Stanley is the only major city in Mountrail County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Mountrail County. The population was 2,321 at the 2020 census, making it the 22nd most populous city in North Dakota. Stanley was founded in 1902. The town's economy is heavily connected to the nearby oil-rich Bakken Formation.
History
Stanley was platted in 1902. The Mountrail County Courthouse was built in 1914.
In 1935, Stanley was the site of one of the deadliest tornadoes in North Dakota's recorded history. The storm claimed four lives and injured more.
Transportation
Rail
Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, serves a station in Stanley via its Empire Builder, a once-daily train in each direction between Portland, Oregon/Seattle, Washington and Chicago. The Great Northern Railway Underpass is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Economy
Oil
Stanley is situated on the Bakken Formation, which encompasses northwestern North Dakota, northeastern Montana, and southern Saskatchewan, Canada. The formation is a rich source of oil, first discovered in the 1950s. Until the late 2000s the cost of oil extraction was too high to retrieve the oil profitably. With new technologies in oilfield production and the rising price of oil, the field has now become economically viable. The field may be the largest producing onshore field in the Continental United States outside of Texas and California, with the U.S. Geological Survey estimating that it contains between 3 billion and of oil, sixth overall in the lower 48, and could hold as much as of oil.