Imagine yourself in early Fargo. It is a winter evening. You light a whale oil or kerosene lantern so that you may see. You put put wood in the stove to warm the room and take a drink of water from the barrel you hauled from the Red River. If nature calls, you put on your winter coat and head for the outhouse. The utility infrastructure we take for granted had to constructed one piece at a time. This page contains links to pages about the building of Fargo's utilities. Click on the titles to go to individual pages.
The first residential telephone installed in Fargo was in the home of James Holes, Sr. in 1881.
Electric lights shown for the first time in Fargo on April 12, 1883. The Argus editorialized the next day that "Last night Fargo was radiant."
Fargo received its first gas in 1885 when the Fargo Gas Light and Fuel Company (incorporated in 1881) began producing gas for local streetlights. The gas was of poor quality and each individual streetlamp had to be turned on and off daily. Gas was a fire hazard for indoor use and left a film of soot.
In 1880, the Fargo Water and Steam Company (a privately-owned firm) built a pumping station and a small dam in Island Park. The system delivered raw, untreated river water though its water mains. People became increasingly concerned about public health but it was not until June 1913, that the Fargo waterworks began pumping treated water into the city's water mains.
Fargo, North Dakota
Utilities