Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the let in of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city’s population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along in the same way as its twin city of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, forms the middle of the Grand Forks, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is often called Greater Grand Forks or the Grand Cities.

Located on the western banks of the north-flowing Red River of the North, in a flat region known as the Red River Valley, the city is prone to flooding. The Red River Flood of 1997 devastated the city. Originally called Les Grandes Fourches by French fur traders from Canada, who had long worked and lived in the region, steamboat captain Alexander Griggs platted a community after being provoked to winter there. The pronounce office was traditional in 1870, and the town was incorporated on February 22, 1881. The city was named for its location at the fork of the Red River and the Red Lake River.

Initially dependent on local agriculture, the city’s economy has previously broadened to combine a wide variety of industries, including forward-thinking education, defense, health care, manufacturing, food processing, and scientific research. Grand Forks is served by Grand Forks International Airport and Grand Forks Air Force Base. The city’s University of North Dakota is the oldest institution of complex education in the state. The Alerus Center and Ralph Engelstad Arena host supple and new events, while the Empire Arts Center and Chester Fritz Auditorium are the city’s largest cultural venues.

Prior to unity by Europeans, the area where the city developed, at the forks of the Red River and Red Lake River for thousands of years, had been an important meeting and trading lessening for Native Americans. Early French explorers, fur trappers, and traders called the area Les Grandes Fourches, meaning “The Grand Forks”. By the 1740s, French fur trappers relied on Les Grandes Fourches as an important trading post. This was French colonial territory.