Gateway to the northern plains

"In the 1860s, land speculators in Minnesota and the Dakota Territory expected that a great city would rise where the railroad crossed the Red River of the North. In 1872, after the Northern Pacific Railroad laid its first tracks across the river, it brought settlers, capital, and access to Eastern markets and gave birth to the twin cities of Moorhead and Fargo."

"Historian Carroll Engelhardt's Gateway to the Northern Plains chronicles the story of Fargo and Moorhead's growth. Once just specks on the vast landscape of the Northern Plains, these twin cities prospered, teeming with their own dynamic culture, economy, and politics. Moorhead developed first, boosted by railroad manager Thomas Hawley Canfield, who touted it as superior to Fargo. However, Northern Pacific Railway chose Fargo as its headquarters, and it became the "Gateway City" to North Dakota."--Jacket.