New England is a small town in southwest North Dakota, located twenty-five miles south of Dickinson. New England was founded in 1887 on the north bank of the Cannonball River, where this river passes beneath the twin Rainy Buttes, a historical habitation of Native Americans.

The first settlers to the New England area in the late 1800s were farmers claiming 160-acre tracts of land under the Homestead Act. The land was gently rolling grassland prairie, very suited to growing wheat. In order to collect and transport the forthcoming successful wheat harvests, the Milwaukee Road Railroad Company constructed a railroad line into New England in 1910. The Milwaukee Road Land Company laid-out and platted all of the streets and town-lots for the City of New England, just as they are to this very day.

The population of New England reached 600 by 1910, gradually increased to 1,100 people from 1950-1960, and then gradually declined to where it currently stands at about 600 people.

Today in New England, there is one gas-station/convenience store, one small grocery store, one small pharmacy, a Dollar General, one restaurant, two bars, one auto-repair garage, one auto-body repair garage, a small health clinic, one Catholic Church, one Lutheran Church, and one public school for grades K-12.

The largest employers in New England are the Dakota Women’s Correctional Rehab Center, the New England K-12 School, and Slope Electric Cooperative. There is no Police Department in New England, the Hettinger County Sheriff Department patrols and responds to 911 calls in New England.