Steele County, North Dakota

Steele County is a county in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,798, making it the fifth-least populous county in North Dakota. Its county seat since 1919 is Finley.

History
The Dakota Territory legislature created the county on June 2, 1883, with territories partitioned from Griggs and Traill counties. It was not organized at that time, but was attached to Traill for administrative and judicial purposes. It was named for businessman Edward H. Steele, who had pushed for its creation.

On July 13, 1883, the county organization was effected and Steele County was detached from Traill County; Sherbrooke, North Dakota was chosen as the county seat. In 1897 the town of Finley was founded, and by 1919 its growth had eclipsed Sherbrooke to the point that the county seat was transferred to Finley. The county's boundaries have been unchanged since its creation.



Geography
The Sheyenne River flows south near and into the county's west boundary line. The Goose River flows southeast through the northeastern part of the county. The terrain consists of rolling hills dotted with lakes and ponds. The area is devoted to agriculture. The terrain slopes to the south and east; its highest point is near its northwestern corner, at 1,562 ft ASL. The county has an area of 715 sqmi, of which 712 sqmi is land and 3.2 sqmi (0.5%) is water.

Major highways

 * [[Image:North Dakota 32.svg|20px]] North Dakota Route 32
 * [[Image:North Dakota 38.svg|20px]] North Dakota Route 38
 * [[Image:North Dakota 200.svg|20px]] North Dakota Route 200

Adjacent counties

 * Grand Forks County - north
 * Traill County - east
 * Cass County - southeast
 * Barnes County - southwest
 * Griggs County - west
 * Nelson County - northwest

Lakes

 * Golden Lake
 * Golden Rush Lake
 * Lake Tobiason
 * Lone Tree Lake
 * North Golden Lake
 * Stony Lake
 * Willow Lake

2020 census
As of the census of 2020, there were 1,798 people.

2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 1,975 people, 864 households, and 589 families in the county. The population density was 2.8 PD/sqmi. There were 1,171 housing units at an average density of 1.6 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the county was 97.6% white, 1.2% American Indian, 0.2% black or African American, 0.1% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 0.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.0% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 60.0% were Norwegian, 35.2% were German, 5.4% were Irish, and 1.0% were American.

Of the 864 households, 24.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.4% were married couples living together, 4.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.8% were non-families, and 27.8% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.78. The median age was 47.7 years.

The median income for a household in the county was $44,191 and the median income for a family was $54,625. Males had a median income of $36,588 versus $25,648 for females. The per capita income for the county was $27,728. About 4.3% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 5.1% of those age 65 or over.

Cities

 * Finley (county seat)
 * Hope
 * Luverne
 * Sharon

Unincorporated communities

 * Blabon
 * Colgate
 * Pickert
 * Sherbrooke (original county seat; now mostly uninhabited)

Townships

 * Beaver Creek
 * Broadlawn
 * Carpenter
 * Colgate
 * Easton
 * Edendale
 * Enger
 * Finley
 * Franklin
 * Golden Lake
 * Greenview
 * Hugo
 * Melrose
 * Newburgh
 * Primrose
 * Riverside
 * Sharon
 * Sherbrooke
 * Westfield
 * Willow Lake

Politics
Steele County was a Democratic-leaning swing county in presidential elections until 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump by nearly 20 points, an almost total flip from Barack Obama's 20 point win in 2008. In 2020, Joe Biden fared even worse despite a national increase for the Democratic Party from 2016. He was the first Democrat to win without the county since John F. Kennedy in 1960, and had the lowest proportion of the county's vote of any winning Democrat since Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Since 1964 Steele County has favored the Democratic presidential candidate in 64% of elections.

Education
Steele County has the following school districts:
 * Dakota Prairie Public School District 1
 * Finley-Sharon Public School District 19
 * Griggs County Central School District 18
 * Hatton Public School District 7
 * Hope-Page School District (merger of Hope Public School District 10 and Page Public School District 80)
 * May-Port CG Public School District 14
 * Northwood Public School District 129

Former districts:
 * Hope Public School District 10 - Consolidated with Page district in 2020
 * Page Public School District 80 - Consolidated with Hope district in 2020

In 1964 the county had 992 students in four schools; at the time there were five school districts but Colgate was not operating any schools as its school closed in 1964.