![]() When western ND started to develop The Great Northern Railroad moved the time change location from Minot to Williston. Since eastern ND was already developing and western ND was still Indian territory all the way to the Rocky Mountains, I believe it was more convenient for them to put the line west of the development. So instead of doing the time change at Grand Forks and Fargo where it should be, they elected to draw the time zone boundary right through the middle of the state. Probably because their customers traveled more to the east, and wanted to have the same time as the locations they traveled to. ![]() But for some reason the railroads shifted all of the times zones in the country pretty far west. So really almost the entire state of North Dakota, except for Grand Forks and Fargo should be in the Mountain Time Zone. That puts the true dividing line between the Central and Mountain Time Zones, at a point just west of Grand Forks and Fargo. The Central Time Zone is centered on 90 degree west longitude, and the Mountain Time Zone is centered on 105 degree west longitude. Because having trains operating on a variety of different times, was kind of dangerous. The railroads created the time zones in the 1880s, because they needed to have a coordinated time for their schedules. Every single town had their own time, based on solar noon, at that location. Originally there were no times zones in North America. I think I know the answer to your question.įirst the short answer, it's because of decisions made by railroads over a hundred years ago. ![]() Is there a reason why only a small portion of the state is in the Mountain Time Zone? Why not just have the whole state in the Central Time Zone?
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