6/15/2007:
The city of Grand Forks was given its name on this day in 1870. Sanford C. Cady, the city’s first postmaster, named the city by performing a simple literal translation of its previous french name, “Les Grandes Fourches.” The area had been named for the large forks formed by the Red River and its tributaries centuries earlier. When early traders and fur trappers visited the area, they chose the site as a rendezvous point to meet and trade wares. Over time, some of these early visitors stayed on, and when emigrants arrived in the nineteenth century in search of farm land, many settled around the spot.
So many arrived, in fact, that the need arose for a post office in 1870. In order to establish the post office, the area required a name, and so the first postmaster named the area. Grand Forks itself did not become a city until its incorporation eleven years later, after a population spurt. Alexander Griggs, better known as the “Father of Grand Forks”, was largely responsible for turning the trading post into a town. Griggs operated on the Red River as a steamboat captain, bringing both people and necessary supplies to the fledgling city.
Steamboats became a common sight on the Red River in the second half of the nineteenth century, and their summer pilgrimages up the river are credited with the growth of Grand Forks to this day. After the city’s incorporation, the growth of Grand Forks quickly snowballed. In 1875, George H. Walsh started the area’s first newspaper, The Plainsdealer. Four years later, a second newspaper even sprang up. Central School opened in 1881, and two more quickly followed. Soon, the city boasted its own Police and Fire Departments, in addition to a local hospital.
As large a role as the steamboats played in the early history of Grand Forks, the impact of the railroad to the area was overwhelming. After the railroad was introduced in the 1880's, the population of the city grew from seventeen hundred residents to nearly five thousand in 1890. A business boom occurred in response to the population increase, which led to the success of the city we know today as Grand Forks, thanks to Sanford Cady anyway.
Sources:
http://www.grandforksgov.com/gfgov/home.nsf/Pages/History
http://www.fotw.us/flags/us-nd-gf.html
--Jayme L. Job