Fargo City Guide: Hidden Gems, Dark History & Local Secrets

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Longform stories and essays exploring Fargo's history and culture

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On the Bed of a Vanished Lake

Forty below, biblical floods, and the stubborn midwestern insistence that this is a good place to live

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The Ten-Minute Divorce

In the 1880s and 1890s, Fargo was the divorce capital of America. The territory's lenient laws allowed unhappy spouses to end marriages in minutes. One judge granted 350 divorces in a single year. People traveled from Europe to escape their marriages in North Dakota.

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The Tornado That Taught Us Everything

On June 20, 1957, an F5 tornado devastated Fargo. A young Japanese scientist named Ted Fujita came to study the aftermath. What he learned from the wreckage led him to create the Fujita Scale — the system we still use to measure tornadoes today.

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The Graves Beneath the Festival

Trollwood Park is where Fargo goes for summer concerts and theater. It's also where the county buried its poor, its sick, and its forgotten for half a century. Over 350 graves have been found. More keep appearing. The dead won't stay buried.

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On the Bed of a Vanished Sea

Fargo sits on the silted floor of glacial Lake Agassiz — a prehistoric sea larger than all five Great Lakes combined. When it drained, it may have triggered a global cooling event. The flatness isn't boring. It's apocalyptic.

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On the Bed of a Vanished Lake

Forty below, biblical floods, and the stubborn midwestern insistence that this is a good place to live

Read

On the Bed of a Vanished Lake

Forty below, biblical floods, and the stubborn midwestern insistence that this is a good place to live

Read

The Ten-Minute Divorce

Read

The Tornado That Taught Us Everything

Read

The Graves Beneath the Festival

Read

On the Bed of a Vanished Sea

Read

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Curated collections of curiosities, dark history, hidden gems, and more

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Fargo's Dark History

Cold cases on the prairie

Curious Fargo

Articles

On the Bed of a Vanished Lake

The Ten-Minute Divorce

The Tornado That Taught Us Everything

The Graves Beneath the Festival

On the Bed of a Vanished Sea

On the Bed of a Vanished Lake

The Ten-Minute Divorce

The Tornado That Taught Us Everything

The Graves Beneath the Festival

On the Bed of a Vanished Sea

On the Bed of a Vanished Lake

The Ten-Minute Divorce

The Tornado That Taught Us Everything

The Graves Beneath the Festival

On the Bed of a Vanished Sea

Discover

Fargo's Dark History

Curiosities

Hidden Gems

Lost & Loved

Fargo's Dark History

Curiosities

Hidden Gems

Lost & Loved

Fargo's Dark History

Curiosities

Hidden Gems

Lost & Loved

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On the Bed of a Vanished Lake