big on business  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (2011, English)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.commerce.nd.gov  
  8. ↑ Napoleon on Bestplaces.net (English)

Coordinates: 46 ° 30 ′  N , 99 ° 46 ′  W