 Autumn leaves....spring's colorful winter blanket. |
Starring
My Town…
salutes
Fargo, North Dakota
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Night on Broadway....yesterday and today |
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. Fargo was built by a railroad. When Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 2, 1864 creating the Northern Pacific Railroad, it was a foregone conclusion that the next great city west of Minneapolis would rise where the railroad tracks crossed the Red River. Named after William G. Fargo, financial backer of the NPR and partner in the Wells Fargo Express Company, Fargo is now the biggest
city in North Dakota.
 William G. Fargo |
 The first frame building in Fargo. |
. Before it was Fargo, it was part of the vast Dakota Territory ceded to the U.S. when Great Britain made the 49th parallel the official border of Canada. It was also home to the Yanktonai of the Nakota Sioux who had no fixed homes but built their buffalo hide tipis between the river and the
prairie.
 Yellow Horse of the Yanktonai |
 Yanktonai camp |
. The Dakota Territory lay in the Great Plains, one of the world’s four major grasslands. It stretches from Canada to Mexico and from the Rocky Mountains across to the Appalachians, 400 miles wide and 2500 miles long. But when settlers came to build their homes, they found there were no trees for miles! So they cut rectangles in the earth and used root-embedded sod to make their houses, needing wood only for window frames and doors. Did you know Lawrence Welk's family spent one cold North Dakota winter under an upturned wagon covered with sod?
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Sod Houses...warm in winter, cool in summer and fireproof! |
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. Fargo, the county seat for Cass County was founded in 1871 eighteen years before North Dakota became a state in
1889. With the railroad and the steamboats on the river, it became a thriving city. Homes and businesses sprang up.
With wood plentiful near the river, most buildings and even the sidewalks were made of wood.
 The first house built in Fargo..1869
(now preserved at Bonanzaville) |
 The first hotel..buuilt by NPR in 1872
right by the tracks! |
 The town in 1873 |
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. Then on a windy June 7, 1893 a grocery store owner threw hot ashes from her stove out into her backyard and literally burned the town down.
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. When Fargo was rebuilt, they wisely used brick and stone. Some of those buildings still stand today, while others
gave way to modern centers….and a few became parking lots.
 "Old Main" North Dakota State University 1892 |
 St,.Mary's Cathedral 1899 |
 The Dacotah Hotel... built at the turn of the century
...razed for a parking lot in 1981. |
 Hansen's, 1905 and still in mint condition |
 St. Luke's Hospital as it looked in 1908..... |
 ...and the Fargo Clinic of today |
 Fargo City Hall built in 1910... |
 ...looks like this today. |
 The Northern Pacific Railroad station built in 1898 is now....
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 ....a senior citizen center! |
. Art and artifacts are alive and well in Fargo!....
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The Plains Art Museum inside and out! |
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 Boerth's Gallery |
 The Roger Maris Museum for Fargo's favorite baseball star !
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 Bonanzaville, the historic village where Fargo keeps its memories.
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…and movies have a history there, too. The first movie theater with “live motion pictures using the Cameragraph” was the Bijou in 1906. It later became the Garrick Theater in the 1920s and lasted another 10 years or so. In 1925 a fruit store became the Fargo, a film and vaudeville. Renovated in 1999, it is now truly a movie palace.
 The Bijou |
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 ...inside and... |
 ...and from across the street! |
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The Garrick..now showing The Good Bad Girl"?
. The Oscar-winning film “Fargo” put the town in focus even though it was mostly about Minnesota and only the snow
scenes were filmed in Fargo!
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"Fargo" 1996 with Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare.
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. Some more postcard and picture perfect scenes from master collector and story-teller James Lileks*…..
 Early Broadway in Fargo |
 Catching the train at the turn of the century |
 Post-WWII Fargo. |
 Today in Fargo. |
. But before we leave, let’s take another look around…
 Fargo after a thunderstorm |
 The Island Park gazebo in summer.... |
 ...and in winter! |
 The Gethsemane Episcopal Cathredral |
 Winter at the zoo means camel hair coats! |
 Sunset in Fargo |
*Don’t miss James Lileks’ “Fargo Then and Now
http://www.lileks.com/fargo/index.html
Or…A Pictorial History of Fargo
http://www.fargo-history.com/
I would also like to thank the NDSU institute of Regional studies for the information on sod houses.