Morton County, North Dakota
| Morton County, North Dakota | |
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Morton County Courthouse in Mandan
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 Location in the U.S. state of North Dakota |
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 North Dakota's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | March 27, 1896 |
| Seat | Mandan |
| Largest city | Mandan |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,945 sq mi (5,038 km2) |
| • Land | 1,926 sq mi (4,988 km2) |
| • Water | 19 sq mi (49 km2), 1.0% |
| Population (est.) | |
| • (2015) | 30,310 |
| • Density | 14/sq mi (5/km²) |
| Congressional district | At-large |
| Website | www |
Morton County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,471, making it the seventh-most populous county in North Dakota. Its county seat is Mandan. The county was originally created in 1873 and later organized in 1878.
Morton County is included in the Bismarck, ND, Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The county was created by the 1872-1873 territorial legislature and named for Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton (1823-1877), governor of Indiana during the American Civil War and later a United States Senator. It was organized on March 23, 1878, but the action of the 1878 legislature in attaching the eastern portion to Burleigh County effectively nullified this action. The county was reorganized on February 18, 1881, after the detached portion had been returned to Morton County by the 1881 legislature. Mandan has always been the county seat, though during a period from 1878 to 1879, Mandan, and thus also the county seat, was known as Lincoln.
On November 23, 1916, 1,666 square miles of southern and southwestern Morton County was detached to form Grant County.
After the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) decided on the route in September 2014 to cross Morton County, the county became a focus of DAPL protests in April 2016. In August 2016 the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) filed and injunction against United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to attempt to halt construction. In his 58-page decision by United States District Judge James E. Boasberg shows that the tribe failed to participate in the process of the USACE and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) to address the tribes complaints. Furthermore, the tribe never even mentions their fear of water contamination in the injunction. The injunction was denied and also failed on appeal. Amnesty International wrote a letter to Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier on September 28, 2016, requesting that he investigate the use of force by private contractors, remove blockades and discontinue the use of riot gear by Morton County sheriff's deputies when policing protests in order to facilitate the right to peaceful protests in accordance with international law and standards. This letter was written in response to private security guards using guard dogs on advancing protesters on September 3, along with using pepper spray. On November 20, North Dakota police officers fired rubber bullets, tear gas, CS canisters and water from fire hoses at rioting protesters in below freezing temperatures.
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