New England, ND

New England is a Hettinger County city founded in 1887 by settlers who brought the name from the New England states, especially Vermont and Massachusetts. It predates the other settlements that later filled the county. The Milwaukee Road eventually made New England the terminus of a branch line from McLaughlin, South Dakota, tying the town to the railroad network until the tracks were abandoned in 1983. The 2020 census counted 683 residents.

State Highways 22 and 21 meet at New England, about 25 miles south of Dickinson, and now carry the regional movement once handled by the railroad. City Hall, municipal departments, recreation, meetings, and New England Public Schools give the city its present civic structure. The town also leans into a long volunteer tradition, a fitting local habit for a place built by settlers on an open prairie. New England's map still shows the old sequence clearly: a name from the East, a railroad terminus on the plains, and highways carrying the community forward.