Linton, ND

Linton is a city and the county seat of Emmons County, North Dakota, in the open prairie of the state’s south-central region. The 2020 census counted 1,071 residents. U.S. 83 and North Dakota 13 meet the city’s road network, while the county courthouse, schools, businesses, and grain country give Linton a regional role beyond its size. Emmons County government still operates from the 1934 courthouse, the third courthouse in the county’s history. Linton Public School District 36 serves local students.

The town was surveyed and platted in 1898 as a proposed county seat, and voters chose Linton for that role the same year. It was named for George W. Lynn, a farmer, lawyer, newspaper publisher, and the county’s first state’s attorney; the spelling changed so the name would not look like Lynn. Linton incorporated as a village in 1906 and a city in 1914. Sacred Heart Cemetery, with its wrought-iron crosses, is listed on the National Register nearby. Linton remains an Emmons County city where courthouse business, prairie roads, and settlement history meet.