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Office: McIntosh County Emergency Management Services – 112 1st Street NE, Ashley, ND 58413 | (701) 288-5140.
Sheriff: McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office – 112 1st St NE, PO Box 26, Ashley, ND 58413 | (701) 288-5160; Sheriff Steve Delzer; located inside the McIntosh County Courthouse.
Ambulance: Ashley Ambulance Service – formed 1973; all-volunteer BLS service providing ALS-level care roughly 99% of the time, covering 900 square miles including 911 response into Long Lake, SD.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: ND-11 serves Ashley, the county seat, in south-central North Dakota near the South Dakota border; Wishek is the county’s largest city.
Notes: McIntosh County, created 1883 and organized 1884, is named for Edward H. McIntosh. The original county seat was Hoskins (on Lake Hoskins) before moving to Ashley when it was established in 1888.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: McIntosh County Auditor – 112 1st Street NE, Ashley, ND 58413; confirm current phone via mcintoshnd.com.
Notes: McIntosh County is genuinely, notably the county with the highest percentage of German-Americans in the entire United States – over 76% of residents were of German descent as of the 2010 census, with most tracing ancestry to Germans from Russia who settled the area around Odessa in the South Russian steppe. The McIntosh County Courthouse (built 1919, Beaux Arts style, one of thirteen Buechner & Orth-designed courthouses in North Dakota) is genuinely NRHP-listed (1980); its grounds include the Pioneer Fathers and Mothers Monument, dedicated during Ashley’s 1938 Golden Jubilee. Wishek is named for John H. Wishek, Sr., an early pioneer who helped organize the county and founded Ashley.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: McIntosh County Veterans Service Office – 112 1st St NE, Ashley, ND 58413; no regular office hours – call to arrange an appointment, or visit the 2nd Friday of the month, 9 AM-Noon, at the Ashley Courthouse.
Federal: Fargo VA Medical Center (long distance, eastern ND).
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Ashley: Ashley Public Library – confirm current address/hours via ashley-nd.com; the McIntosh County Heritage Center is also located in Ashley.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Lake Hoskins Park (camping, near Ashley), Doyle Memorial Park (21 acres on Green Lake, 5 miles southeast of Wishek, established 1925, offering swimming, fishing, boating, and camping), and the McIntosh County Heritage Center are the county’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine German-Russian heritage – the highest concentration of German-Americans in the U.S. – is one of the most distinctive demographic facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: McIntosh County Auditor – 112 1st Street NE, Ashley, ND 58413.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
No dedicated county animal shelter was confirmed in this search – animal-related concerns likely route through the Sheriff’s Office. Confirm directly via mcintoshnd.com.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: McIntosh County Noxious Weed Board – confirm current contact via mcintoshnd.com.
NOTES: McIntosh County is the fifth county in the North Dakota v2 redo’s fourth batch (Kidder, LaMoure, Logan, McHenry, McIntosh, McKenzie, McLean). The genuine German-Russian heritage – the highest concentration of German-Americans anywhere in the United States – is one of the most distinctive demographic facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About McIntosh County County
McIntosh County is south-central North Dakota’s German Russian Mennonite heritage and James River headwaters county – the pacifist Mennonite settlers who fled Russian military conscription and shaped the county’s faith communities and the prairie pothole hunting landscape define a community where Ashley serves the county’s agricultural families near South Dakota.
Ashley (the county seat, population ~750) is McIntosh County’s governmental hub on ND-11, a south-central North Dakota community whose Mennonite heritage, James River headwaters, and grain farming economy anchor its identity near South Dakota.
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McIntosh County Assessor at 112 2nd Street, Ashley, ND 58413, phone 701-288-3671. ND assessed at 50% of true and full value.
Courts & Legal
McIntosh County District Court at 112 2nd Street, Ashley, ND 58413, phone 701-288-3671, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF DISTRICT COURT
210 3rd Ave North, Ashley, ND 58413
(701) 288-3417
Genealogy
County-level record sources
McIntosh County Clerk of District Court, Ashley (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
The 1919 McIntosh County Courthouse, NRHP-listed, is a significant local landmark; the Pioneer Fathers and Mothers Monument stands at the courthouse square.
Local societies
No dedicated McIntosh County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
McIntosh County Clerk of District Court – Southeast Judicial District 112 1st Street NE, Ashley, ND 58413 (701) 288-3491
McIntosh County was founded March 9, 1883, named for Edward H. McIntosh, in south-central North Dakota near the South Dakota border, seated in Ashley (though Wishek is the county’s largest city). The 1919 McIntosh County Courthouse, one of thirteen Beaux Arts courthouses in the state designed by Buechner & Orth, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
North Dakota has adopted the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), under Title 30.1 of the North Dakota Century Code – one of only about 18 states to do so. Probate is handled through the state District Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled.
Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property of the Decedent (Form 1, NDCC § 30.1-23) – available when the estate’s personal property, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000 (raised from $50,000 by 2025’s HB 1224) AND there is no real property in the estate. Requires a 30-day wait after death, no court filing. Mineral and oil/gas rights are classified as real property and can never be transferred by this affidavit.
Informal Probate – available when less than 3 years have passed since death, the validity of the will isn’t disputed, and everyone with equal or higher priority for appointment agrees on the personal representative. No court hearing required; unsupervised administration is the default.
Formal Probate – required when the will’s validity is contested, someone objects to informal probate, or more than 3 years have passed since death.
Supervised Administration – a court can require ongoing supervision if protection of the estate calls for it.
Step 2: filing for administration
File an Application (informal) or Petition (formal) for Probate of Will and Appointment of Personal Representative with the Clerk of District Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled.
The court/registrar issues Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (intestate) to the personal representative.
The personal representative publishes notice to creditors; North Dakota’s creditor claim period is 3 months from first publication.
The personal representative inventories and manages the estate’s assets, pays debts and expenses, and distributes what remains according to the will or North Dakota’s intestacy law.
The estate is closed with a final accounting/closing statement.
What it costs
No court filing fee for the Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property.
Filing fees for informal/formal probate vary but generally follow the statewide statutory schedule.
North Dakota does NOT have a statutory fee schedule for attorneys or personal representatives – fees must be “reasonable” based on services provided.
No state estate tax, no state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
210 3rd Ave North, Ashley, ND 58413
(701) 288-3231
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS
210 3rd Ave North, Ashley, ND 58413
(701) 288-3417
Department
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Public Health
210 3rd Ave North, Ashley, ND 58413
(701) 288-3417
Social Services
210 3rd Ave North, Ashley, ND 58413
(701) 288-3417
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: McIntosh County Public Health – confirm current contact via mcintoshnd.com.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Ashley
Population: 2,500
Public Records
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