South of Norman County on U.S. Highway 75 is Clay County (pop. 58,999), named for Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky.

1777-1852

The county seat of Clay County is Moorhead (pop. 38,065), located on the east bank of the Red River, across from Fargo, N.D. The Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area has a population of 208,777.

Red River and Moorhead (from the Fargo High Rise Senior Center)

The current slogan of the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitors Bureau is “Always Warm!”

Average January Low Temperature: -2 degrees

Minnesota State University Moorhead (7,500 students) and Concordia College (2,800 students) are both located in Moorhead. Concordia College is famous for its world-traveling Concordia Choir.

Founded in 1919

Buddy Holly was flying to Moorhead when he died in a plane crash in Iowa on Feb. 3, 1959.

The Rourke Art Museum is in Moorhead’s former federal courthouse and post office, built in 1915 in the Classical Revival style.

The museum was founded in 1960.

Moorhead’s Hjemkomst Center is the home of the Hjemkomst Viking Ship, a full-scale replica of an actual Viking ship.

It sailed from New York to Norway in 1983.

Interstate 94 runs through Moorhead; it goes west across North Dakota to Billings, Montana, and southeast to Port Huron, Michigan.

It’s 233 miles from Moorhead to Minneapolis.

The town of Barnesville (pop. 2,563), in a potato-growing region, has its annual Potato Days festival in August.

Mashed potato wrestling

Buffalo River State Park, east of Moorhead, has prairie and woodland areas.

200 species of birds

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