Before surveyors arrived or names were discussed, the land here was already telling its own story. An ancient sea once spread across the plains, then disappeared, leaving layers of stone and soil behind. Ages later, ice reshaped the ground, and when the glaciers finally loosened their grip, meltwater surged south. That water slowly etched a valley into the prairie, forming the course of what we now call the Sheyenne River.

For generations before settlers arrived, Indigenous peoples lived along this river. The Cheyenne people called the river Maitomoni’ohe, and others knew it as Cayenne or Cheyenne River. It was a place of movement and meaning, tied to the buffalo, the seasons, and the water itself.

When the Northern Pacific Railroad pushed west in the early 1870s, the place gained a new set of names. In 1872, it was known as Second Crossing of the Sheyenne. A year later it became Fifth Siding, the fifth community established west of Fargo along the rail line, spaced a day’s ride apart by horse. A siding was a branch of the main track where trains could stop to load and unload people and goods, and these stops often became the beginnings of new communities. In 1874, the town briefly answered to Wahpeton and Worthington. Mail went astray, confusion followed, and in 1878, the thirty residents chose a name that fit both the land and their lives: Valley City.

But life in the valley came with a powerful reminder of who shaped this place first. In 1882, the Sheyenne flooded dramatically. Ice jammed against the railroad bridge, and water rushed down Main Street, knee-deep as far as the eye could see. Residents guided themselves through the water on planks using long poles. One man slipped and found himself submerged to his neck. Another, Joe Barclay, famously built a raft large enough to later become his claim shanty and floated seven miles to Marsh’s mill. Even civic leaders weren’t spared. Two officials attempting to cross Fifth Avenue ended up swimming to dry ground as neighbors laughed from higher ground.

Flooding would return again and again. Major floods struck in 1948, 1969, 1979, 2009, 2011, and even an unusual fall flood in 2019. Though the Baldhill Dam, built in 1950, helps manage the river, it cannot fully tame it.

If you’d like to learn more about the deeper history of this land and its earliest stories, visit Medicine Wheel Park, another stop along the Valley City Talking Trail.