Moorhead, Minnesota in the context of Dilworth, Minnesota

Minnesota (/ˌmɪnəˈsoʊtə/ MIN-ə-SOH-tə) is a state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the south, and North Dakota and South Dakota to the west. The northeast corner has a water boundary with Michigan. It is the 12th-largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd-most populous, with about 5.8 million residents. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes"; it has 14,420 bodies of fresh water covering at least ten acres each. Roughly a third of the state is forested. Much of the remainder is prairie and farmland. More than 60% of Minnesotans (about 3.71 million) live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the "Twin Cities", which is Minnesota's main political, economic, and cultural hub and the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Other minor metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas include Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, Rochester, and St. Cloud.

Minnesota, which derives its name from the Dakota language, has been inhabited by various Native Americans since the Woodland period of the 11th century BCE. Between roughly 200 and 500 CE, two areas of the indigenous Hopewell tradition emerged: the Laurel complex in the north, and Trempealeau Hopewell in the Mississippi River Valley in the south. The Upper Mississippian culture, consisting of the Oneota people and other Siouan speakers, emerged around 1000 CE and lasted through the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century. French explorers and missionaries were the earliest Europeans to enter the region, encountering the Dakota, Ojibwe, and various Anishinaabe tribes. Much of what is now Minnesota formed part of the vast French holding of Louisiana, which the United States purchased in 1803. After several territorial reorganizations, the Minnesota Territory was admitted to the Union as the 32nd state in 1858. Minnesota's official motto, L'Étoile du Nord ("The Star of the North"), is the only state motto in French. This phrase was adopted shortly after statehood and reflects both the state's early French explorers and its position as the northernmost state in the contiguous U.S.

Fargo is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 census and estimated at 136,285 in 2024. Fargo and its twin city of Moorhead, Minnesota, form the core of the Fargo–Moorhead metropolitan area, which had a population of 248,591 in 2020. It is the county seat of Cass County.

Fargo was founded in 1871 on the Red River of the North floodplain. It is a cultural, retail, health care, educational, and industrial center for southeastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. North Dakota State University is in the city.

U.S. Highway 52 (US 52) enters the state of Minnesota at the unincorporated community of Prosper, north of the town of Burr Oak, Iowa. The route is marked north–south in Minnesota along its independent segment from the Iowa state line to downtown St. Paul. US 52 is not signed along the length of its concurrency with Interstate 94 (I-94) from downtown St. Paul to the North Dakota state line at Moorhead and Fargo.

Interstate 94 (I-94) in the US state of Minnesota runs 259 miles (417 km) east–west through the central portion of the state. The highway connects the cities of Moorhead, Fergus Falls, Alexandria, St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and Saint Paul. Authorized in 1956, it was mostly constructed in the 1960s. For its whole length, it runs concurrently with either US Highway 52 (US 52) or US 12.

The American Association of Professional Baseball is an independent professional baseball league founded in 2005. It operates in the central United States and Canada, mostly in cities not served by organized baseball (Major League Baseball teams or their minor league affiliates). The league's level of play is comparable to High-A in organized baseball. League offices are located in Moorhead, Minnesota, and Joshua Schaub is the current league commissioner. Though a separate legal entity, the league shared a commissioner and director of umpires with the Can-Am League during the latter league's existence. The American Association of Professional Baseball has 501(c)(6) tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. In 2020, as part of MLB's reorganization of the minor leagues, the American Association, Atlantic League, and Frontier League became official MLB Partner Leagues, joining MLB in promoting the sport across North America, particularly in areas not served by organized baseball.

The Red River Valley is a region in central North America that is drained by the Red River of the North; it is part of both Canada and the United States. Forming the border between Minnesota and North Dakota when these territories were admitted as states in the United States, this fertile valley has been important to the economies of these states and to Manitoba, Canada.

The population centers of Moorhead, Minnesota; Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, developed in the valley as settlement by ethnic Europeans increased in the late nineteenth century. Completion of major railroads, availability of cheap lands, and forceful removal of Indigenous people as well as a subsequent refusal to recognize Indigenous land claims attracted many new settlers. Some developed large-scale agricultural operations known as bonanza farms, which concentrated on wheat commodity crops.

Fargo–Moorhead, also known as the FM area, is a common name given to the metropolitan area comprising Fargo, North Dakota; Moorhead, Minnesota; and the surrounding communities. These two cities lie on the North Dakota–Minnesota border, on opposite banks of the Red River of the North. The region is the cultural, retail, health care, educational, and industrial center of southeastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

The Fargo–Moorhead area is defined by the Census Bureau as comprising all of Cass County, North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota, which includes the cities of West Fargo, North Dakota, Dilworth Minnesota, and numerous other towns and developments from which commuters travel daily for work, education, and regular activities. A July 1, 2024 census estimate placed the population at 267,793, an increase of 7.2% from the 2020 census, an increase of 28.3% from the 2010 census, and an increase of 53.6% from the 2000 census.