Bottineau is also home to Programmer's Broadcasting, which owns and operates KBTO, along with KTZU and KWGO in Minot.

Bottineau was founded in 1883 as Oak Creek as a customs station and an overnight stagecoach stop.

The entire town was moved south in 1887 to where the Great Northern Railway was installing new tracks.

[7] The widest tornado on record in North Dakota, at 1.14 miles wide, dropped near Bottineau in 1986.

[8] It destroyed a mobile home but did not harm the pregnant woman who was inside.

[8] In 2012, a new chalet called Annie's House was built in Bottineau Winter Park, ten miles (16 km) north.

It was built to honor Ann Nicole Nelson, who was the only North Dakotan to die in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

[9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.09 square miles (2.82 km2), all land.

Bottineau has a humid continental climate (Koppen: Dfb) with four seasons and huge differences in temperatures throughout the year.

Summers tend to be warm, sometimes hot, and winters are severely cold.

Citizens are divided by location into four wards, who each elect two city council members, for a total of eight.

41.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 21.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.