Steele, ND

Steele sits in Kidder County's open prairie, about 41 miles east of Bismarck and 60 miles west of Jamestown. Wilbur F. Steele platted the town in 1878, and the place took his name. When Kidder County was organized, Steele became the county seat in 1881, giving a small prairie settlement a continuing role in records, courts, elections, and county administration. Farm roads and long highway distances still define the way the city connects with the surrounding countryside.

The county-seat role gives Steele more to do than its population might suggest. County offices, local government, and everyday services sit beside grain fields, ranch land, and the broad horizon of central North Dakota. The town is also part of the Bismarck-to-Jamestown route, so trips through Steele often combine courthouse business with errands for farms and nearby communities. Steele's story is the familiar prairie pattern of a place named for an early promoter that kept its importance by becoming the administrative center around which a large rural county moves.