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McKenzie County, North Dakota
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==History== The [[Dakota Territory]] legislature created the county on March 9, 1883, with areas partitioned from Howard County (now extinct). The county was named for [[Alexander McKenzie (politician)|Alexander McKenzie]], a territorial political figure who was later disgraced for corruption.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gannett |first=Henry |title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ |year=1905 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n193 194]}}</ref> The county was not organized at that time, and was not attached to another county for administrative or judicial purposes. The county's boundary was altered in 1885, and on March 2, 1891, the state legislature authorized the dissolution of the county, assigning its territories to [[Billings County, North Dakota|Billings]] and [[Stark County, North Dakota|Stark]] counties. However, this directive was not implemented, and McKenzie continued as a defined county until November 3, 1896, when another act was passed to dissolve the county and assign its territories to Billings County. This act was challenged in the courts, and on May 24, 1901, the state Supreme Court held that the county was to continue in existence. On March 10, 1903, the county was attached to Stark County for administrative purposes. On March 16, 1905, McKenzie gained the territories of Allred and Wallace counties as those counties were administratively dissolved. On April 20, 1905, the McKenzie County government was organized, and its previous attachment to Stark was terminated. The first county seat was [[Alexander, North Dakota|Alexander]]. In 1907 the seat was moved to [[Schafer, North Dakota|Schafer]], and in 1941 it was moved to the present location, Watford City.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dakota Territory, South Dakota, and North Dakota: Individual County Chronologies |url=https://publications.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/DAKs_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |website=publications.newberry.org |publisher=The [[Newberry Library]] |date=2006 |access-date=May 12, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=County History |url=https://www.nd.gov/government/state-government/county-history |website=www.nd.gov |publisher=State of North Dakota |access-date=May 12, 2025}}</ref> Between the [[2010 United States census|2010]] and [[2020 United States census|2020]] censuses, McKenzie County was the fastest growing county in the United States, growing by 131.2% from 6,360 to 14,704 inhabitants, largely due to the [[Bakken Formation]] [[North Dakota oil boom|oil boom]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=McKenzie County fastest growing county in the US|url=https://county.mckenziecounty.net/|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=county.mckenziecounty.net|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Mitch|date=August 12, 2021|title=Oil turns a rural county in North Dakota into a boomtown.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/us/north-dakota-mckenzie-county-population.html|access-date=December 1, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
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