PATRICIA LEWIS CAME FORWARD to me in late October of 2000, eager to contribute something to urbanphoto.net. What she brought was a pride and devotion to a hometown, Fargo, that is the epitome of classic American values. This isolated city on the midwestern plains remains an example of the Main Street urbanism that figures so prominently in America's collective imagination. The town itself, in fact, reflects the changes the United States has seen over the past century, from an expanding and eager country to a welcoming melting pot of world cultures. Fargo's spirit is reflected in its downtown, which in turn is reflected in James Ferragut's essay and the photos of Braden Kuznia, Casey Wollshlaeger, Dan Koeck and Tana Ruegamer. The problems that plague the many downtowns of America also plague the downtown of Fargo, whose slow renaissance bodes well for the soul of a prosperous giant that is slowly beginning to realise the importance of its heart.

I am merely the messenger and the true credit for this project must go to Patricia and the photographers. I give my many thanks to the effort they've invested in broadcasting what Fargo is to the rest of the world.

WHEN PEOPLE FIRST CAME to the Red River Valley, they didn’t come because of the area’s reputation. They came because of opportunity - free land, escaping pasts, new starts. The challenges of isolation and brutal weather endured by the first settlers brought out the character that is still here today: a strong work ethic, a willingness to help those less fortunate, a true cultivation of the finer aspects of humanity. Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota, bordering Moorhead, Minnesota on the Red River of the North. When people think of us, if they think of us at all, it’s as the lowest temperature in the nation in January, or the worst flood in 500 years in 1997, or as that "funny little movie".

I’ve lived in Fargo/Moorhead since 1986, but have visited the towns since the late 1960’s. After living in surrounding communities including Moorhead, I moved to downtown Fargo in June 2003. The vibrancy of the downtown - the character, the individuals who live and work there - all give it something very unique and special. You actually get to know people. It reminds me a lot of the small town I came from...

Fargo/Moorhead were towns founded on agriculture, but as things evolve, so have they. They've become cities of education with four universities and colleges. They've become places known for quality of life, Fargo being voted several times as one of the ten best places to live in the United States. In 2000, Fargo/Moorhead collectively was named All-American City in an annual competition.

I think one of the reasons for our quality of life stems back to the cities’ beginnings, when they welcomed everyone, no matter who they were. Despite the modest size of the two towns, and their landlocked geographic position, it has become one of the major immigration destinations in the United States for refugees from around the world. Our area has welcomed thousands of refugees from Vietnam, Laos, Somalia, former Soviet republics, Kurdistan and Iraq, and Bosnia and Croatia, over the past 25 years. My sister hosted a brother and sister from Vietnam for a year until their mother and other family members could come and begin a new life together. My daughter met and married a wonderful young Kurdish man whose family came to Fargo thanks to the refugee program.

Fargo is a place of extremes: extreme weather conditions, extreme flatness where you can see for miles and your imagination runs free, extremely open skies where you can see every star so clearly its as if you can reach out and touch it. It is a town with extremely friendly people where you know if you need a helping hand, it will be there. To some, Fargo may be boring. But to those of us who know it, it is anything but. It’s all in the perspective, you know. . .

I HAD TO BUY SOMETHING for one of my kids. I had a choice. I could head out to West Acres (which we now use as the generic term for the retail center of Fargo-Moorhead . . . the West Acres Mall, Toys-R Us, Media Play, Best Buy, T.J. Maxx Plaza, Target etc.). Or I'd take my chances and to find what I needed downtown. I chose downtown. And believe it or not I found what I was looking for. But I also discovered something I wasn't looking for. A ghost.

I'd like to go on record as someone who loves downtowns. Always have, always will. Downtown districts are the heart and soul of a community. Downtowns are what give community its character. Unlike the West Acres zone which unfortunately makes that part of Fargo interchangable with every other city in the country because of ubiquitous and homogenized franchised chains, the downtown district immediately speaks of the value the community has placed on the pride, the history and the being. And unlike Duluth, Sioux Falls, Red Wing, or Stillwater, Fargo obviously has placed more value on the commercial expansion to the southwest than to the preservation of our downtown.

When my family moved to Fargo, downtown was the real thing. As a young teenager, my buddies and I would spend our Saturdays downtown. We'd hop on the bus and get off at Woolworth's. We would shop at Herbst, go over to the basement cafe- teria at the White Drug on Broadway for french fries, a cherry coke and check out the girls. Then on to Siegel's Clothiers, across the street to Kresge's, down to Straus and Blacks, back to Musicland or Daveau's and inevitably over to the Town or the Grand or the Roxy or the Fargo or even the Princess (did they real- ly have rats?) Theater for a matinee. Then we would run back down to deLedendrie's and then across the tracks (or under the tunnel on Main and 8th Street) and back to Woolworths to catch the bus home. And during the week rdy mom would drive me to Daveau's Music Conservatory for my drum lessons or to Benson Optical to get my glasses adjusted or to Dr. Slomensky in the Black Building to get my braces tight- ened. As kids we knew every nook, cranny and alley in downtown Fargo. It was safe, alive, intriguing, and it was always a calculated destination.

During the teenage driving years there was the endless, harmless and happy cycle of dragging Broadway before and after Canteen or H'y-Tac at the Y. Downtown was still vibrant and alive when I left Fargo for college in 1969.

When I returned in late 1975 I got a job downtown, but the stores I loved as a kid had vanished or were closing. I worked downtown until 1981, but by then I could feel the cancer. The retail momentum was slowly, deliberately and callously moving to the southwest part of town. Every band-aid was applied and every economic or political medicine available to save downtown had failed. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. Now when I go downtown it is painful. The vibrancy that I knew as a kid is gone. The physical presence of what once was, is at best, tentative. Yes, there are subtle reminders of what it used to be, but you have to look closely and you have to look quickly. And yes, there are signs of life . . . thank you Zandbroz and Navigation Technologies and Intellisol and the Great Northern and the Fargo Dog House and Juano's, Interiors by France, Luigi's and Wimmer's, the Old Broadway, and King House Chinese Restaurant, and Royal Jewelers and the Plains Art Museum . . . but the reality is that the heart of our downtown is beating slowly. I am encouraged by the Renaissance project. I would like to see the proposed hockey arena downtown but with the understanding that not one old building will be sacrificed to accommodate it. I want to see the fresco on the south side of the McCormick building with that old cowboy re- painted.* I want to see kids back on the streets bouncing from store to store. I want to see more shops and more restaurants. I want more reasons to take my family down- town. And I know this sounds naïve and I know this sounds selfish. But I want my downtown back.  

BRADEN KUZNIA, TANA RUEGAMER and Casey Wollshaeger were student photographers at the University of Minnesota, Moorhead, under the instruction of Dan Koeck. These photos were taken as part of a project to document Fargo's downtown Broadway neighbourhood, and the series has been showcased in galleries and in the book Fargo on Broadway. The following are selected photographers who participated in the Broadway project:

Many thanks to the above photographers for their wonderful photos and the help they've given me with creating this exhibit. Please note that the photos displayed on each page have been cropped, and you must click on them to see the full, original photograph.

FARGO DOESN'T HAVE MUCH of a presence on the web, and that is understandable considering its size. But what it does have is quite impressive, and impressive is something that photographer James Lileks' Fargo can certainly be called. His site contains new and old photos of downtown Fargo, plus some old postcards and lots of history...

Other sites with great historical photographs of Fargo are:

John Caron's Fargo-History

NDSU's Institute for Regional Studies' Photographers of Fargo, ND online exhibit

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