North Dakota State Capitol

We joined in on an afternoon tour of the state capital with a small group. Although you can do a self guided tour of select parts of the building, the tour guide took us to several areas that were normally closed off, including the "monkey room" and the state supreme court room. The tour ended at the top floor, where we could look out and see for about 30 miles in any direction. Our tour guide was fantastic, and we appreciated the extra stories she added to the tour. We recommend taking a tour of the state capital after spending the morning at the North Dakota Heritage Center. The two together made a great day in downtown Bismarck.

Tours can be self guided or with a guide. Beautiful grounds around the building itself and the interior is amazing. The tour takes you through the major parts of the building, such as where the Legislature meets as well the Supreme Court. The tour ends on the 18th floor which has incredible views for up to 30 miles on a clear day. Well worth the visit!

North Dakota State Capitol is very nice and unique from the other state capitols with its own unique design. It’s really nice clean interior with monumental architecture and art work on the walls. The outside of the building is nice as well.

Amazing! Free tour of the Capitol and really impressive art. Deco architecture and history. Great tour guide and camp beat views.

One of the more bland state capitol buildings out there. It's similar to Florida and Louisiana with the fact that it's just a soulless gray rectangle. It's really not worth stopping for unless your goal is to eventually visit all 50 Capitol buildings

The guided tour highlighted the different materials used to build the current capital. This building is one of four state capitals the are basically a high rise office building.

Beautiful state capital building and the best example of art deco design I’ve seen. Immaculately maintained. Great bathrooms. Energetic and lively tour guides plan on taking at least an hour. The top floor observation deck is a fun way to see Bismarck and surroundings

Not open for tours on Saturday afternoons during summertime as advertised everywhere. Public entrance is locked at 1:45pm on Saturday, June 14th, despite claiming to offer a 2pm tour. Very disappointing, as I drove from over 6 hours away and planned my weekend around this.

The North Dakota Capitol was a bit more minimalistic than most. Not much to see, but a good reminder that every state has its own style.

Interestingly enough, my boyfriend and I swung by to see the state capitol. Honestly though, I was more impressed about how they kept their grass to be so green and vibrant. Cool site to check out for max 3 hours.

This was a great stop. It's open 7 days a week which is great since I got there on a Sunday. It wasn't crossed at all. You can join the guided tour that takes place at the top of the hour (Sunday hours are truncated). It's on the same grounds as the heritage museum which has longer hours. So it's recommended to go to the Capitol tour and then check out the museum because it'll still be open. The tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable. We went to the observation floor and could see extremely fast since it was a clear day. Make sure to get a stamp in your Capitol passport book if you have one! The kids on my tour had a fun time in the Monkey Room finding the animals in the walls, testing the echo dampeners in the hall, and finding hidden items in the reliefs. Families as well as individual adults would enjoy this stop.

The most important thing I can tell you is that there is a 360-degree observation deck on the 18th floor, which is accessible to the general public. I would have never known this unless an employee at the Capitol just happen to tell me in random passing. Otherwise, this Capitol building is fairly small compared to ones in other states. There is a huge state seal that you can pose with on the 2nd floor to add to your photo collection, but other then that, not really much to say about this building

Wish I had as much info to share as previous reviewers had. I do concur that it is a very nice stop. I hadn't known that they offer guided tours so we did a self guided tour. Greeted by a friendly guard who told us a little bit about the grounds which are lovely. Lower level has an impressive portrait gallery of accomplished North Dakotans. From there we went to the 18th floor which boasts a 360 degree view of Bismarck (and beyond?), thoroughly enjoyed the pictorial history as well. Working our way toward the senate and house chambers we found ourselves in the secretary of state's office where we got to emboss a gold sticker with the state seal!

I'm collecting state capitols in addition to states. State capitols are harder and will take me a much longer time. I mean, how often can you swing a trip to Pierre or Juneau? Well, here's Bismarck and it's my fourteenth state capitol. Closed when I arrived, but the North Dakota Heritage Center is next door and it's awesome. Go there now. The Capitol building is surrounded by acres of well maintained grass and a plethora of monuments. The Pioneer and New Pioneers were interesting, but the All Veterans Memorial was also very cool. I'd like to have seen some of the conflicts that took place since Vietnam but I'm sure that's in the works.

We didn't take the guided tour, so we weren't always sure what we were looking at, but the building is a good example of Art Deco design. Facilities are clean and employees are courteous.

Interesting history. The original building was built in the 1880s.....before Statehood. That building burned down and was rebuilt during the Depression.

Very Beautiful & Friendly staff . We watched part of a legislative meeting . All furnishings are original from the 1800's . fabulous

Such a phenomenally unique and historic building. If you are in Bismarck, stop in and see the Art Deco stylings of the People's House.

Cool things about this Capitol: -You can take Capitol Tours all year round, Monday through Friday on the hour from 9-11:00AM and 1-3:00PM. The tours last an hour. Check in at the information desk on the ground floor. -The 18th Floor is the coolest part of the Capitol building (its open to the public, go right on up). Elevator D takes you to the floor, where you can walk around the whole level. The level contains lots of old photography. There's lots of comfy seating and some tables available, you could definitely have a small meet up there or have your lunch on the 18th floor. You can't go on the balcony on the 18th floor, those are permanently locked (see pictures to see the view of the 18th floor). -There's a cafe that is open to the public with some decent food. -There's over 75 different species of trees that are planted on the capitol grounds on the "Arboretum Trail" (there's a trail map online). -On the ground floor there are the famous faces (people who made a difference in North Dakota) on the walls. Not the coolest thing about this Capitol building: -Only one public entrance, which is the South entrance, which happens to be like a car tunnel (see pictures) and once you walk through the little tunnel, you will enter the doors and go through security (metal detectors). On a below freezing (-40 with windchill) day this long of a distance to walk to the entrance is almost unreasonable.

So unlike any other capitol building we have visited, I was pleasantly surprised at its unique Art Deco beauty.

Not bad... I've been in North Dakota for work for a few weeks now. I had to come here to sort out some paperwork. Actually, my coworker handed me an address and I headed here, not knowing that I was heading to the Capitol. The building itself is pretty impressive and it's quite lovely inside. I was there just for business, not a tour, so I can't speak to that, but I'm sure it's really nice from the little bit I saw. The building is really clean and the grounds look well-maintained. Everyone in this area is so freakin' nice, it's crazy to me. I was born in NYC and I've lived in NJ for the majority of my life and I've never met one person who is as kind to strangers as people in this area are.

The building looks rather non-descript externally as a basic office-like Art Deco building. Inside its a magnificent display of Art Deco with streamlines, high ceilings, brass accents, and simplified lines highlighting verticality. The interior rivals anything you'd find in the finest display of Art Deco buildings in Chicago.

First, you have to know that the entire state of ND has fewer people than a town like El Paso, Texas. That will keep your expectations realistic. Entry into capitol was unencumbered by visible security, which I find admirable. Of course, Al Qaeda doesn't waste resources attacking a state like ND. Tour guide claims two security people were watching everyone on CC cameras. If so, they were probably also watching their herd of cattle at the same time. What is striking from the free guided tour is how much simpler it is to run a state like ND than a state with, say, 10 million people. These people pride themselves on being efficient and independent yet, like other "frontier" states like Alaska, receive the highest per capita federal spending. It's really easy to be "independent" when you are one of the biggest federal welfare queens around. The tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable and we were the only ones on our tour. Small town people are friendly, especially when they are siphoning money from the cities and urban states.

I'm not usually much for touring state capitals, but this basic facade hides a dazzling art deco beauty. It's like no other government building I've been to, and absolutely worth a stop. And it's actually a part of the community. The day we stopped by there was a farmer's market outside and a craft fair inside.

We loved this spot. It was beautiful. We stopped here as a family while on a road trip to stretch our legs. It's a perfect spot to stop and walk around before hitting the road again.

Lots going on, especially during legislation. Don't expect to find good parking except in visitors area during certain parts of the morning. And plan for waiting at the elevator for those that can't/won't take the stairs ONE floor....

I live our capital! The outside isn't amazing but the inside is pretty cool... unique architectural designs you done see in capitals. Since ours burned to the ground they built one to last. Great views of city, easy to get to and easy to find the departments you need

Checking out U.S. state capital cities and their unique capitol buildings is a guilty pleasure of mine. Each one has its own feel, decor, topography and culture. In riverside Bismarck, North Dakota, their capitol happens to be one of only 4 highrise capitol buildings in the nation (next to Florida, Louisiana and Nebraska). Often referred to as "The Skyscraper on the Prairie," this is the highest man-made structure in the area for miles. Why you ask?? The original capitol building burnt down midst the era of the Great Depression and there were no funds to construct one of great splendor and architecture. Still, I enjoyed my visit due to the relaxed environment with large open space and nature trails, the neighboring Sacajawea statue (who seems to be one of the state's most prominent figures in addition to bison), and the on site ND Heritage Center Museum and Governor's home. They offer free capitol tours which takes you up to the 18th floor observation deck Monday through Friday hourly 8:00 a.m. thru 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. thru 4:00 p.m. (although there is not much to be seen up there).

We're visiting from Texas and I have to say I thought the capital building would've been something prettier to look (on the outside we didn't go in.) so that was kind of a disappointing but the scenery around it was nice great place to go for a walk & see all of the statues. Not a lot of fun for kids!!

My family is from North Dakota and I am pretty proud of it. The thing to keep in mind about the capitol building and almost any place in ND is that it will probably be on the small side becasue there really isn't many people in the state. ND does things simple, clean and wholesome and that is part of it's charm. The people that work there are nice and friendly. The gift shop is nice and good products. A few of them are locally made. The grounds are pretty and welcoming. Also, there is a big heritage center in the basement of this building. It is big and my family tells me they are adding on to it. ND takes pride in it's heritage and it is a nice place to look around.

On our continual quest to tour all the U.S. State Capitals, we took a trip to Bismark, North Dakota to check out their state capitol building. Sadly, I had heard a few derogatory comments about this capitol, about it not being a real capitol, but I feel they were WAY wrong. This is a gorgeous capitol and very unique. There are only 3 other capitols that I know of that have the same style, Florida, Nebraska, and Louisiana. The current Capitol Building has 19 floors and is 241 feet 8 inches in height. It was completed in 1934 at slightly under its $2 million dollar limit. With merely 80 percent usable space, it cost merely 46 cents per cubic foot. Amazing! It is the tallest building in North Dakota and is known as the Skyscraper on the Prairie. Not only is the capitol building a piece of art, the grounds are also spectacular. There are two parks Myron Atkinson Park and the Capitol Park, as well as the Arboretum and Prairie Trail. While walking around you will certainly come across several of the statues throughout the grounds. The two most prominent statues on the grounds are the Pioneer Family and All Veterans Memorial statues. Make a point of seeing them while at the capitol. For more details about our visit to this wonderful capitol. Happy Travels.

If you are a fan of Art deco architecture, you'll love this capital. This Gem was constructed during the depression, showing the state looking to the future, embracing a simple, contemporary approach. This skyscraper was the most cost effective way to supply the offices needed. It's simple and beautiful tribute to the state. The light fixtures on the second floor are interpretations of wheat, stone from neighboring states, lovely wood panels, brass carved elevators, a clean useful design. 80% of the capital is usable office space. On our tour of last week, two of the legislative senators signed my son's drawing of the capital. When you are there, also visit the Heritage center nearby which has great dinosaurs and such.

The biggest building you will see in this little state. If you're moving to Bismarck, or a tourist interested in this sort of thing, you'll have to check out the capitol at least once. There are events here from time to time, notably the annual band parade starting right out front and marching all the way down town. In 2007, almost 9000 people gathered here to set the world record for making snow angels!