North Dakota’s State Tree

The most familiar tree on the open plains is the cottonwood, the state tree of Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. A cottonwood is even depicted on North Dakota’s territorial and state seals. So why would North Dakotans adopt a tree more associated with the eastern United States? (The American elm ranges from eastern North America across the Dakotas and into Montana and Wyoming and south into the Gulf Coast states.)

Urban Tree in an Agricultural Wilderness

Lone elms, elm groves, and woodlands also dotted parts of frontier North Dakota. But the American elm is perhaps better thought of as the most important “urban tree” in the Great Plains. It has been described as a tree of “Main Street Eastern America,” commonly seen in small and medium-sized towns.

Numerous communities and locales, from Massachusetts to the Dakotas and beyond, have been named for elms. Historic North Dakota settlements, post offices, and stage stations include Elm (Grant County), Elmgrove (Dunn), Elmpoint (Cavalier), and Elm River (Trail).

One can only guess how many Elm Streets there are in the United States and Canada. And one can only guess how many Great Plains residents have grown up under the shade of elm trees. American elms line city streets, dominate city parks, and turn isolated farmsteads into oases. One might view the cottonwood as a symbol of frontier America, the elm as a badge of civilization.

State Symbol

I’ve found virtually no information on the adoption of the American elm as North Dakota’s state tree. I’m only guessing that it was adopted because so many North Dakotans have basked in its shade in small towns similar to the one in which I grew up in, in neighboring South Dakota.

The elm was adopted as North Dakota’s state tree on March 10, 1947. The western meadowlark was adopted as the state bird at the same time. And there’s no better place to listen to the meadowlark’s grassland serenade than under the shade of an elm.

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