| Fargo on the eastern border of North Dakota was | | | | buildings and a new water system helped the town |
| renamed in honour of the colourful Wells Fargo | | | | to develop in a way that the old format could not |
| Express Company founder, William Fargo, after it had | | | | have allowed. This new infrastructure formed the |
| originally been known as Centralia. The city sits on | | | | basis of a thriving community and expansion soon |
| the west of the Red River, the State of Minnesota | | | | followed. |
| to the east, and is only 275 miles from the major | | | | A hotel in Fargo was the first major building to be |
| conurbation of Minneapolis-St.Paul. | | | | erected in the town. The Headquarters Hotel built in |
| The largest city in North Dakota, Fargo is ideally | | | | 1872, housed not only guests, but government and |
| located next to the rich agricultural belt of the Central | | | | railroad offices. However, the original Headquarters |
| Plains and is nicknamed the Gateway to the West | | | | survived for only two years before being destroyed |
| because of its location at the crossroads of major | | | | by a fire started in the kitchen. But, in yet another |
| railroads and the Red River. As the town developed | | | | example of the resilience and fortitude of the early |
| in the 1870s and 1880s it was helped by being an | | | | settlers, it was completely rebuilt within 90 days. |
| early stopping off spot for the Steamboats. The | | | | The town continued to grow steadily until the |
| mixture of trade arriving by river and railroad helped | | | | Second World War. After the conflict ended Fargo |
| build the town's importance to the region. | | | | entered a boom period and expanded rapidly. Even a |
| The first setback for the town occurred when Fargo | | | | violent tornado in 1957, which destroyed a large |
| was almost entirely razed in June 1893 after a small | | | | portion of northern Fargo, couldn't stop the town's |
| ash fire behind a grocery store quickly spread and | | | | expansion. In yet another example of the town's |
| engulfed hundreds of the closely-built wooden | | | | resilience, the affected areas were soon rebuilt and |
| buildings. But, out of that disaster sprung a better, | | | | any signs of the devastation quickly removed. |
| sanitised version of what had gone before; brick | | | | |