About This Stamp
The Postal Service issued a 25-cent commemorative stamp saluting the centennial of North Dakota statehood on February 21, 1989, in Bismarck, North Dakota. North Dakota became the 39th state of the Union, entering on November 2, 1889.
Renowned western landscape artist Wendell Minor made his philatelic design debut with this commemorative stamp. Working from photographs provided by the North Dakota Historical Society, Minor's design features a grain elevator rising above a golden prairie. An empty buckboard stands in the foreground, and, in the distant horizon, billowing white clouds rise into a pale blue sky.
The design suggests the strength and sustenance North Dakotans drew form the land, which nurtured thousands of immigrants seeking independence and security.
The stamps were printed in the photogravure process by the American Bank Note Company and issued in panes of 50.