Scientific Center of North America

Center, North Dakota

As if there wasn't enough confusion in North Dakota between the Geographical Center of North America in Rugby and the New Geographic Center of North America in Robinson, this Center made its appearance in 2018.

Its existence had been announced the previous year by Peter Rogerson, a geography professor at SUNY in Buffalo, New York, who said that his scientific algorithm showed that the two previous Centers in North Dakota were considerably wide of the mark. It was pure serendipity that this center was in a town named Center, which got its name because it was the center of Oliver County, not of the North American continent.

Local residents Dave Berger and Rick Schmidt decided that the newly named Scientific Center of North America had as much right as the others to be travel destination. So they built a small roadside park on a bluff overlooking some wind turbines north of town. It has a guest register; a picnic table; a 30,000-pound rock donated by a nearby coal mine; poles with the flags of Mexico, Canada, and the USA; and of course a big photo-worthy sign.