About this city
Also known as: Home of Salem Sue
New Salem is an historic, highly distinctive rural prairie city located in Morton County in west-central North Dakota, beautifully positioned along Interstate 40 just west of Mandan. Founded in 1883 by a colony of German Evangelical immigrant settlers from Chicago, the town developed into a highly successful and prosperous pioneering hub for intensive dairy farming and Holstein cattle breeding in the rugged northern plains. New Salem achieved permanent global folklore status in 1974 with the creation of 'Salem Sue,' a colossal, 38-foot-tall fiberglass monument of a Holstein cow that stands proudly atop a high hill overlooking the interstate. Today, the town preserves a quiet, hardworking agricultural atmosphere, offering a quintessential and humorous slice of roadside Americana mixed with rich dairy ranching pride.
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Practical Tourism Metadata
Suggested stay: 1 day
Walk up the hilltop to marvel at 'Salem Sue,' the world's largest Holstein cow monument, browse dairy pioneering tools at the New Salem historical display rooms, and photograph the panoramic rolling prairie pastures from the high hill overlook.
