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Clay County is located in northwestern Minnesota. Its western boundary with Cass County, North Dakota, is the Red River of the North. The county is bordered on the north by Norman County, the south by Wilkin County, the east by Becker County, and the southeast by Ottertail County. (Click here for a county map.) Measuring approximately 36 miles north and south and 30 miles east and west, its area is 1043 square miles. The population in 2000 was 51,229. The county seat and largest city is Moorhead. The local economy is largely agricultural supplemented by a little light industry and agricultural product processing. Clay County was shaped by water and ice. Two million years ago, the Earth’s climate cooled and the first of the Ice Ages began. More snow fell during winters than could melt in the short, cool summers. Snow accumulated west of Hudson Bay and formed a huge ice sheet thousands of feet thick. Its tremendous weight caused the ice to actually flow outward as a glacier. The glacier advanced by sliding forward faster than its leading edge melted, pushing or crushing everything in its path. When the climate warmed, the glacier melted faster than it flowed and it retreated. There were several cycles of cooling and warming. The last time the ice melted, starting about 13,000 years ago, the glacier left behind piles and fields of rock and gravel it had pushed and picked up as it advanced. This debris is still visible as the gently rolling ground around Ulen and Hitterdal in northeastern Clay County, and the hills near Rollag in the southeastern part. Melting water created streams like the ancient Buffalo River which cut through the debris to form the valley at Hawley. Blocked by slightly higher ground on the east, south and west, and on the north by the ice sheet, the water ponded to form glacial Lake Agassiz. This huge lake covered what is now the Red River Valley in eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, including western Clay County. Wave action piled up sand beaches around the shore. The lake’s level changed periodically as it drained and more beaches were formed. They still exist as parallel ridges running north and south through the middle of Clay County. At its highest level the lake was 200 feet deep where Moorhead is today. Wooly mammoths and giant bison roamed the shorelines of the lake. Fine silt and clay were washed into the water by rivers and spread out over the lake floor. When Lake Agassiz finally drained away 9,000 years ago it left the flat, fertile plain in western Clay County. Plant life spread quickly across the newly exposed land. As the climate warmed, the plant life changed from spruce forests to hardwood forest to grasslands. Bison and other large and small animals appeared, as did Indian hunters. Ancestors of present day American Indians had crossed into North America from Asia by 15,000 years ago. They walked over on land between the continents revealed when sea levels dropped as water was locked up as glacial ice. They had undoubtedly made their way to what is now Clay County 7,000 years ago, although none of their campsites have yet been found. Evidence has been found indicating that Indians were living along major rivers 3000-4000 years ago, hunting bison and other game. Around 2,000 years ago, Indians began making pottery. Many sites have been found dating from this period and later. When whites arrived in the area around 1800, Dakota (Sioux) and some Ojibwe (Chippewa) Indians were living here. The Dakota were then mostly plains dwelling people, living in skin tents and hunting buffalo. The Ojibwe lived in bark homes in wooded areas of Minnesota north and east of Clay County. They came to the Red River Valley to hunt buffalo. The two groups were often at odds. In 1825, a treaty negotiated by the U.S. government established a boundary between them at the Buffalo River. In 1851, the Sioux ceded their lands to the U.S. government and moved to reservations outside the county; in 1855, the Ojibwe did the same. Early in the 19th century, Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, founded a colony for poor Scotsmen at the present site of Winnipeg. This site was also the headquarters for the Hudson’s Bay Company which traded for furs with Indians over much of what is now western Canada. All of the supplies for the colony and Company were brought from England by ship to Hudson Bay, then by boat up the Nelson and Red Rivers. All of the Company’s furs were shipped out along the same long, expensive route. By the 1820’s, St. Paul had grown up around Fort Snelling. Merchants there had easy access via the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to supplies from the eastern United States. People from the Selkirk settlement began trading with these merchants. Red River carts hauled goods from St. Paul to the settlement. These all wood, two-wheeled carts, drawn by an ox or horse, could carry up to 900 pounds of supplies or furs. Eventually trains of hundreds of these carts were creaking over established trails, several of which crossed Clay County. The carts were driven by Metis; people descended from fur traders and Indian women. In 1858, St. Paul merchants offered a reward to anyone who would build a steamboat on the Red River. Such a boat would cut the ox cart route in half and transport goods more cheaply. Anson Northup hauled machinery from the Mississippi River and built a boat, named after himself, on the Red in 1859. Meanwhile, the Hudson’s Bay Company decided to ship all of their goods through St. Paul. In 1859, they built a steamboat landing and warehouse near the confluence of the Buffalo and Red Rivers. Named Georgetown, it was the first white settlement in Clay County. At Georgetown, the goods hauled by ox cart from St. Paul were transferred to steamboats for the remainder of the trip north. Furs were transferred from the boats to the carts for the return trip south. A stagecoach line also ran between St. Paul and Georgetown. Georgetown was a busy place in the early 1860’s. Then, in August, 1862, Dakota Indians in southern Minnesota, angered by late annuity payments, left their reservation and burned settlements from there to the Red River Valley. Although no whites were killed in Clay County, Georgetown was evacuated and the county was nearly depopulated for several years. By the late 1860’s, the trade had resumed and permanent settlers began moving into the county. In 1870, several Norwegian families came by wagon from southeastern Minnesota and settled along the Buffalo River northwest of Glyndon. Other immigrants built homes along the Red River near Rustad and north of Moorhead, and near lakes in Parke and Tansem townships in southeast Clay County. Real settlement, however, did not begin until the railroads arrived. In 1871, the Northern Pacific Railway completed its line from Duluth to the Red River and Moorhead was established. With rail transportation, people could easily get to Clay County and ship farm products out to market. Virtually every town in Clay County was built on a railroad line. The railroad also put the ox carts out of business. Goods could be hauled to the steamboats at Moorhead much cheaper and faster by rail. The Hudson’s Bay Company warehouse at Georgetown was abandoned in 1872. Eventually, railroad lines made the steamboats obsolete as well. During this time the government of Clay County was organized. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, present day Clay County was included in Breckenridge County, named for John C. Breckinridge. Because of his pro-southern stand in the Civil War, the name was changed to Clay for Kentucky Senator Henry Clay in 1862. County government was organized in April, 1872, with the first county commissioners meeting held that month. During the next twenty years the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways built branch lines throughout the county. People by the thousands came by railroad to the county from eastern United States and other parts of Minnesota and Europe. The Northern Pacific brought colonists from England and New England to the Glyndon and Hawley areas. Germans settled in the south central part of the county around Barnesville and Sabin. Italian railroad workers came to Dilworth. The largest group was the Scandinavians, primarily Norwegians, who settled everywhere but particularly in the east and southwest parts of the county. These immigrants were mainly farmers, drawn to the area by cheap railroad land and free government land. They grew wheat at first. It was relatively easy to grow, the soil was well suited to it and new flour milling techniques had created a big demand for spring wheat. By the turn of the last century, the price of wheat had fallen, land prices had increased and the soil was becoming depleted from single crop farming. Farmers had to diversify, so they began raising livestock and growing potatoes, alfalfa, and corn in addition to cereal grains. Potatoes were a particularly successful crop. By 1920, Clay County was the second largest potato producing county in the nation. Later, sugar beets became an important crop. Farmers were helped by organizations like the Clay County Farm Bureau, established in 1913, and the County Extension Service which provided farmers with information on scientific farming methods and new varieties of seed. The 1920’s and 1930’s were a time of great social and technological change. The end of World War I ushered in a more modern, cosmopolitan society. Motion pictures and radio, including Moorhead stations KGFK and KVOX, brought this new world to Clay County. The telephone also helped relieve the isolation that was once a part of farm life. In the 19th century, rural life had centered around country schools and churches. As improved roads and the automobile made travel to town much easier, community focus shifted to small towns. The rural schools consolidated and country churches closed. Clay County banned liquor in 1915. The next 22 years were marked by tenacious efforts to enforce the law and ingenious attempts to circumvent it. Prohibition was repealed by county voters in 1937. This was a time of economic change as well. Drought in the 1930s, although not as severe as in other Minnesota counties, and the Great Depression damaged a local economy already devastated by low farm prices and bank failures in the 1920s. Many farmers lost their land and moved into town. After World War 2, this rural to urban shift continued. Improved farm machinery made it possible for fewer farmers to farm more land. Returning veterans moved to Moorhead to get jobs in industries like the Fairmont Creamery and American Crystal Sugar Company that had expanded during the war. After the war, Moorhead’s economy boomed. The city expanded rapidly to the south and east, its population increasing by 57% between 1946 and 1950 and by 56% again by 1960. For those who remained on the farm, rural electrification in the late 1940’s brought light and labor saving appliances that town residents had had for decades. New crops like sunflowers and soybeans proved successful. In recent years, the rural to urban shift has continued. Shrinking farm
populations have reduced the demand for the support facilities small towns
provided. Several small town school districts have consolidated and some have
closed. Moorhead continues to grow though at a slower rate than during the
booming 1950’s and 1960’s. The development of a retail core around
Interstate Highway 94 on the city’s south side and a completely redeveloped
downtown have been factors.
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The views and opinions expressed in this web site are strictly those of the page authors. The contents of this web site have not been reviewed or approved by Clay County. This page was last updated
August 10, 2005 . |
