I read recently how a country’s borders, state lines, property lines, etc. define us as being an American, a North Dakotan, a Mandan resident, or what have you. It reminded me of a passage I’d read years ago in Elwyn B. Robinson’s book History of North Dakota where he described the splitting of Dakota Territory into the north and south designations we live with. As I brought that book down from my shelf a newspaper clipping from the May 2, 1983 edition of the Fargo Forum fell out. The headline was "Alex McKenzie was brawny, master manipulator." Robinson and the author of the Forum article probably borrowed from the same sources to write their stories, and they certainly agree as to the politics played to divide the territory and establish each one’s state capital site. Both sources plus others I have read agree that McKenzie was the "Boss."
McKenzie was an agent of the railroads who held their choking hold on commerce in this region. He allied with the corrupt territorial governor Nehemiah G. Ordway who held some grudge with people in the territory’s capital of Yankton. These two men succeeded in moving the capital to Bismarck because the NP railroad wanted the capital on its main line there. Political wrangling and maneuvering continued with some favoring statehood and others opposing it. But it all boiled down to an economic issue with the railroads and the wheat millers deciding the outcome.
Obviously the democratic process of decision making was a sham with only a few powerful people doing the manipulating.
We had reason to drive through the oldest cemetery in Bismarck one time, and the largest, most ornate tombstone begged our attention. The name carved in the stone: Alexander McKenzie.
