North Dakota

Could a state icon bring more attention to North Dakota?

Published

1 year ago

February 19, 2025

Press Room

BISMARCK — A

state icon

could help North Dakota promote itself to the rest of the country and possibly bring in more visitors, a tourism leader says.

More than 5,200 people have voted for one of two state icons that could represent the Peace Garden State. Voting began last week and runs through the end of the month.

Voters who go to

surveymonkey.com/r/StateIconPress

can choose between two options: a circular icon that features an American bison in the Badlands or a sunset icon inside the letters ND.

The results could be revealed as early as mid-March, North Dakota Tourism and Marketing Director Sara Otte Coleman told The Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 18. The state icon will help North Dakota promote itself to potential visitors, she said.

“We not only wanted to help educate and raise awareness for the state, but we also really wanted to create some in-state pride and have it be something that people would want to buy and wear and tout,” she said.

The state icon will complement the state’s

“Be Legendary”

brand, Coleman said. North Dakota changed its logo in 2018 as a way to bring its 57 brands under one unifying logo.

North Dakota’s current “Be Legendary” logo.

Contributed

The rebrand attracted criticism and controversy. The state changed its longtime black-and-white logo and “Legendary” slogan, opting for a simpler font with color.

Lawmakers and others questioned why

North Dakota didn’t bid out the logo project.

Instead, the state hired Kara Ellefson, a longtime marketing executive at Great Plains Software from Hawley, Minnesota, for $9,500 to create the logo. Then-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum knew Ellefson — he was the CEO of Great Plains before he sold it to Microsoft in 2001.

The threshold for bidding a North Dakota project is $10,000, meaning the transaction was legal. The governor’s office said Burgum did not suggest Ellefson for the project.

NDLegendary_logo_FINAL_BW_cmyk (1).jpg — North Dakota’s previous state logo.

The North Dakota Department of Commerce asked for bids to design the state icon, Coleman said. Four companies submitted proposals, and The Good Kids, a design studio in Bismarck, won with a bid of about $23,000, she said.

Other states have icons, like Minnesota’s blue and green “MN.” Some states have multiple symbols, Coleman noted.

There could be tweaks to the proposed icons before a final one is announced, she said.

“This is something to build on,” she said. “It’s not the do-all, end-all. … It’s just kind of a fun marketing metric.”

North Dakota has used different visuals in the past to promote the state, including the pioneer logo used for the Centennial Celebration in 1989 and imagery of Lewis and Clark.

The state proposed themes to include in the icon designs, Coleman said. People praise the state’s “beautiful sunsets, landscapes and blue skies,” she said.

State tourism leaders also encouraged “ND” to be a part of the logo, she said.

“I think they’re fun,” she said of the proposed icons. “I’m excited about them. I think either one of them could work well.”

The state has limited recognition in the U.S., Coleman noted. A 2022 study showed that only 22% of respondents were familiar with North Dakota, according to the request for proposals that sought bids for the icon. North Dakota is largely seen as a flyover state with few attractions.

North Dakota Tourism expanded advertising in recent years. TV promotions used Minot native and actor

Josh Duhamel

to highlight attractions like Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

It seems to have paid off. About 3.6 million people visited the state tourism website last year, up 30% from 2023, she said. Several visitor metrics, such as the number of people flying into the state and Canadian border crossings into North Dakota, were up about 10% each last year, she said.

Other metrics, including hotel occupancy rates and Theodore Roosevelt National Park visits, remained flat, Coleman noted.

“We’ve had great results with the work that we do, considering we have one of the smallest budgets in the country,” she said.

North Dakota has in the past underfunded its marketing budget, Coleman said, but it is making progress in telling its story.

“Hopefully, next time we do that national survey, we will show a higher number than 22%,” she said.

The survey doesn’t have a comment section, but input on the icons can be sent to

tourism@nd.gov.

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North Dakota

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Published

10 minutes ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Kalamazoo — There’ll be a new champion in the NCHC.

Will Zellers scored the game-winning goal in the third period as No. 3 North Dakota downed No. 4 Western Michigan, 5-3, Friday night at Lawson Arena. The Broncos never led and trailed all of the third period, though a late push nearly tied the game with the net empty.

“Overall in the game, I thought it was a pretty tightly contested effort. I thought they just scored too easy,” Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “You know, for us, we had a couple breakdowns, and they’re so talented, so good, they took advantage when we broke down.”

The teams finish the regular season Saturday night. Western Michigan came into Friday’s game tied with Denver in standings points and five points behind North Dakota, needing that many to get a share of the Penrose Cup it won last season en route to an NCAA championship, too.

As far as regular season results go, the Broncos will play for second seed in the NCHC Tournament, needing to outpace Denver, which plays Arizona State this weekend.

Western Michigan (23-9-1, 15-7-1 NCHC) goaltender Hampton Slukynsky made 16 saves on 20 shots in the loss while North Dakota’s Jan Spunar stopped 22 of 25 shots. It was a battle of two of the NCHC’s top netminders, and each made key stops in a tight-checking, physical game.

Zellers put North Dakota (25-7-1, 17-5-1) up 4-2 4:42 into the third period off an assist from Detroit Red Wings draft choice Dylan James.

“He kind of made a play out of nothing there,” said North Dakota coach Dane Jackson, who is in his first season as head coach after being on the coaching staff since 2006. “And that was a really nice kind of moment where you go OK, we got a little got a little leeway here, and we can just kind of play a little bit more free.”

North Dakota took a 3-2 lead into the third period with goals from defenseman Sam Laurila alongside forwards Ollie Josephson and Josh Zakreski. Defenseman Zach Bookman and forward Liam Valente scored for Western Michigan.

One too many times in the second frame, Western Michigan’s blue line let a North Dakota forward in all alone to face Slukynsky, who stopped a couple of rushes in the opening minutes of the period.

With four minutes until the intermission, the Broncos finally got burned. On a feed from linemate Anthony Menghini, Lakreski cut to the glove side of a sprawling Slukynsky and beat him with the backhand. The goal gave North Dakota the 3-2 lead, after a seeing-eye shot from Bookman along the right wall had tied it up two apiece 8:10 into the period.

“I actually thought the second period was our best period,” Ferschweiler said. “… We started to take over. We got the goal, tied 2-2, and are kind of just humming along. Four minutes left, we just hand them a goal. Blown coverage. That was inexcusable, honestly, with some of our better players on the ice.”

The opening period played out as a back and forth track meet through the neutral zone as each side settled in. Laurila put North Dakota up 1-0 with his first career goal. After Slukynsky denied him on a trio of tries earlier in the shift, he fired a shot to beat the Western Michigan netminder 4:40 into the game.

It took just a minute and 34 seconds after Laurila’s opener for Western Michigan’s top line to get it right back. A blue-collar shift from captain Owen Michaels fed linemate Will Whitelaw along the left boards, and he sprung Valente for a breakaway goal that evened up the score.

“I thought we gave it to them too easy a couple times tonight,” Whitelaw said. “And I think when you’re playing a team like that, obviously they’re gonna put it in your net. But I think it’ll be a big lesson for our group going forward.”

For the better part of the first period, the Lawson Lunatics peppered North Dakota defenseman Jake Livanavage with jeers, but he got his own licks in with 7:48 left in the first period as he fed Josephson right at the net for the 2-1 goal. That score held through the first period.

With 2:02 remaining and Slukynsky pulled, forward Zaccharya Wisdom pulled Western Michigan within one. He nearly had the equalizer with 40 seconds on the clock on a backdoor try, but he mistimed the shot. Mac Swanson scored an empty-netter with 20.7 seconds on the clock to clinch the win, and with it the Penrose Cup, presented to North Dakota in the locker room and then paraded around the ice.

“It’s the hardest regular season championship to win, in my opinion,” North Dakota forward Ben Strinden said. “So it’s awesome. Obviously, it’s not our end goal, but we’re going to enjoy it for sure.”

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood

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