Where to Stay in Fargo, North Dakota

What is Fargo known for?

Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota and the regional hub of the Red River Valley. It grew as a railroad and grain town on the flat prairie, and its downtown keeps the low brick streetfronts of that era. Art anchors it.

The Plains Art Museum sits at the centre, with the Cathedral of St. Mary and the Fargo Air Museum among the city's other draws. Across the Red River, the twin town of Moorhead faces it from the Minnesota bank.

What are the main landmarks in Fargo?

Fargo's landmarks gather downtown. The Plains Art Museum occupies a former warehouse near Broadway, the Cathedral of St. Mary rises among the central blocks, and the Fargo Civic Center anchors the civic core close by. The Fargo Air Museum keeps historic aircraft out near the airfield.

Preserved houses record the city's early growth across its older residential streets, among them the Comstock House, the Dibley House, and the James Holes House with their carved porches and steep gables.

What is the history of Fargo?

Fargo was founded in 1871 where the Northern Pacific Railway crossed the Red River on its push west across the prairie. The crossing gave the town its start, and it took its name from a director of the railroad. Grain from the surrounding Red River Valley poured through, and Fargo grew fast as a shipping and milling centre for the wheat lands around it.

A fire swept the young downtown in the 1890s. The city rebuilt in brick, and much of that streetscape stands along Broadway to this day. Wealth from the grain trade raised the houses now preserved across the older neighbourhoods, among them the Comstock House and the James Holes House, and the Cathedral of St. Mary rose to serve the growing city.

Fargo settled into its role as the trade and cultural hub for a wide stretch of the northern plains. The railroad, the river, and the wheat shaped every stage of it.

Where is Fargo?

Fargo sits on the west bank of the Red River in North Dakota, on the floor of the Red River Valley. The land here is flat. The valley is an old glacial lakebed, and the ground runs level and open in every direction, its dark soil among the richest farmland on the plains.

Across the river lies Moorhead, in Minnesota, the two towns joined at the water. The river flows north from the city toward Canada, unusual among the region's streams.

What is the climate of Fargo?

Fargo has a hard continental climate, with long, bitter winters and warm summers on the open prairie. Winters run long here. Cold air pours down over the flat Red River Valley with nothing to break it, and winters bring deep freezes and blowing snow.

Spring brings the risk of flooding as the Red River swells and spreads over the level ground. The brief summer runs warm and green across the prairie. The wide plains give the city long days and clear, far-reaching skies through the short warm season.

How do you get to Fargo?

Fargo sits at the crossing of the main interstate routes over the northern plains, reached by road across the flat Red River Valley from every direction. Hector International Airport serves the city with regional and connecting flights. Trains stop in Fargo on the transcontinental line that follows the old railroad route west.

The Red River bridge links it to Moorhead in Minnesota. Long prairie highways carry on across North Dakota from here.