Golf in Oakes

Oakes is the Dickey County seat in southeastern North Dakota, named for a Northern Pacific Railroad president who helped open this corner of Dakota Territory to agricultural settlement. Dickey County's James River valley agriculture creates the economic foundation of a county seat that has maintained essential services through the demographic changes affecting rural southeastern North Dakota. Oakes serves the surrounding farming community with government, healthcare, and commercial services, and the golf course provides recreational infrastructure for the community's year-round residents. North Dakota's outdoor recreational culture — hunting, fishing, and golf — creates a year-round sports calendar where each season's activity is valued for its own pleasures by a population accustomed to the rhythms of the northern Great Plains.