Rising 1,031 feet (314 m), North Dakota's most prominent peak,[1] Boundary Butte, is located at the western edge of the plateau.

[2] Rapid colonization and settlement in the 19th century, along with the establishment of a firm border between Canada and the United States, displaced many Indigenous peoples to and from the region.

The Métis hunted and fished in the Turtle Mountains and increasingly moved westward from Pembina in search of declining buffalo populations.

[3] The federal government recognized and designated this group the Pembina Band, but this did not include all the Ojibwe peoples already established at Turtle Mountain.

Woodland overstory species are primarily green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), Manitoba maple (Acer negundo), American elm (Ulmus americana), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), and balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera).

Common shrubs in the forest understory include beaked hazel (Corylus cornuta), chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), saskatoon berry (Amelanchier alnifolia), nannyberry (Viburnum lentago), dogwood (Cornus sericea), highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) and pincherry (Prunus pensylvanica).

Peak annual production of the McArthur, Henderson, Deep Ravine, Salter, Powne, and Deloraine Coal Company mines averaged over 1000 tons each.