Is there Oil in Foster County?
Soils ‑ Rivers ‑ Lakes ‑ Hills ‑ Dams ‑ Water Resources
Long before Foster County was officially organized, the area which is now the state of North Dakota had experienced a long and dynamic history. More than once in geologic time huge inland seas washed its surface, dinosaurs and other fierce looking reptiles roamed through the area. Much later the continental glaciers engulfed the area. These glaciers or ice sheets, as they were called, grew thick and then would flow outward from the center. In North America the center was near Hudson Bay. Ice piled up from 8,000 to 10,000 feet thick. Moving southward, it spread over 5,200,000 acres of land. At their height, the sheets turned so much water to ice that the level of the oceans dropped 300 feet. As they retreated, the low areas that were gouged out filled with water. The glaciers ground some of the rocks into fine dust which the wind blew far and wide. This fine silt is called loess. It took thousands of years before these glaciers retreated back into Canada. As the glaciers were moving from the north, it pushed soil and loose rocks ahead of it like a huge bulldozer. As the ice melted, it left behind mounds of soil and rocks which are called moraines. The rich deposit of earth material is called drift. Foster County is in the area called the "Drift Prairies". It's official position is: Northern border, 47 degrees 35 min, north latitude; southern boundary, 47 degrees 25 minutes north latitude; the eastern boundary is 98 degrees 30 minutes west longitude; and western boundary is on the 99 degree 30 minutes west longitude.
It follows the rectangular system of survey. Its relative position is extreme inland. It is near to being the center of the North American Continent. It is bordered on the south by Stutsman county; Eddy county on the north; Griggs county to the East, and Wells county on the west.
The County seat is Carrington, which is located in the southwest central part of the county. It measures 36 miles wide and 18 miles long which makes it the smallest county in the state containing 648 square miles.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 1