| Summary: | Variant Title: Your city, Grand Forks North Dakota firm to make the trip from Fort Abercrombie to Winnipeg by flatboat and to decide the type of boat which could best be used on the river. Captain Griggs recommended steamboats and he was sent to Fort Abercrombie where he built the SELKIRK. In 1872 Commodore Kittson of Hudson Bay Company established a boatyard at the end of the present Second Avenue North where a city parking lot is now located and where the Grand Forks Foundry formerly stood. D. P. Reeves was placed in charge of the boatyard. Soon thereafter the steamers Dakota, Manitoba, Minnesota and Alpha were built and added to the line of boats navigating the Red River. Rival Captains competed for passengers and fame in establishing a lively commerce with Fargo and Winnipeg, and this nave rise to exciting episodes during the colorful period that lasted into the 1900's. In 1871, with river boat traffic assured, Captain Griggs built the first frame house in the village at the foot of Kittson Avenue near the Red River. The year 1871 saw established the Stewart Stagecoach route and the Stewart stage station or hostelry. The latter was located near the Hoffman- Loon cabin, but at the top of Blue's Hill at the present intersection of Eighth Avenue South and Almonte Avenue. In 1871 the first store under private ownership was established by Alexander Griggs, George W. Walsh, and M. L. McCormack, near the present Red River National Bank location. In 1871 a Hudson Bay Company Hotel—frame lodging house—stood where Buttrey's store is now. Across DeMers Avenue, where Griffith's store now stands, was the corral for horses of hotel guests. In 1872 the Northwestern Hotel, which was the first hotel better than a mere lodging house, was erected by the Hudson Bay Company. It stood at the corner of the present Second Avenue North and Third Street where Thorns' Floral Company is now located. This was near the old steam-boat landing. In early 1873 the first saw-mill was built by the Hudson Bay Company. A short distance from it was the flour mill which they built in 1877 near the approach to the present Sorlie Memorial Bridge. The Hudson Bay Store, built in 1873, was managed by Frank Viets until 1877 when he bought the business and continued it at the corner of Third Street and Kittson Avenue, where Penney's Store is now. Dohenny and Lyons established in 1881 a flour mill at Second Street and DeMers Avenue which made flour for several years. "Gold Nugget" and "Belle of Grand Forks" were two favorite brands. City Waterworks In 1883 the first watermain was laid in Grand Forks by the city but the water was pumped by a private company. In 1885 the. city pumping plant was installed on South Third Street across from the present plant. The water supply was from the Red Lake River. After the severe typhoid epidemic in 1892-93, the city installed the first filtration system in 1894. It was a slow sand filter, the second one of its kind to be used in the United States. First County Government In 1873 Governor John A. Burbank of Dakota Territory appointed G. B. Winship, O. S. Freeman, and Ole Thompson as County Commission- Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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