In 1856, Little Falls speculator James Fergus hired fellow Scotsman Joe Whitford to scout for potential town site locations along the Red River. Whitford came upon a part of the river with rolling rapids he felt could be harnessed for water power. He staked a claim and named it Fergus Falls in honor of his employer. When Fergus visited the site in 1859 he was sure a thriving city could be built on the power of the river. He wrote to a friend in Illinois urging him to come north so they could develop lumber and flour mills. His friend, however, was not as enthusiastic. He warned Fergus about “taking your little children into the wilderness where they must be deprived of civil society and endure many disadvantages that you do not think of now.”

James Fergus heeded his friend’s advice and decided against moving to Fergus Falls. He instead went to Montana where a county seat was named after him with Lewiston the county seat.

Following the Civil War, George B. Wright was working as a surveyor when he came upon the same rapids that impressed Joe Whitford and James Fergus. Seeing the potential for water power, Wright purchased the abandoned site and laid it out into lots and blocks. He came back in 1870 to break ground for a saw mill, construct a dam and place a bridge across the river. To attract people and investment he offered free lots of land and promoted Fergus Falls as “The Coming City” with “the best water power in the state in the heart of the finest wheat region in the entire west.”

Fergus Falls became the county seat in 1872 and when the railroad arrived in 1879, the town’s success was ensured.