This week my boyfriend and I drove to Fargo going through South Dakota, adding 12 and 13 to the number of states we’ve visited together. It was a great trip! I’m grateful to have a partner who can make a trip to Fargo during January such a fun experience. We packed in a lot of fun activities in the short time we were there. My top 5 things:
Hjemkomst Center
The Hjemkomst Center and Cultural Society of Clay County is located across the river from Fargo in Moorhead, MN and is recognizable from a distance for the building’s unique shape. The roof is a large, white tent that makes space for the Hjemkomst - a replica viking ship that is housed in the center of the museum. Before visiting, I had never heard the story of the Hjemkomst. It was built by Roger Asp, who died of Leukemia shortly after the boat had been completed. His three sons and daughter, along with a crew, sailed the ship from Duluth, MN to Olso, Norway in the summer of 1982. It was a treat to learn about the creation and voyage of the ship, and as a bonus the museum happened to have free entry on Tuesdays nights! The Clay County museum in the basement was also a wonderful display of the history of the area.
PBS Documentary highlighting the Hjemkomst
Plains Art Museum
The Plains Art Museum near downtown Fargo had plenty of art to look at and learn about, and entry was free. My favorite exhibit was in the Fred Donath, Jr. Memorial Gallery and featured the works of Yanktonai Dakota Oscar Howe. Howe had a refreshing style with and interesting use of colors and shapes.
Fargo Public Library
The afternoon was spent looking at microfilm at the FPL – not exactly an activity I expected to be doing on vacation, but was so much fun. We read archives of the Fargo Forum Newspaper from 1902/1903. It’s always interesting to look at advertisements, the prices of items, stories from a publication over 100 years old, particularly a town where you are visiting for the first time. The library was also selling books for cheap, and I was able to purchase a 1941 copy of the Norton History of Western Music for just a few dollars.
Fargo Air Museum
The Fargo Air Museum took an easy two hours of our time looking at a variety of different aircraft and learning about notable Fargoan aviators. They had a small net cage where you could fly a tiny toy drone through a series of hoops, which was a lot of fun.
Walk along the Red River of the North
Despite the cold January temperature, we were able to take a nice stroll along the river between Fargo and Moorhead. I love trails that have signs along the side explaining facts about the nearby environment, so you can get some exercise AND learn something new! This trail had plaques about the riparian zone, which is the area between land and a river or stream. These zones had many benefits for their ecosystems, like helping to maintain water quality through the vegetation filtering out excess nutrients and sediment.
Honorable Mentions
- Swimming in the hotel pool – shockingly, the hotel was not too crowded during this time of year. The pool, and the hotel in general, was fairly empty during our stay. Whenever we stay in hotels we play catch with a ball 🙂
- Tri-state Marker – we drove through South Dakota on our way and stopped at the MN/SD/ND tri-state marker, which was a small stone block with engravings on it. Not anything particularly special, but fun to say that we did it.
- World’s Largest Booming Prairie Chicken – just outside Moorhead on the 94 was this random roadside attraction. I found this on one of my new favorite sites: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/
Mimi Chronicle 