The Red River of the North forms one of the most fertile river valleys in the world. As it flows north to Canada it forms the state boundary between North Dakota and Minnesota. Near the river's head-waters on the bank of the Bois de Sioux is Wahpeton, North Dakota.

This is the county seat of Richland County, one of the nations largest producers of oats. Richland County ranks first in the production of soybeans, corn and hogs in North Dakota. Other crops which add to the area's economy are wheat, barley, sugarbeets and sunflowers. While Wahpeton is basically an agricultural community, its 8,586 citizens are proud of its recent industrial growth. Making Wahpeton their home today are manufacturers of farm machinery, metal culverts, truck equipment, factory machinery, ceramics, knives, draperies, clothing, metal stampings and fabrications and canvas and vinyl products.

But Wahpeton hasn't always been the southeast gateway to North Dakota. At one time it was merely the junction of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers which met to flow into the Red River. It was the end of the Minnesota forests and the beginning of the western plains, a place where the buffalo grass began to grow in an unbroken sweep to the Rockies.

The first explorer in the area was Johathan Carver in 1767. He explored and mapped the Northwest at the personal request of Major Robert Rogers. Rogers was commander of Fort Mackinac, the British fort on Mackinac Island which protected the passage between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Carver's mission was to find the Northwest passage, the imaginary waterway to the Orient which Rogers was convinced existed. While Carver failed in his search the passing years saw many fur traders and explorers pass through the area. More than one hundred years after the Carver expedition, a Government surveying party passed through the Wahpeton area. J. W. Blanding, a member of the expedition was so impressed by the fertile river valley that he returned to his Wisconsin home determined to move his family and belongings to the Dakota Territory. Blanding so influenced other Wisconsin settlers that many of them arrived and homesteaded in the Wahpeton area before Blanding could return.

The first settler was Morgan T. Rich. His plow turned the first furrow of rich black bottomland in 1869. When other settlers arrived, they formed a tiny community and quite naturally named it Richville. An apt name considering its founder and the fertile quality of the soil.

In 1871, a Post Office was opened. At the same time, the town's name was changed to "Chahinkapa" an Indian name meaning "the end of the woods." Two years later, the county was organized and called Chahinkapa County. Later that year the county was renamed Richland County and the town of Chahinkapa renamed Wahpeton. Credit for suggesting the name Wahpeton is given to an early settler named William Cooper. Wahpeton is a contraction of the Indian name "Warpeotonwe" meaning "Leaf Village".

Growth of the village of Wahpeton was quite slow during the first few years. But a flurry of activity was created in 1872 when the St. Paul and Pacific Railway (now the Great Northern) extended a line into Breckenridge, Minnesota, a tiny community just across the Bois de Sioux River. This created a booming business in flat boat building in both Breckenridge and Wahpeton. Flat boats could carry freight directly from the railroad down river to northern North Dakota and all the way to Winnipeg.

At the same time, the railroad opened up the area to many more settlers. Germans, Bohemians, Scandinavians and native Americans moved to Richland County to file homesteads. Wahpeton was growing. And in 1874, Jacob Morvin and Joseph Sittarich opened the first retail store in the county. By 1876 the traffic between Wahpeton and Breckenridge had grown to where the local ferry could not handle it and a bridge was built across the Bois de Sioux River connecting the two towns.

Another flurry of growth was realized in 1880 when the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad crossed the river and pushed its tracks on toward the north-west. A few years later, in 1883, the population of Wahpeton was estimated to be as high as 1,400 people.

As the county seat, Wahpeton was the center of all activity. Here was the courthouse, the bank and the first flour mills. In 1889 the Red River Valley University was established later to become the North Dakota State School of Science.

As the century came to a close, Wahpeton had settled down into a hard-working agricultural community. Its frontier had, years before, passed further west.

In 1904 the United States Government established the Wahpeton Indian School for the Education of Indian Children from northern Minnesota, North Dakota and northern South Dakota.

Through the Twenties and Thirties, Wahpeton continued to grow, develop and to keep pace with the rest of the nation. It has been through this half of the Twentieth Century that the Red River Valley has earned its reputation as one of the richest agricultural belts in the nation.

But Wahpeton is more than just a community with a history. It is a community with a future. Here is a growing city with more than 8,000 people located in a county with many producing farms, a city that boasts the most modern medical center in the area, St. Francis Hospital. Wahpeton is a community with two railroads, a bus line, five truck lines and an airport. It is the home of the North Dakota State School of Science which includes a junior college, business college trade school and technical school.

Recreation too, is important to the citizens of Wahpeton. The area is a virtual paradise for the outdoorsman and hunter. Located in the midst of the Western flyway, the Wahpeton area provides some of the finest migratory waterfoul hunting in the nation. And in the spring and summer when the golfers take to the links, the Bois de Sioux Golf Course offers golfers the opportunity to literally hit their tee-shot "into the next state". It is the only golf course in the nation where half the course is in one state and the other half in another.

Near the golf course is Chahinkapa Park, one of the State's outstanding parks, which offers every facility for fun and entertainment. Here young people will find all imaginable playground equipment and be enthralled with the bears, buffalo, Ilama, elk and other zoo animals. The park also boasts baseball, softball, and football facilities, miniature golf, tennis and during the summer the large swimming pool bubbles with activity.

There are many points of interest in Wahpeton, among them is the Richland County Historical Society Museum which is the most modern of its kind in the state and it provides hours of enjoyable browsing. Just a short drive from Wahpeton is famed Fort Abercrombie, where the restored fort and museum artifacts bring back the days of the covered wagon. Just outside the city is the Circus Monument erected in memory of circus workers killed by lightning here in 1897 and where circus performers hold a memorial service whenever they play in the area. The Leach Public Library houses over 17,000 volumes in an attractive library building. Worthy of the short drive is the view of the Carmelite Monastery nestled in the bend of the Wild Rice River a few miles from Wahpeton.

Further information may be obtained from the Wahpeton Breckenridge Area Chamber of Commerce at 118 6th Street North, Wahpeton, North Dakota 58075.