Fruit Trees for Stanley, New Town, Parshall and Lake Sakakawea, North Dakota

On February 15, 1936, the weather station at Parshall read −60°F, still North Dakota's record low, and Parshall sits only about 110 ft above today's Lake Sakakawea. Fruit trees for Stanley, New Town, Parshall and Lake Sakakawea have to be picked for country like that. Our map plans for −42°F at New Town, −40°F at Stanley and −43°F at Parshall and Tioga, and even the bluffs above the lake plan for about −39°F. It covers this corner of northwest North Dakota from Tioga east through Ross, Stanley and Palermo, south to New Town, Van Hook and Parshall near the lake, and across the Four Bears Bridge to Four Bears Village and Keene.

Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The number at every spot is a 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, built from NOAA station records since the 1995-96 winter and adjusted for the lay of the land. It runs on the cold side, so it's a safe number to plan for, not the record. You also get the MFTC zone (that number in half zones), the typical winter (an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's zones use) and a spring layer: how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than New Town on a still, clear night at bloom.

New Town, the reference point, plans for −42°F (MFTC zone 2b), with a typical winter of −30°F. The middle of the growing ground plans for −41°F and nine-tenths of it falls between −44°F and −39°F. The warm end is the bluffs above the lake (Sanish, −39°F, zone 3a) and a few upland benches like Blaisdell's. The cold end is flat floor ground: Hawkeye, Parshall and Tioga at −43°F, and the shore flats below Four Bears Village and Van Hook at −44°F.

Why the map looks the way it does

The US 2 towns sit on rolling, farmed upland at about 2,200 to 2,300 ft, roughly 400 to 500 ft above the lake (about 1,817 ft). The Laurentian Divide runs east and west through the middle of Mountrail County: north of it the land slopes toward Hudson Bay, and south of it Shell Creek, the White Earth River and the smaller creeks run down to the lake. On a clear, calm night cold air slides down those valleys toward the water. North and east of Stanley, in the slough and pothole country, it has no outlet and settles in every low spot.

Height alone doesn't save you up top. Tioga sits on a 1 percent grade only 10 ft above the lowest ground around it and plans for −43°F, the same as Parshall about 300 ft lower. Tioga 1E is the coldest upland station in NOAA's records; Stanley runs a median 1.5°F milder in the year's coldest reading over 46 years, and Keene 3S, the highest station, 2°F milder. Most of a cold pool is made right where it sits as the ground radiates to a clear sky, and a wide, flat stretch with no slope to carry the cold off can pool as hard as a valley.

Lake Sakakawea is big and deep, and open water holds heat. On October 26, 2022 the lake was still 50°F to 54°F under air below 30°F, and fog off the water drifted north across Tioga and Stanley. It usually stays open until late December or January, so it softens the shore through fall. Then it freezes, bays first, and a frozen lake is one more snowfield; lakes shelter their shores only when they're relatively free of ice, as Wisconsin's state climatologists put it. The old New Town 4W station, at 1,903 ft on the Four Bears side of the crossing, ran a median 2°F milder than Stanley and Tioga. But on January 31, 1959 it read −40°F while Stanley read −29°F. That's the calm-night pattern, with cold off the upland draining to the low ground by the water and stacking up.

Parshall is the puzzle. It sits near lake level, yet besides the state record it has the coldest average yearly low of any station here (−35°F), and it ran a median 3°F colder than New Town 4W and 1°F colder than Stanley and Tioga, though it's about 300 ft lower than either. The record and about half its years came before the lake filled, and no source we found explains it. The map reads it as flat floor, 0 ft above the lowest ground around it, where cold made in place has nowhere to drain.

The warm ground is on the bluffs. Where the upland drops to the lake, cold air has a long, open run down to the shore, and the slope above stays in the band of milder air that sits on top of the pool (the thermal belt). The bench at Sanish, 280 ft above the low ground, plans for −39°F, the warmest named spot on the map. On a still spring night the gap grows: the Four Bears Village hillside reads 10°F and Sanish 9°F warmer than New Town, while the low shore at Van Hook reads 3°F colder. Measured gaps elsewhere run that big: a Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaging 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 ft above it, and up to 13°F colder.

Wind changes all of it. Orchard inversions usually hold only while the wind stays under 3 to 5 mph (Washington State's numbers); on a windy night there's no pool or thermal belt, and higher ground runs colder. Some outbreaks here look like that: on January 4, 1968 Keene 3S, the highest station, was the coldest at −40°F and New Town 4W the mildest at −33°F. Wind also strips snow off the knobs (often limy Zahl soil), and bare frozen ground is what kills roots. The dished Bowbells spots between them hold snow and better topsoil but also the cold. The best tree ground is usually the well-drained Williams loam in between, on a gentle slope with a way out below it.

New Town, Sanish and Four Bears Village

New Town was platted in 1950 for the people of Sanish and Van Hook ahead of the reservoir, on the east river bluffs by the Four Bears Bridge. It's the largest city in Mountrail County and headquarters of the MHA Nation on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Town sits at 1,903 ft on a 3 percent toe slope, 30 ft above the low ground, and plans for −42°F (zone 2b), with a typical winter of −30°F. Within 3 miles the low ground plans for −43°F, the benches −40°F and the warmest tenth −39°F. Sanish, 2.6 miles west on ND 23, sits on a bench at 2,118 ft: −39°F (zone 3a), a typical winter of −26°F and a spring reading 9°F warmer than town. Town heat can't match that.

Across the bridge in McKenzie County, Four Bears Village sits on a 22 percent hillside at 1,950 ft, 110 ft above the low ground. It plans for −41°F (zone 2b), with a typical winter of −28°F and the best spring reading on the map, 10°F warmer than New Town, because cold air doesn't stop on a slope that steep. Within 3 miles the shore flats plan for −44°F and the benches −39°F, the widest spread around any town here.

In New Town, plant trees known to −45°F or colder, like Haralson and Goodland apples, Vekovaya pear and Toka plum. On the Sanish bluff, −40°F trees like Norkent apple and Ure pear clear the number. The bluffs on both sides are where apricots go: Westcot (−45°F) and Debbie's Gold (−50°F), with Brookred plum (−50°F) at Four Bears. Plant on the slope, not the windy crest or the shore flats.

Parshall, Van Hook and the Van Hook Arm

Parshall, on the Fort Berthold Reservation near the east edge of the map, was founded in 1914, and the 2006 Parshall Field discovery started North Dakota's Bakken oil boom. Town sits at 1,929 ft on flat floor ground and plans for −43°F (zone 2b), with a typical winter of −30°F and a spring reading 2°F colder than New Town. Within 3 miles the floor runs −43°F and the benches −41°F, so higher ground nearby is worth about 2°F.

Van Hook, the resort community on the Van Hook Arm, saw its people moved to New Town and has been rebuilt since the 1970s. The townsite, at 1,885 ft and 50 ft above the low ground, plans for −41°F (zone 2b), with a typical winter of −27°F and a spring reading 1°F warmer than New Town. Down by the water at 1,838 ft the winter number holds at −41°F, but the spring reading drops to 3°F colder than New Town, so 50 ft of height is worth about 4°F on a bloom night. Within 3 miles the low ground plans for −44°F, the coldest floor around any town here, and the benches only −41°F. Brendle's Bay, 40 ft up, plans for −41°F with a spring reading 1°F warmer than New Town.

In Parshall and on the arm's low ground, plant for room to spare. Rescue and Trailman applecrabs have come through −60°F, as cold as the state record, and Trailman and Kerr are what we tell people to plant if they only plant one tree. Centennial applecrab (our grower friend Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on it after a −47°F winter in Montana), Bolshaya pear and Brookgold plum are −50°F trees. On Van Hook's higher ground, −45°F trees like Frostbite apple clear the number.

Stanley, Palermo and the US 2 upland

Stanley, the Mountrail County seat on US 2 and ND 8, sits at 2,252 ft, 60 ft above the low ground on a 2.6 percent slope. It plans for −40°F (zone 3a), with a typical winter of −28°F and a spring reading 2°F warmer than New Town. Within 3 miles the low ground plans for −41°F and the benches −39°F. The Stanley 3 NNW station (2,280 ft, 72 years on file) gives a 30-year number of −40°F, matching town.

Palermo, 8 miles east, plans for −40°F (zone 3a) but sits on low ground and reads 2°F colder than New Town at bloom. Blaisdell, farther east on a bench 110 ft up, plans for −39°F (zone 3a), with a spring reading 3°F warmer than New Town, the best on the upland. North of Stanley, Wassaic plans for just colder than −40°F and runs even with New Town in spring. Beyond it, toward Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, the potholes have no outlet. South toward the lake, Belden plans for −42°F and Epworth just colder than −40°F, with spring readings 1°F warmer and 2°F colder than New Town.

Around Stanley and on the Blaisdell bench, −40°F trees clear the number: Zestar!® and Sweet Sixteen apples, Summercrisp and Luscious pears (NDSU picks), Pipestone plum and Meteor tart cherry. On the low ground at Palermo, Wassaic, Belden and Epworth, step up to −45°F trees like Snowsweet® apple.

Tioga, Ross and White Earth

Tioga, in Williams County about 30 miles west of Stanley, is the town USDA's 2023 map puts in zone 3b, where most towns here are 4a. The village sits at 2,248 ft, 10 ft above the low ground, and plans for −43°F (MFTC zone 2b), with a typical winter of −30°F and a spring reading 1°F colder than New Town. Within 3 miles the low ground runs −43°F and the benches about −40°F to −41°F. The Tioga 1E station's first 28°F of fall comes a median September 21, ten days ahead of Stanley's.

Ross, 7 miles west of Stanley at 2,300 ft, plans for −41°F, but it sits at the foot of a slope 20 ft above the low ground, where cold sliding off the higher ground collects on a still night. It reads 5°F colder than New Town at bloom, the worst on the map. Manitou plans for −41°F and reads 1°F colder. White Earth sits down at 2,093 ft, about 200 ft below Ross and Manitou, with nothing lower around it. It plans for −42°F, with a typical winter of −30°F and a spring reading 3°F colder than New Town.

At Tioga we'd follow NDSU's zone 3 advice: standard-size apples on Dolgo or Antonovka stock, kept to 16 ft or lower, and leave Wolf River and SnowSweet (zone 4 only, by NDSU) and Honeycrisp and Zestar! (marginal in zone 3) for warmer ground. Good picks there and at White Earth are Norda and Parkland apples, Larinskaya pear, Northern Blue plum and Evan's Bali tart cherry. At Ross, plant apples and honeyberries where you'd have put apricots. West of Tioga toward Williston, our Williston and Sidney (MonDak) map covers you.

Keene, Hawkeye and Charlson

The west side of the map is rolling upland around Keene in McKenzie County, at about 2,300 to 2,350 ft. Keene plans for −41°F (zone 2b), with a typical winter of −29°F and a spring reading even with New Town, and the Keene 3S station runs even with Stanley. Hawkeye, on flat ground 20 ft above the low ground, plans for −43°F, the coldest named place on the map, with a typical winter of −31°F and a spring reading 4°F colder than New Town; plant there like Parshall. Charlson, on a bench 170 ft up, plans for −40°F (zone 3a), with a typical winter of −27°F, so −40°F trees clear it, but with a spring reading only even with New Town, give apricots your best east or north slope or skip them.

Spring frost and bloom around the lake and the upland

The spring layer follows the same drainage as the winter low, only more sharply, because a spring frost pool is shallow: on frost nights the cold layer usually tops out 30 to 200 ft above the ground, per the FAO's frost protection manual. The bluffs read best, then the upland benches and towns (Blaisdell 3°F and Stanley 2°F warmer than New Town). The worst readings are at the foot of slopes and on flat floor: Ross 5°F colder than New Town, Hawkeye 4°F, White Earth and the Van Hook shore 3°F. North Carolina State's fruit people say 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one. In a windy freeze the bluffs won't be warm; the layer is the still-night pattern.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 station records put the median last 32°F at May 20 at Stanley 3 NNW and Keene 3S and May 22 at Tioga 1E, and the last 28°F, about where open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying, at May 12 to May 14. One spring in ten the last 32°F comes after June 3 to June 7. The first fall 32°F lands September 18 or 19, for 118 to 121 frost-free days. No lakeshore station has a modern frost record.

The lake goes ice-free around mid-April, as late as May 17 (in 1979). Cold water and ice should hold bloom back a little on the bluffs right above it, but nobody has measured it here, and lakes do less for the last spring freeze than for the first fall one. NDSU has Sungold and Moongold apricots blooming in late April statewide, well ahead of the median last 28°F. Its advice: keep apricots out of frost pockets, put them on a north or east exposure that warms slowly and holds bloom back, and mulch with wood chips to keep the soil cold longer.

Put apricots (and the Siberian C peach on the Sanish bluff, if you're gambling) where the spring reading is best. Apples bloom later and need only about 15 percent of their blossoms to set a crop (the University of Minnesota's figure), so they can take the middling ground. Open haskap flowers take 19°F, which makes honeyberries the safest early bloomer on this map.

What the weather records say

Parshall's −60°F on February 15, 1936 is the North Dakota state record low. Other NOAA station records: Tioga 1E −50°F (December 24, 1983), Stanley 3 NNW −47°F (December 23 and 24, 1983), Keene 3S −43°F (December 23, 1983), Lostwood 12 N, just north of the map, −43°F (January 29, 1966, in only 10 years on file) and New Town 4W −40°F (January 31, 1959).

The big outbreaks don't land the same way every time. In 1939, 1954 and 1959 a low station (Parshall or New Town 4W) read coldest; on February 28, 1962 the upland did, with Tioga 1E at −41°F and New Town 4W at −35°F. The lake usually freezes over by late December (the earliest on record was November 30, 1985, the latest January 24, 2021).

USDA's 2023 map puts Stanley, New Town, Parshall, Ross, Palermo, White Earth, Plaza, Keene and Mandaree in zone 4a (−30°F to −25°F) and Tioga in 3b (−35°F to −30°F); ours puts nearly all the growing ground in MFTC zones 2b and 3a. USDA's zones average each winter's coldest night, and our typical winter numbers (−26°F to −31°F) land about where USDA does. We zone for the bad night: NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low.

What you can grow here

Each rating is the coldest temperature the plant is known to have come through. The tree should live where it clears your number; bloom nights decide the crop.

The bluffs, Stanley and the best benches, −39°F to −40°F. Norkent and Wealthy apples, Ure pear, Pipestone plum, Sungold and Westcot apricots, Meteor tart cherry, Red Lake currant, Pixwell gooseberry, Boyne raspberry and Somerset Seedless grape. Worth a try on the Sanish bluff only, about 4°F short: Siberian C peach and Lapins sweet cherry (−35°F), out of the wind with snow over the roots.

The lake towns and most of the upland, −41°F to −42°F. Haralson and Goodland apples, Vekovaya and Krasnobokaya pears, Toka plum, Morden 604 apricot, FE tart cherry, Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant (we've never seen winter damage on it), Nanking Cherry and Valiant grape. Worth a try on your best ground: the −40°F kinds above.

Parshall, Tioga, Hawkeye and the cold floors, −43°F to −44°F. Trees known to −45°F clear these by 1°F or 2°F; −50°F and colder gives room to spare. Rescue, Trailman, Kerr, Centennial and Chestnut applecrabs, September Ruby and Mantet apples, Bolshaya pear, Ptitsin #5 and Native American Plum, Debbie's Gold apricot (only on a rise), Romeo and Juliet dwarf cherries, Buffaloberry and Success serviceberry (juneberry).

Rootstocks and roots. With planning lows of −39°F to −44°F we'd treat this whole map as zone 3 country: standard-size apples on Dolgo or Antonovka, per NDSU, or Bud 118, which has seen near −50°F at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana with no rootstock damage, under snow. Use dwarfing stocks only where snow reliably covers the roots, and stake them. Roots are the weak link (NDSU found soil 12 inches down under snow at 31°F with the air at 4°F), so hold snow with a windbreak on the windward side, at least as tall as the trees (Montana State's rule), and mulch.

Site, water and season. Plant on a slope, not a windswept hilltop and not the bottom. Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade, and our grower friend Bob Purvis likes an east-facing slope that warms quickly on a frosty spring morning. Don't run a hedge or tree line across the downhill side of the trees; it backs cold air up into them. This country gets about 14 inches of precipitation a year, so use drip irrigation, and taper the water from mid-August so trees harden off. With 118 to 121 frost-free days you're in short-season country, so in a frost pocket favor the early half of NDSU's ripening list (Wealthy, Goodland) over late ones like Haralson.

Local problems. Fire blight, which NDSU calls the leading killer of pears, gets in through hail wounds and bad pruning cuts. Guard trunks from rabbits and voles; spotted wing drosophila hits the bush cherries. The soils are alkaline (pH 7.0 to 8.5), which starves blueberries, so NDSU suggests haskap instead. Apples need another apple or crab within 100 ft as a pollenizer, and NDSU notes Luscious pear can't pollenize other pears; our pollination maps show what pairs with what.

Fruit history on Fort Berthold

The best fruit ground here is under the lake. Before Garrison Dam (the lake was in place by 1956), the Missouri bottoms gave the tribes rich soil, good grass, timber, wild fruit and game, and later orchards and cattle. Elbowoods, the old agency town named for its wooded bottoms, went under in 1954. About 94 to 98 percent of the reservation's farmable land was flooded, and people moved up to the high ground, where different crops grew. In the 1950s J. R. Schultz, the state agricultural college's horticulturist, put everything outside the southeast, the Red River Valley and a marginal belt in his fruit zone C, where growing was "chancy" and growers needed native plum rootstock under plums and Siberian rootstock under apples. Chokecherry, the state fruit, grows wild in the ravines, and Plains Indians used it in pemmican. Today Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in New Town runs the Four Sisters Garden greenhouse with NDSU Extension, but we found no orchard, u-pick or nursery on this map.

Questions people ask

What zone is Stanley, ND?

USDA's 2023 map puts Stanley in zone 4a (−30°F to −25°F). Our map has town planning for −40°F (MFTC zone 3a), with a typical winter of −28°F. USDA's zone is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

What zone is New Town, ND?

USDA puts New Town in zone 4a, along with Stanley, Parshall and Keene, and Tioga in 3b. Our map has New Town planning for −42°F (MFTC zone 2b), the bluff toward Sanish −39°F (3a), and Parshall and Tioga −43°F (2b). USDA averages each winter's coldest night; we plan for the bad one.

When is the last frost in Stanley, ND?

In NOAA's 1991 to 2020 station records the median last 32°F at Stanley 3 NNW is May 20 and the last 28°F May 12, and one spring in ten the last 32°F comes after June 3. The first fall 32°F comes a median September 19, for about 121 frost-free days.

Does Lake Sakakawea make New Town warmer?

In fall and early winter, while it's open. The old New Town 4W station ran a median 2°F milder than Stanley, but on calm nights the low ground by the water pools cold: on January 31, 1959 it read −40°F while Stanley read −29°F. The warm spot is the bluff above the water, where Sanish plans for −39°F and reads 9°F warmer than New Town on a spring night.

Where was North Dakota's coldest temperature recorded?

At Parshall, −60°F on February 15, 1936, and it's still the state record. Our map has Parshall planning for −43°F (MFTC zone 2b), among the coldest on the map.

Can you grow apricots around Stanley and New Town?

Yes. NDSU recommends Westcot and Debbie's Gold for zone 3, and ours have come through −45°F and −50°F, at or below anything this map plans for. The catch is bloom: apricots like Sungold bloom in late April, weeks before the median last 28°F, so put them on the bluffs above the lake or an east or north slope, never in a low spot.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.