If the railroad and highway systems are analogous to a circulatory system, then the telephone and emerging telecommunications technologies are the nervous system of the economy and society.

When telephones first came to Fargo-Moorhead in 1881, with a capacity of 50 lines, the operator was afraid to switch calls during a thunderstorm because the switchboard had a tendency to spit sparks when lightning struck.

Rapid advances in telecommunications arrived first in the late 1970s, with electronic switching, followed by fiber optics and digital switching in the 1980s and 1990s that enable the blending of computers and telecommunications that form the backbone of new service and high-tech industries.

Phones, planes, trains and automobiles all have played a huge role in shaping the area's economy. But two other developments continue to play a large role in Fargo-Moorhead's growth: the colleges and medical centers that create highly skilled jobs, and draw students and patients from a wide area.

"Health care was really big even in the '20s," Danbom says. "I think the colleges have also been important in the cities' economy and will be more important in the future."

Manufacturing and service industries, such as Phoenix, Tecton, Great Plains Software, and US Bank require skilled workers and expertise the universities provide. "Those are really knowledge-based businesses," he says.

In the 1980s Fargo-Moorhead seems to have reached a critical mass, crossing some invisible threshold as a trade center where growth begets growth.

Consider: Fargo and West Fargo comprised 18 percent of North Dakota's taxable sales in 1980; by 1996, the two cities rang up almost 28 percent of the state's taxable sales.

Cass County's taxable sales rose 52 percent from 1980 to 1996 - an especially impressive statistic, because it's a "real" increase, adjusted for inflation.

"The numbers show the growing dominance of greater Fargo as a trade center," says Larry Leistritz, an economist at NDSU. "Fargo businesses are drawing clientele from an ever wider trade area."

Jobs in the region of southeast North Dakota that includes Fargo and Wahpeton increased 39 percent during the decade ending in 1996.

Manufacturing jobs increased by 3,862, or 60.5 percent, and another 8,627 service jobs were created, an increase of almost 57 percent, while the finance, insurance and real estate sector grew by almost 1,400 jobs, or 33 percent.

"There has never been really a dominant single employer," Leistritz says of the local economy. "We've had really kind of a broad-based growth, yet a very steady growth, decade by decade, going back for quite a ways."

1922: Fargo is second only to Kansas City in sales of farm equipment.

Photo/Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU Libraries

1924: Fairmont Creamery opens its plant in Moorhead; it pays more than $2 million to farmers in 1926 for milk products.

1926: Metropolitan Federal Savings and Loan, now part of U S Bank, is organized.

1929: The Black Building is built at 114 Broadway in Fargo.

1930: J.C. Penney Co. is the first national retailing chain to open a store here.

1931: Hector Airport opens on land donated by Martin Hector.

1931: Sears Roebuck & Co. opens a store and warehouse for a "one-stop shopping center" in the Black Building complex.

1939: Rotary dialing comes to F-M. Customers are instructed to "dial slowly and smoothly."

- 1940 to Present -
The Post War Years and Beyond
- Fargo's population more than doubles from 32,580 in 1940 to 74,115 in 1990. The city grows from 3,203 acres to 19,194 acres in 1993. Completion of Interstate highways 29 and 94 gives F-M a big boost. The primary retail centers move from downtown Fargo and Moorhead to outlying shopping centers and strip malls.

1948: American Crystal Sugar Co. opens its plant in Moorhead.

1960: Interstate 94 opens from Casselton to Moorhead; later Interstates 94 and 29 intersect, placing the metro area at the crossroads of major north-south and east-west highways.

1960s and 1970s: Urban renewal comes to Fargo and Moorhead, resulting in the Moorhead Center Mall and Fargo's City Hall, Memorial Civic Center, library complex.

1964: Dakota Hospital opens on South University Drive.

1969: Steiger Tractor Co., now Case I.H., moves to Fargo and manufactures 100 tractors during the year. Fargo proclaims itself the "Four-wheel Drive Capitol of the World."

1972: West Acres Regional Shopping Center opens with 80 stores covering 16 acres of shops on a former wheat field.

1974: American Crystal Sugar Co. dedicates its corporate headquarters in Moorhead.

1981: Great Plains Software is founded. It employs about 900, 600 at its Fargo headquarters, up from 10 when it shipped its first floppies in 1982.

1984: U S West installs the first fiber-optic phone lines in F-M, helping give birth to the telecommunications industry. All electronic digital service arrives in 1994.

1986: The new passenger terminal opens at Hector International Airport.

1994: Envirosys opens in the Moorhead Industrial Park, turning recycled paper into egg cartons, with 35 jobs.

1996: Cargill moves its financial service center into new offices, planning 250 jobs by the end of 1997.

1996: First Bank, now US Bank, opens its credit card operations center in Fargo, bringing 650 jobs.

Sources: Forum files, Fargo Historic Context Study, A Century Together: A History of Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn.