NORTH DAKOTA

North Dakota's first state law regulating automobiles was 1905 Chapter 49, passed February 23, 1905, but this law stipulated speed limits only;  no registration was mentioned.  Therefore, from 1905 until 1911, only city ordinances provided for registration and plates.  1911 Chapter 5, passed February 10, 1911, effective immediately, authorized all villages to register and identify motor vehicles, even though this had been going on for at least six years without this formal authorization.  Chapter 5 was invalidated just five weeks later by Chapter 6, as described below.

The first law requiring state motor vehicle registration and license plates was 1911 Chapter 6, passed March 17, 1911.  Interestingly, two senate bills were being considered by the legislature simultaneously that year, one forbidding local registration and the other allowing it.  Senate Bill 188, the earlier one, was the version that passed, invalidating all city ordinances that had required motor vehicle registration.

The 1911 law required owners of automobiles and motorcycles to pay an annual $3 fee to the Secretary of State, who issued a pair of annual plates.  The law took effect on July 1, 1911;  all motor vehicles were to be registered and display plates by August 1, 1911.  Passenger plate #1 was issued on June 12, 1911, while motorcycle plate #1 was issued a week earlier on June 5.  The registration year was to be January 1 to December 31, with no reduced fee mentioned for the 1911 half year.  Non-residents were exempted, and dealers were specifically excluded.  (Dealer plates did not begin until 1917, with #D-832 known.)  Under no circumstances were any other plates to be displayed other than the state plates.

Oddly, even though pairs were issued, the law stipulated only that a rear plate be displayed, a provision copied from Minnesota's 1909 law which was still in effect as of 1911.  Another unusual feature of this law was the owner's option to display, in lieu of the rear plate, the same numbers on the taillights, the numbers to be the same size as the plate numbers.  This idea was also copied from the same Minnesota law.  It is doubtful that any taillight of the era allowed space to paint on 4-inch-tall numbers as well as the small "ND" abbreviation and year date (or even the smaller motorcycle number requirements), but if any existed, it would certainly represent a most unusual form of "plate"!

The 1911 plates were of the same style of manufacture as the 1909 and 1910 Minnesota plates, as well as the 1910 Bismarck issue, and the color is identical to Minnesota 1910.  These flat plates were dropped in favor of embossed issues in 1912.

The registration figures and highest known plates for 1911 are listed below.  It has been noted that #7220 was the highest number listed in the state's original ledger book, issued on November 11, 1911.  With #7220 being inexplicably higher than the 7,201 registered, it was discovered that a few passenger numbers had been assigned by mistake to motorcycles, and not reissued to automobiles once the errors were found.

1911                   PASSENGER   MOTORCYCLE

Registration figures:    7,201         265

Highest plate known:     #6981        #733