Steele County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the U.S. state of

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,798, making it the fifth-least populous county in North Dakota. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

since 1919 is Finley.

History

The

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of ...

legislature created the county on June 2, 1883, with territories partitioned from Griggs and Traill counties. It was not organized at that time, but was attached to Traill for administrative and judicial purposes. It was named for businessman Edward H. Steele, who had pushed for its creation. On July 13, 1883, the county organization was effected and Steele County was detached from Traill County; Sherbrooke, North Dakota was chosen as the county seat. In 1897 the town of Finley was founded, and by 1919 its growth had eclipsed Sherbrooke to the point that the county seat was transferred to Finley. The county's boundaries have been unchanged since its creation.

Geography

The Sheyenne River flows south near and into the county's west boundary line. The Goose River flows southeast through the northeastern part of the county. The terrain consists of rolling hills dotted with lakes and ponds. The area is devoted to agriculture.''Steele County ND'' Google Maps (accessed February 20, 2019)
/ref> The terrain slopes to the south and east; its highest point is near its northwestern corner, at ASL. The county has an area of , of which is land and (0.5%) is water.

Major highways

* North Dakota Highway 32 * North Dakota Highway 38 * North Dakota Highway 200

Adjacent counties

* Grand Forks County - north * Traill County - east * Cass County - southeast * Barnes County - southwest * Griggs County - west * Nelson County - northwest

Lakes

* Golden Lake * Golden Rush Lake * Lake Tobiason * Lone Tree Lake * North Golden Lake * Stony Lake * Willow Lake

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2020, there were 1,798 people.

2010 census

As of the

of 2010, there were 1,975 people, 864 households, and 589 families in the county. The population density was . There were 1,171 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.6% white, 1.2% American Indian, 0.2% black or African American, 0.1% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 0.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.0% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 60.0% were Norwegian, 35.2% were German, 5.4% were Irish, and 1.0% were American. Of the 864 households, 24.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.4% were married couples living together, 4.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.8% were non-families, and 27.8% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.78. The median age was 47.7 years. The median income for a household in the county was $44,191 and the median income for a family was $54,625. Males had a median income of $36,588 versus $25,648 for females. The per capita income for the county was $27,728. About 4.3% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 5.1% of those age 65 or over.

Population by decade

Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.55,0.0,0.0) ImageSize = width:600 height:300 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:50 top:30 right:30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:7616 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1904 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:952 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo BarData= bar:1890 text:1890 bar:1900 text:1900 bar:1910 text:1910 bar:1920 text:1920 bar:1930 text:1930 bar:1940 text:1940 bar:1950 text:1950 bar:1960 text:1960 bar:1970 text:1970 bar:1980 text:1980 bar:1990 text:1990 bar:2000 text:2000 bar:2010 text:2010 bar:2020 text:2020 bar:2022 text:present PlotData= color:barra width:25 align:left bar:1890 from: 0 till:3777 bar:1900 from: 0 till:5888 bar:1910 from: 0 till:7616 bar:1920 from: 0 till:7401 bar:1930 from: 0 till:6972 bar:1940 from: 0 till:6193 bar:1950 from: 0 till:5145 bar:1960 from: 0 till:4719 bar:1970 from: 0 till:3749 bar:1980 from: 0 till:3106 bar:1990 from: 0 till:2420 bar:2000 from: 0 till:2258 bar:2010 from: 0 till:1975 bar:2020 from: 0 till:1798 bar:2022 from: 0 till:1788 color:darkblue PlotData= bar:1890 at:3777 fontsize:S text:3777 shift:(-14,5) bar:1900 at:5888 fontsize:S text:5888 shift:(-14,5) bar:1910 at:7616 fontsize:S text:7616 shift:(-14,5) bar:1920 at:7401 fontsize:S text:7401 shift:(-14,5) bar:1930 at:6972 fontsize:S text:6972 shift:(-14,5) bar:1940 at:6193 fontsize:S text:6193 shift:(-14,5) bar:1950 at:5145 fontsize:S text:5145 shift:(-14,5) bar:1960 at:4719 fontsize:S text:4719 shift:(-14,5) bar:1970 at:3749 fontsize:S text:3749 shift:(-14,5) bar:1980 at:3106 fontsize:S text:3106 shift:(-14,5) bar:1990 at:2420 fontsize:S text:2420 shift:(-14,5) bar:2000 at:2258 fontsize:S text:2258 shift:(-14,5) bar:2010 at:1975 fontsize:S text:1975 shift:(-14,5) bar:2020 at:1798 fontsize:S text:1798 shift:(-14,5) bar:2022 at:1788 fontsize:S text:1788 shift:(-14,5) TextData= fontsize:S pos:(20,20) text:Data from U.S. Census Bureau

Communities

Cities

* Finley (county seat) *

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...

* Luverne *

Sharon Sharon ( 'plain'), also spelled Saron, is a given name as well as a Hebrew name. In Anglosphere, English-speaking areas, Sharon is now predominantly a feminine given name, but historically it was also used as a masculine given name. In Israel, ...

Unincorporated communities

* Blabon * Colgate * Pickert *

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

(original county seat; now mostly uninhabited)

Townships

* Beaver Creek * Broadlawn *

Carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

* Colgate * Easton * Edendale * Enger * Finley * Franklin * Golden Lake * Greenview * Hugo * Melrose * Newburgh * Primrose * Riverside *

* Westfield * Willow Lake

Politics

Steele County was a Democratic-leaning swing county in presidential elections until

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, when

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

lost to

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

by nearly 20 points, an almost total flip from

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's 20 point win in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. In

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

fared even worse despite a national increase for the Democratic Party from 2016. He was the first Democrat to win without the county since John F. Kennedy in 1960, and had the lowest proportion of the county's vote of any winning Democrat since

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

. Since 1964 Steele County has favored the Democratic presidential candidate in 64% of elections.

Education

Steele County has the following school districts:
Text list

2010 map
an
2010 list
/ref> * Dakota Prairie Public School District 1 * Finley-Sharon Public School District 19 * Griggs County Central School District 18 * Hatton Public School District 7 * Hope-Page School District (merger of Hope Public School District 10 and Page Public School District 80) * May-Port CG Public School District 14 * Northwood Public School District 129 Former districts: * Hope Public School District 10 - Consolidated with Page district in 2020 - Check the 2020-2021 spreadsheet, which lists a single "Hope Page" school district, and compare with all previous sheets which show them as two separate school districts. * Page Public School District 80 - Consolidated with Hope district in 2020 In 1964 the county had 992 students in four schools; at the time there were five school districts but Colgate was not operating any schools as its school closed in 1964.
Clipping
from Newspapers.com

References

External links

Steele County map
''North Dakota DOT'' {{Coord, 47.46, -97.72, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-ND_source:UScensus1990 1883 establishments in Dakota Territory Populated places established in 1883