Ward County was created by
the 1885 Dakota Territory legislature and named for Mark Ward,
chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Counties during the
session. The county government was first organized on November 23, 1885
with Burlington as the county seat. This was changed to Minot in 1888.
Until 1908, Ward County included what are
now Burke, Mountrail, and Renville counties; this landmass
often being referred to as 'Imperial Ward' County and which was the largest
county in the state at the time. In 1908, voters took up measures to partition
the county. The results for that portion forming Mountrail County were accepted
but a dispute over the results for the portions that would become Burke and
Renville counties was taken to court and which resulted in favorable rulings in
1910. In addition, when the proposed county lines for Burke and Renville
counties were drawn, neither group wanted to include Kenmare and risk
that city becoming the county seat, so Kenmare was left in Ward County at the
end of a narrow strip of land, commonly referred to as the 'gooseneck