Grand Forks

Grand Forks, a city and the county-seat of Grand Forks county, North Dakota, U.S.A., at the junction of the Red river (of the North) and Red Lake river (whence its name), about 80 m. N. of Fargo. Pop. (1900) 7652, of whom 2781 were foreign-born; (1905) 10,127; (1910) 27,888. It is served by the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern railways, and has a considerable river traffic, the Red river (when dredged) having a channel 60 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep at low water below Grand Forks. At University, a small suburb, is the University of North Dakota (co-educational; opened 1884). Affiliated with it is Wesley College (Methodist Episcopal), now at Grand Forks (with a campus adjoining that of the University), but formerly the Red River Valley University at Wahpeton, North Dakota. In 1907-1908 the University had 57 instructors and 861 students; its library had 25,000 bound volumes and 5000 pamphlets. At Grand Forks, also, are St Bernard’s Ursuline Academy (Roman Catholic) and Grand Forks College (Lutheran). Among the city’s principal buildings are the public library, the Federal building and a Y.M.C.A. building. As the centre of the great wheat valley of the Red river, it has a busy trade in wheat, flour and agricultural machinery and implements, as well as large jobbing interests. There are railway car-shops here, and among the manufactures are crackers, brooms, bricks and tiles and cement. The municipality owns its water-works and an electric lighting plant for street lighting. In 1801 John Cameron (d. 1804) erected a temporary trading post for the North-West Fur Company on the site of the present city; it afterwards became a trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The first permanent settlement was made in 1871, and Grand Forks was reached by the Northern Pacific and chartered as a city in 1881.