[1] The system was created by the Stark County, North Dakota, emergency coordinator Kornard Burkle in 1988 as a way of assigning addresses to houses for use in the then soon to be implemented enhanced 911 services in Stark County.
[2] Because other counties implementing the E911 system in North Dakota faced the same problem and to add a measure of consistency across the state, it was decided that the Burkle system would be used statewide for addressing rural properties.
[4] The basic idea of the system was inspired by the existing address system used in many towns where streets and avenues are numbered outwards from a starting "main street" near the center of town.
To number rural section line roads in the state the rough geographical centerlines of the state were designated as "Main Street" (running east–west) and "Main Avenue" (running north–south).
[3] In areas of subdivisions where the system is employed but a higher address accuracy is required, the increments are reduced to 1⁄100 mile (53 ft; 16 m).