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On the evening of June 20, 1957 at 7;36 pm, a deadly F5 tornado moved through north Fargo, killing 12, injuring over 100, and destroying or badly damaging over 1,300 homes. To view the National Weather Service Web site click here.
Fargo, N.D. Friday Evening, June 21, 1957


 
Mercedes Erickson closes her eyes while listening during the 1957 Fargo tornado’s 50th anniversary memorial service and dedication ceremony at Madison Elementary School. She was presented with six red roses symbolizing six of her children who perished in the tragedy. Photos by Bruce Crummy / The Forum
Mercedes Erickson

Silence for the victims

06/21/2007
Mercedes Erickson sat with one hand over her heart and the other clutching six red roses as bagpipes buzzed nearby.

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Damage from the 1957 tornado is hard to find in this recent photo versus the one below taken just after the 1957 tornado. At far left in the above photo is North Dakota State University and the new Alumni Center. Above center is Peace Lutheran Church, formerly American Lutheran, that had its roof torn off. Shanley High School stood where apartment buildings are at right. Photo by Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
Recent photo of the tornado route

Twister path has changed

06/21/2007
The 1957 tornado was an equal opportunity destroyer, leveling homes in the city’s poorest and most upscale neighborhoods and other buildings in between.

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Workers help to rebuild a damaged building after the tornado. Photo by Cal Olson / Forum file photo
Workers help to rebuild

Rebuilding after tornado required help from many

06/21/2007
The tornado of June 20, 1957, ripped through Fargo in minutes.

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This photo of the path of the 1957 tornado shows North Dakota State University above Johnson Park, at center right, which became the debris field for the tornado’s destruction. Photo by Michael Vosburg / Forum photo editor
This photo of the path of the 1957 tornado

Pieces of history poke up through soccer field land

06/21/2007
Few of the buildings that in 1957 made up the Golden Ridge neighborhood remain in north Fargo.

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Sorry to say, ad for dollar deal’s half-century old

06/21/2007
Advertisers take note: Ads get noticed in The Forum, especially when they come with 1957-era prices.
Capt. Tod Dahle of the Fargo Police Department peers out of the dunk tank window Wednesday at a group of boys who were jokingly taunting Dahle during the Fargo Police Community Picnic in Island Park. Photo by Jay Pickthorn / The Forum
Capt. Tod Dahle of the Fargo Police Department

Tornado anniversary unleashes flood of readers’ storm accounts

06/21/2007
Whether it’s the big bad wolf or a howling tornado, the fairy tale got it right.

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In-Forum Audio IconBells ring in memoriam of the 1957 tornado

Boy tossed newspapers to homes where only basements remained

06/20/2007
Jim Knutson, 62, of San Diego was a 12-year-old paperboy for The Forum when the devastating twister struck Fargo.

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In-Forum Web IconListen to the conversation with Jim Knutson.
This is the Pulitzer Prize citation that hangs in The Forum’s newsroom to this day.
Pulitzer Prize citation

Coverage earned Forum a Pulitzer

06/20/2007
The heart-wrenching front-page photo of the lifeless little girl said it all.

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Viola Seward of Detroit Lakes, Minn., says her brother, Fargo firefighter Dick Shaw, never spoke of the famous picture of him. Shaw died in 1968 at age 33. Photo by Bruce Crummy / The Forum
Viola Seward of Detroit Lakes

Tragedy mired life of man in photo

06/20/2007
Dick Shaw never spoke about the photo that became emblematic of the 1957 tornado’s devastation.

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This is the full-frame photo taken by Forum newsman Alf T. Olsen, who died in 1970. Photo by Alf T. Olsen / Forum file photo
This is the full-frame photo

Photo left something out

06/20/2007
Growing up on the south side of Fargo, Michael and Patrick Olsen had the best playground in the world: a large slough at the intersection of 11th Avenue and 21st Street, half a block from their home.

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Forum pages offer glimpse of original coverage

06/20/2007
No, you’re not in a time warp.

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Meteorologists relied on ‘eyes, paper, pencils’

06/19/2007
When Ray Jensen started his afternoon shift as a meteorological aide for the National Weather Service in Fargo on June 20, 1957, he believed an incoming storm would bring another round of rain.
A June 2000 rainstorm flooded the Interstate 94 interchange at 25th Street South in Fargo. Damage within the Fargo city limits approached $100 million with 54 percent of its residences taking in water. Forum file photo

2000 drenching costly, but tornado toll worse

06/17/2007
It was supposed to be a quick trip to the fire station for Muril LeDoux.

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Purple ribbons were tied to trees and utility poles in Fargo Wednesday to mark the path of the 1957 tornado. The ribbons are part of commemorative activities recognizing the 50th anniversary of the storm. Photo by David Samson / The Forum
Tracing the trail of destruction

Purple ribbons mark path of 1957 tornado

06/14/2007
A trail of purple ribbons about 40 blocks long meanders through a jagged slice of north Fargo, a quiet tribute to those who died and those who survived and rebuilt after a massive tornado tore through the city June 20, 1957.

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In-Forum Web IconMain route of the 1957 tornado
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