Could F-M historically ever be a major US city??
Was it ever possible for F-M throughout history to end up being like a Kansas City to Minneapolis' St. Louis, so-to-speak?? F-M was founded in such a strategic location, I believe it was founded in the 1870's with the intent to be the largest city on the Northern Pacific Railroad.
I'm not really asking about the future, I'm just asking historically, and if there was ever a chance we could've been, and if there was, what happened to stop it??
I'm talking about if things could've happened in the past that would lead to F-M being a city of 1.5 million people today rather than 209,000 people. I don't think one can say "oh, it never would've happened" without really understanding the history. I know that F-M had a geographical location that was a huge advantage, but I have to look at other big cities, and how they grew. Kansas City was where all the meat was processed. Winnipeg was literally the glue that held Canada together, and everything going through that country (and the British Empire) went through there.
I know that Fargo was once the key place where they built all the farm machinery. I also know that corn and wheat and other crop futures were once traded in Fargo. One wonders if F-M focused too much on ag related business right before the ag bust and Dust Bowl happened. It seems that Omaha did a better job of establishing itself as the center of the ag universe throughout the pre-war and post-war decades than Fargo did. Was there just not enough money in Fargo to go past that critical mass? Maybe flooding threats drove a lot of potential business away. Did the weather have as bad a reputation way back in the day as it does now??
It just seems to me that right after they built the NP Railroad over the Red River, that was a key crucial moment in deciding how big the city was to grow. Did not enough people initially settle the townsite?? Could they have established some type of huge industry in Fargo right after the railroad ties were laid?? I truly think Fargo-Moorhead had the potential to have been a metro area today very comparable in size to Milwaukee or Kansas City.
I kinda find it fascinating, and I was wondering what you think.
Going to the website fargo-history.org gives a lot of good info. although I don't even know if it exists still.
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