MOVING THE RIVER

Because the elevation of Fargo is generally lower than Moorhead, Fargo has always suffered more from flooding. To ease this problem in the Island Park area, in 1959 Fargo built the dike that now stretches north from near Prairie Psychiatric Center (formerly St. John’s Hospital). Early plans called for the dike to run through the middle of Island Park just west of the original river channel near 4th Street. A more workable plan was to move the river and build the dike on its present site. As a result, the City of Moorhead and the State of Minnesota actually lost about 12½ acres of land. It literally took an Act of Congress to change the state boundary to the new river bed.