County Past
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Burke County, North Dakota

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
4historic places
—earliest paper
1910formed
2,201pop. 2020
41cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 4 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1985. Most listings are in or near Portal, Bowbells, Flaxton.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for North Dakota is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Burke titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

3 of 4 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

4 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Burke County CourthouseBowbellsBuilding1985
Burke County World War Memorial HallFlaxtonBuilding2018
Metzger, William E., HousePortalBuilding2007
Portal State BankPortalBuilding1996

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Burke was formed in 1910 (1910-07-12) from Ward.

BURKE created from WARD. Vote authorizing this creation held 3 Nov 1908, but litigation delayed the enactment until a North Dakota Supreme Court ruling of 3 June 1910 upheld the election results. The governor's proclamation created BURKE on 12 July 1910.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Burke County population from 1910 to 2020 (Census historical series).

9,9985,9831,968191019201960197020002020
19101920194019501960198020002020
9,0649,5117,6536,6215,8863,8222,2422,201

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

41 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 41 of 41 listed
NameLatLon
Bethany Cemetery48.87698-102.54538
Bethany Cemetery48.81535-102.78622
Bethany Lutheran Cemetery48.73502-102.16771
Bethel Cemetery48.54688-102.66807
Bethel Cemetery48.57474-102.78017
Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery48.79649-102.32445
Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery48.75691-102.76596
Big Butte Cemetery48.72087-102.46477
Bowbells Cemetery48.80696-102.22821
Buckneberg Cemetery48.76332-102.81904
Columbus Cemetery48.89405-102.80317
Dale Lutheran Cemetery48.83657-102.48008
East Cemetery48.99857-102.51828
Ebenezer Lutheran Cemetery48.9226-102.3491
Elbow Lake Bethel Cemetery48.62329-102.5593
Fern Cemetery48.85067-102.78561
First Trinity Lutheran Cemetery48.89486-102.77603
Flaxton Cemetery48.88823-102.39402
Flaxton Rural Lutheran Cemetery48.92014-102.3927
Grand View Lutheran Cemetery48.86585-102.72043
Hide and Stone Cemetery48.5788-102.37921
Larson Lutheran Cemetery48.77916-102.89689
Little Butte Cemetery48.7198-102.27682
Nasareth Cemetery48.61808-102.38655
Norwegian Cemetery48.87934-102.51865
Old Bethel Cemetery48.63129-102.80169
Pleasant Prairie Cemetery48.93845-102.86221
Saint James Cemetery48.58224-102.62462
Saint James Cemetery48.62363-102.62128
Saint Johns Lutheran Cemetery48.89255-102.85327
Saint Joseph Cemetery48.80696-102.22692
Saint Marys Cemetery48.88791-102.56748
Saint Michaels Catholic Cemetery48.89474-102.77521
Saint Olaf Cemetery48.89397-102.86132
Saint Pauls Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery48.93861-102.24036
Scandia Cemetery48.66199-102.8656
Short Creek Cemetery48.95316-102.73118
South Cemetery48.98161-102.53527
Tonset Cemetery48.7762-102.65499
Vanville Cemetery48.61808-102.38516
Zion Cemetery48.76431-102.37648

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Burke County, North Dakota

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.