Rolla: County Seat on the Edge of the Peace Garden

Rolla, the county seat of Rolette County in far northern North Dakota, was laid out in eighteen eighty-eight on a homesteader's land and won the county seat designation a year later after the seat had already moved twice, from Dunseith to Saint John before landing in Rolla in eighteen eighty-nine. The county itself was named for Joseph Rolette Jr., a French Canadian fur trader and Minnesota Territory politician whose colorful career included absconding with a bill he opposed so that the legislature could not pass it. Rolette County lies in the Turtle Mountains, a forested plateau rising above the otherwise flat northern Plains, and its northwest corner holds the International Peace Garden, a memorial to peace between Canada and the United States that spans the border and draws visitors from across North America.