Cando: Can-Do Spirit Bottled in a Town Name

Cando, the county seat of Towner County in north-central North Dakota, was founded in eighteen eighty-four and named for the spirit of its early settlers, who described themselves as people who simply could do what needed doing. The Great Northern Railway reached Cando in eighteen eighty-eight, and the town grew as a trading center for the small grain farms and cattle operations of the lake-dotted landscape around it. Towner County itself was named for Oscar M.

Towner, a businessman and member of the Dakota Territory legislature. The surrounding region, sometimes called the Drift Prairie or the Coteau du Missouri, is characterized by hundreds of glacially-formed lakes and wetlands, making it prime habitat for migrating waterfowl and one of the most productive duck-nesting landscapes in North America.