Dakota City, North Dakota
Dakota City, North Dakota was a prospective townsite, occupied by one log cabin, in hopes that owning property at the confluence of the Red River and Sheyenne River would result in town growth and wealth. Two men, Frank Durant and David Auger, were commissioned by Pierre Bottineau to claim the site.
Charles Carleton Coffin visited North Dakota during his crossing of the Northwest sometime around July, 1869, and camped near Dakota City:
"We reach Dakota City, — another thriving town of one log-house, — peopled by Monsieur Marchaud, a French Canadian, his Chippewa wife and twelve children."
While river traffic was a major form of transportation at the time, making key river locations — like a confluence — more valuable, the railroad superseded river travel a few short years later. The Northern Pacific Railroad chose to cross the Red River eleven miles south of Dakota City, at what is now Fargo, killing off river transportation and causing many of these townsite claims to evaporate.
The book Origins of North Dakota Place Names references the 17 July 1955 edition of the Fargo Forum as a source of information on Dakota City.
