Grand Forks (pop. 52,838; met. area pop. 98,461) is a city in east-central North Dakota , in the upper Midwestern region of the United States. The city is a processing and transportation center for one of the world’s most productive farming areas. The Grand Forks metropolitan area includes Grand Forks County in North Dakota and Polk County in Minnesota .
Grand Forks lies on the Red River of the North, which forms a boundary between North Dakota and Minnesota. About 75 miles (121 kilometers) north of Grand Forks, the river flows northward into Canada, where it is known simply as the Red River. Grand Forks is home to the University of North Dakota . The Grand Forks Air Force Base lies west of the city. Medical centers, agriculture-related businesses, and retail establishments are also major employers in the Grand Forks area. Grand Forks is the seat of Grand Forks County. It has a mayor-council government.
Such Native American groups as the Chippewa (also called Ojibwa), Hidatsa, and the Santee and Yankton Sioux had lived in the eastern Dakota and western Minnesota region before French trappers arrived in the mid-1700’s. Trappers named a site in the area Les Grandes Fourches, meaning Grand Forks, for its location at the confluence of the Red Lake River and the Red River of the North. The U.S. Congress formed the Dakota Territory in 1861, and a small number of homesteaders settled in the Grand Forks area. A post office with the official name of Grand Forks opened in 1870. In 1875, a steamboat captain named Alexander Griggs founded the town and encouraged settlement there. Grand Forks was incorporated as a city in 1881.
In the 1870’s, large-scale wheat farms were established in the Red River Valley. In the 1880’s, railroads linked Grand Forks with Fargo to the south. The University of North Dakota was founded in the city in 1883, six years before North Dakota became a state. In 1922, the state-owned North Dakota Mill and Elevator began operating in the city. In 1954, the U.S. Department of Defense chose Grand Forks as the site for an air force base. Flooding of the Red River of the North has periodically caused many hardships for city residents. In 1997, flooding forced most of the people of Grand Forks to evacuate.
