Fargo

About Fargo

Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota, set on the flat, fertile plain of the Red River of the North, which forms the border with Moorhead, Minnesota. The city was founded in 1871 where the Northern Pacific Railway planned to cross the river, and it was named for railroad director William Fargo, co-founder of Wells Fargo. Surrounded by some of the richest farmland in the world, Fargo grew as a hub for the bonanza wheat farms of the Red River Valley and the trade of the northern plains.

Today Fargo has about 130,000 residents, and with Moorhead and West Fargo forms a metro area of more than 250,000. It is a young, friendly and fast-growing city thanks to North Dakota State University, whose Bison football team is a perennial national champion, and to a thriving tech and health care sector. Fargo's historic downtown has been revitalized with restaurants, breweries, boutiques and the restored 1926 Fargo Theatre, whose glowing art deco marquee is the city's most recognizable landmark.

Visitors can explore the Fargo Air Museum, the Plains Art Museum in a restored warehouse, and Bonanzaville, a pioneer village of historic buildings in West Fargo. The famous woodchipper from the Coen brothers' 1996 film Fargo is on display at the Fargo-Moorhead Visitors Center, where visitors line up to pose with it. Red River parks and trails, the Red River Zoo, the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead with its Viking ship replica and stave church, and the lively summer Red River Market round out a visit.