In 1868 Nicholas Hoffman and August Loon, carrying mail from Fort Abercrombie to Fort Pembina, built a log cabin at the present corner of Eighth Avenue South and Almonte. They used it as an overnight shelter on the long trip across the prairies.
Following his expedition by dogsled through Dakota in 1860, James J. Hill, who later built the Great Northern Railway, sent Capt. Alexander Griggs to explore the Red River. By the fall of 1870 Griggs had built up a good freighting business, using flatboats to carry his cargoes. George Winship, later publisher of the Grand Forks Herald, also went into the flatboat freight business and a friendly rivalry developed between the two commanders and their crews.
On one occasion Winship loaded two flatboats with merchandise at McCauleyville, scheduled for Pembina. At the same time Captain Griggs was loading a fleet of flatboats destined for Fort Garry (Winnipeg). Winship set out a half day before Griggs finished loading, but Griggs' crew boasted they could overtake the rival fleet. At the Goose Rapids Winship was forced by low water and the rocky channel to reload his entire cargo to a "lighter," a two-day task. Toward evening of the second day shouts up the river announced Griggs' arrival at the head of the rapids. Confident of keeping their lead, Winship and his crew tied up for the night. Before morning a violent storm washed overboard several kegs of beer which were part of their cargo. All were retrieved but one, which floated unnoticed downstream, to be salvaged by the Griggs crew. As a result of the ensuing party most of Griggs' men were incapacitated, and he was forced to tie up his fleet at Grandes Fourches to await recovery.
Winship reached Pembina safely, but before Griggs could proceed the river froze, and he was forced to unload his cargo and store it in improvised sheds. His crew, with no alternative but to spend the winter here, were the first white people known to have domiciled on the site of Grand Forks.
Captain Griggs built a squatter cabin at the mouth of the Red Lake River, and after a trip to St. Paul in 1871 built the first frame house in the settlement on the bank of the Red River, at the foot of what is now Kittson Avenue, and brought his family to the new community.
In its early years Grand Forks was a typical river town, developing into an important station for the heavy river and oxcart traffic on the St. Paul-Fort Garry trail. Dwellings began to dot the prairie beside the river, log huts and crude frame structures built from the product of Captain Griggs' sawmill. A post office was established in 1871, and mail arrived once or twice a week by dog team. In the same year a telegraph station was established, on the first line in the State, running between Fort Abercrombie and Winnipeg. It was about this time that the English pronunciation of the community's name came into general use.
In the winter of 1872 there was much unemployment and saloons were filled with idle men. During this winter "Catfish Joe," a half-witted Frenchman, murdered a local character known as Old Man Stevens who, while intoxicated, called him uncomplimentary names. The saloon crowd decided on a lynching, and all through the night plans were discussed, but with so many rounds of drinks that action was impossible. Catfish Joe was tried for murder at Yankton, spent two years in prison, and returned to terrify Grand Forks by strutting about the streets decorated with a bowie knife and a Winchester. One courageous townsman, Bert Haney, seized the gun and struck Joe a terrific blow on the head, breaking the rifle barrel from the stock, but with no damage to Joe's head. Catfish Joe later went to Montana where he murdered his partner for refusing to get up in the night and prepare breakfast.
By the spring of 1872 Captain Griggs' sawmill was doing a flourishing business, turning out lumber for building and repairing river boats and barges. Logs were cut and floated down the river to Winnipeg. When Frank Viets opened the first flour mill in the Red River Valley at Grand Forks in 1877, he added another industry to the growing settlement. The Hudson's Bay Company operated a store, managed by Viets, who purchased it when the company moved to Winnipeg in 1877.
Since five families in the city had children of school age in 1873, it became necessary to establish a school. As some of the families lived on North Third Street and others in the Lincoln Park area, they could not agree on a suitable location, and each faction held a school of its own. Claim shanties served as school buildings, and a drayman, one of Captain Griggs' hired men, taught the north end school.
There was no dentist in the community in the early days of Grand Forks. Alex Walstrom, a blacksmith, used a pair of homemade tongs about two feet long to pull aching teeth.