Mountrail County, ND neighbors Burke near Stanley metropolitan centre yielding a 2020 estimated population standing of 6,864 making it the 5th most populous county situated in North Dakota overall. Its county seat is Stanley with other towns include Palermo & Parshall-Stanley itself equates out to Mountrail's largestcity aside from noted country seat. This area had been created from Williams and Burke Counties back in 1910 when local residents petitioned for new administrative boundaries - posthumously named after early explorer Joseph Nicolas Nicollet travelling through region prior era William Howard Taft .