Mountrail

Formed January 4, 1873 (13^th county)

Mountrail County (9,812), Stanley (2,356), New Town (2,768)

The tan and brown brick Classical Revival and Beaux Arts courthouse was erected in 1914.  The courthouse is on Main Street at 2^nd Avenue.  Main Street is North Dakota State Highway 8 in the town.  The courthouse was designed by Buechner and Orth.  It features columns and a dome.  Mountrail County was formed on January 4, 1873 as the 13^th county with Stanley as the only county seat.  The county’s name comes from a explorer, Joseph Mountraille.  The county seat is named for settler, King Stanley. 

The area of the county is 1824 square miles.  It is 9 out of 53 in the state.  It ranks 15 out of 53 in population in the state.  It has a density of 5.4 persons per square mile making it 18 out of 53 in the state.  Mountrail County has 67.3% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 2 crosses the county from east to west from Ward County to Williams County.  The county resembles an animal cracker elephant.  Stanley is located in the northern third of the county.  New Town is on the western border of the county.  Stanley is the county seat and New Town is the largest city.  Stanley is 24.0% of the county population while New Town is 28.2% of the county population. 

Mountrail County government consists of a recorder, a sheriff, an attorney, and a treasurer (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Five District Court Judges serve Mountrail, Burke, and Ward counties and a court clerk serves Mountrail County (judicial.)  Mountrail County is in the northwest part of the state.  Minot, North Dakota is directly east and Bismarck, North Dakota is southeast of the county.  The county center is 9.3 miles South-Southeast of Stanley nearer Belden.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Burke, Ward, McLean, Dunn, McKenzie, and Williams counties.

White Earth