Written by Kim
Our trip from Duluth to Fargo was a little over 5 hours. North Dakota is another new state for both of us.
The drive was very rural with some small towns here and there. We know we’re now in the west because we crossed the Mississippi River.
We passed lots of farms with more hay bales, some prairies, and lots of lakes.
A little trivia for you today – what’s the difference between a lake and a pond? Well I first looked up the definition and found the definition vague.
Definition of a lake: a large body of water surrounded by land.
Definition of a pond: a small body of water formed naturally or by hollowing or embanking.
After some more research I learned that each state defines lakes differently. Minnesota defines a lake as a body of water that is at least 10 acres in size while Wisconsin says a lake is 2.2 acres. Minnesota’s nickname is the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, and it has 11,842 lakes that are at least 10 acres in size.
We did a short walking tour of the town. Fargo is the most populous city in North Dakota with the about 125,000 inhabitants. Fargo was an early stopping point for steamboats traversing the Red River during the 1870s and 1880s. A major fire struck the city on June 7, 1893, destroying 31 blocks of downtown Fargo, but the city was immediately rebuilt with new buildings made of brick, new streets, and a water system. More than 246 new buildings were built within one year. Two of the cool buildings were the theater with their original marquee & the rail station.
The coolest part of our visit was our hotel. We stayed at a really unique boutique hotel called Brewhalla which is owned by Drekker Brewery. The building that houses Brewhalla in Fargo, North Dakota was originally built in 1880 by the Northern Pacific Railway Company. The building was originally a locomotive repair building and foundry, and was part of a large railroad facility. The building fell into disrepair after being mostly empty for decades. It was refurbished by Drekker and opened in 2023. The old railway building is 4 stories. The bottom 2 floors are bars, restaurants and shops. The top 2 floors are hotel rooms.
The beers were interesting too….lots of IPAs and sours that tasted more like juice!
Tomorrow we head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Until then…..
