GRAND FORKS, a city of North Dakota, U.S.A., on the Red river, opposite the mouth of the Red Lake river, 8om. N. of Fargo; the second city of the State in size, and the county seat of Grand Forks county. It is on Federal highways 2 and 81; is served by the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railways; and has an airport. The population in 1930 Federal census was 17,112. About 20% are of foreign birth, chiefly Scandinavian and Canadian.
Grand Forks is in the heart of the spring wheat country, where modern methods of cultivation are adding large acreages of other crops (notably sugar beets) and increasing the livestock and poultry. The All-American Turkey Show is an annual event, and the State Fair and the State Peony Show are also held here. There are silver fox farms in the vicinity. The city has a large whole sale and retail trade. Bank debits to individual accounts amounted in 1926 to $107,714,000.
The large terminal elevator and flour mill built (192 2) and operated by the State are located here. There are other large flour mills, packing-houses, brick yards, and sundry other in dustries. The factory output in 1927 was valued at Since then a large beet-sugar factory has been erected near the city. The Great Northern has under construction (1928) new machine shops and extensions of its freight terminal.
At the Bankside (open-air) theatre, founded by Frederick H. Koch, amateur dramatic productions are given in a spring festival which has attained national reputation. On the outskirts of the city is the University of North Dakota, founded by the Territorial Assembly in 1883 and opened in 1884. The enrolment is about 2,400. Connected with it are the State geological survey, the State public health laboratories, and a special meteorological sta tion of the United States weather bureau. The university main tains a sub-station of the School of Mines at Hebron, and a biological station on the shores of Devils lake. Affiliated with the university is Wesley college, and a Lutheran Bible college is situated here.
A trading post of the North-West Fur Company was established on the site of Grand Forks in 1801 by John Cameron (d. 1804), and later it passed to the Hudson's Bay Company. Permanent settlement began in 1871, and the city was chartered in 1881, the year when the Northern Pacific reached it. In 1900 the population was 7,652; in 191o, 12,478; in 1920, 14,01o.