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GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA

Grand Forks has traditionally been a meeting place. Located at the junction of the Red River of the North and the Red Lake River, the forks served as a camping and trading site for Native American's for centuries. French, British, and American fur traders peddled their wares in an around "la Grande Fourches."

Early Settlement
In the 1850's, furs and trade goods passed through the Forks on oxcarts en route to Winnipeg and St. Paul. The ungreased wheels squeaked as the carts passed near the river.

Steamboats replaced oxcarts in 1859. The shallow-draft steamboats could operate in less than three feet of water as they navigated the Red River shipping grain and supplies from Fargo to Winnipeg.

Alexander Griggs, an experienced Mississippi River Steamboat captain, established the townsite of Grand Forks in 1870. Griggs teamed up with James J. Hill in the River Transportation Line of steamboats in the 1870's.

Commerce
Grand Forks really began to grow after Hill's Great Northern Railroad came to town in 1880. The Northern Pacific also built tracks to the city in 1882 and business boomed.

Wheat farming served as the basis of the Red River Valley prosperity. In 1863, Thomas Amidon, chief miller at the Diamond Mills in Grand Forks, invented Cream of Wheat. Three local mill owners, George Clifford, George Bull and Emery Mapes, in an effort to save their business, financed the new breakfast porridge venture and the city became part of a national breakfast legend.

In 1876, Col. Frank Viets built what is now the oldest surviving business structure sill on its original site in Grand Forks, the Viets Hotel. The establishment originally catered to the riverboat trade. The hotel burned and was demolished in August of 2000.

From the 1880's through 1910, pine logs were floated down the Red Lake River or brought in by rail to sawmills in the city. Many houses were built of majestic white pine from the vast forests of Northern Minnesota.

Growth and Development
The University of North Dakota, founded in 1883, grew from a raw northern plains university to the premiere liberal arts institution in the state. The city grew from the river toward the college campus to the west. Today, UND is home to the Division One "Fighting Sioux" hockey program located in the new state-of-the-art Ralph Engelstad Arena. The university is also world reknown for its academic programs that focus on Aerospace and Atmospheric Sciences.( http://www.aero.und.edu/ats/) More than 12-thousand students are now enrolled at UND.

By 1900, Grand Forks had a population of almost 10,000. The wealth from the lumber companies, wheat farms, and railroads enabled the community to take its place as a leading city of the Great Northwest.

Grand Forks grew as a regional trade center early in the 20th Century, with businesses like the Grand Forks Wollen Mill, and the North Dakota State Mill and Elevator spurring city growth.

The great flood of 1997 put Grand Forks on the front page of newspapers everywhere, while live images of flood and fire were beamed by satellite around the globe. Local landmarks destroyed in the disaster have been replaced with new business districts and new neighborhoods as people re-established themselves and the community.

Present
Today, Grand Forks is an impressively cosmopolitan city. Boasting a population of roughly 52,000 people, Grand Forks is in constant contention with Bismarck to be named the 2nd largest city in the state of North Dakota. The quality of life in Greater Grand Forks has been ranked among the top in the nation.