About Fargo
Fargo is located in the heart of the Red River Valley on the North Dakota/Minnesota border with Fargo in North Dakota and Moorhead in Minnesota. Although Fargo is larger, the ‘FM’ twin communities offer comparable points of interest, colleges, parks, and recreational facilities.

View Tri-State Map

View Fargo-Moorhead Road Map      (Star on Road Map = PRACS Institute, Ltd.)

View GPS Coordinates       46 degrees, 50’27.91”N       96 degrees, 52’00.91”W

FARGO/MOORHEAD FACTS
Population: 170,122 (according to July 1999 census)

Industry: Agriculture, including wheat, sunflowers, sugar beets and related agriculture industries, Education, Software Development, Manufacturing and Health Services.

Cost of Living: Low.

Cultural Diversity: Although the majority of our population is made up of Caucasians of various descents, many Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans reside in Fargo offering an excellent range of diversity.

The National Civic League named Fargo-Moorhead as All-American City in June 2000.

Forbes magazine rated Fargo-Moorhead 5th place in the country for business and careers in May 2003. The criteria included the cost of doing business, crime rate, housing costs, income, job growth, and qualifications of the available labor pool.

In 2003, “Best Performing Cities” rating system by Milken Institute rated F-M 19th in job creation and economic growth among small metro areas.

Morgan Quinto Press named Minnesota the 2002 second healthiest state in the nation and ranked North Dakota seventh, based on 21 factors including access to healthcare providers, affordability of health care and a generally healthy population.

Minnesota was named the nation's Most Livable State for a record sixth consecutive year by Morgan Quinto Press. (1997 to 2002) North Dakota moved up to 16th place in the 2002 rankings, which were based on 43 factors.

Morgan Quinto Press consistently ranks North Dakota the safest state nationally in its annual crime survey (ranked number one from 1997 to 2002).

The 6th Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study ranked North Dakota in first place for quality of hospital care in the nation’s hospitals for 2003.

The Wall Street Journal lauded Fargo as an oasis of prosperity in November 2002 “as most of the nation struggles to shake off the recession”.

POINTS OF INTEREST
Hjemkomst Center (Moorhead, MN) features a replica Viking ship “Hjemkomst”, and is also home to the Clay County Historical museum and various traveling exhibits. The Hjemkomst Viking ship was constructed locally and made its maiden 72 day voyage from Lake Superior to Bergen, Norway in 1982.

Bonanzaville, USA (North Fargo, ND) is a pioneer village portraying Midwest plains life in the 1800’s. The name is derived from the region’s Bonanza farms of the 1800’s and is the new ‘museum’ home for many former Midwest homes, churches and businesses.

Fargo Air Museum (Fargo, ND) is dedicated to the education, preservation and restoration of vintage aircraft and the Red River Valley's rich aviation history.

Plains Art Museum (Fargo, ND) offers outstanding regional art from revolving exhibits in a striking recently restored and climate controlled 48,000 sq.ft. facility.

Red River Zoo (Fargo, ND) is currently in Phase 1 of development. This 33-acre zoo currently houses species of predominately Northern Hemisphere animals in their natural habitat and is home for a restored 1928 carousel.

Roger Maris Museum (West Acres Mall, Fargo, ND) commemorates the accomplishments and the record 61 home runs of the late New York Yankee baseball great, Roger Maris.

Walk of Fame (Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitors Bureau, Fargo, ND) offers a bit of Hollywood in the Midwest. The display showcases handprints and footprints of more than 80 visiting musicians, athletes, movie stars, and dignitaries collected since 1989.

EDUCATION
Fargo-Moorhead is an upper Midwest center of learning. With over 25,000 students in higher education, we can easily fill our healthy subject bioavailability and bioequivalence studies with a large population of young (or older) healthy male and female adults. Fargo’s Higher Education Center’s include:

• Aaker's Business College, Fargo, ND
• Concordia College, Moorhead, MN
• Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, MN
• North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
• Northwest Technical College, Moorhead, MN
• The University of Mary/Fargo Center, Fargo, ND

AIRPORT
Hector International Airport
Northwest Airlines and United Airlines
Direct Flights from Minneapolis, Denver, and Chicago
Charter flights are also available
On-site car rental: Avis, Budget, Hertz and National

HEALTHCARE
Fargo offers the best health care centers between Minneapolis/St. Paul and the West Coast. Fargo is home to 3 major medical centers: Meritcare clinics and hospital, Dakota Clinic, Innovis Hospital, and multiple independent physician specialty clinics for a total of about 450 physicians.

CLIMATE
Winter - Although there is a perception Fargo has lots of cold and snow in the winter months, in reality, this semi-arid area offers a crisp, dry cold with unimpressive snowfall for the snow enthusiast. Typical temperatures in the winter range from 0-20 degrees Fahrenheit with an average snowfall of 36 inches per season. January will offer the most formidable winter weather.

Spring - Spring is usually warm and sunny with temperatures ranging from 43-67 degrees Fahrenheit. Fargo usually hits 70 degrees and spring greenery by mid April.

Summer - Summer is best described with pleasingly comfortable temperatures ranging from 55-85 degrees Fahrenheit that provide warm comfortable days and cool evenings which require little, if any, air conditioning. Our semi-arid climate is very comfortable and quite pleasant with only a few August days of high heat or humidity.

Autumn - Autumn is delightfully crisp and cool with temperatures usually in the range of 45-70 degrees Fahrenheit. For autumn lovers, the time of peak leaf color is usually the first week of October.