The attractions of open farm lands and expanding industries brought thousands of settlers to North Dakota, and by the turn of the century Fargo had a population of 9,589. Important among the industries listed in a 1901 paper were two harness and horse collar factories, one of which issued a 300-page catalogue of its merchandise. One of the larger wholesale houses was Brown's Bicycle House on Broadway at N. P. Avenue. The city was taking on a metropolitan air. An opera house, seating 1,000, was built in 1893, and belonged to the "Bread Basket Circuit" which included Winnipeg, Grand Forks, Crookston, and Brainerd, with headquarters at Fargo. Fargo was a favorite "stopover" for theater companies, and among the celebrities who thrilled those early audiences were Mrs. Fiske in _Becky Sharpe_, and Blanche Walsh and Chauncey Olcott in _A Run Away Girl_. In 1899 an item in the _Record_, a magazine published in Fargo, remarked, "It is considered quite the thing to drop in at the Coffee House on Broadway ... between one and five p. m. and spend a few moments drinking coffee and chatting, etc." This fad may have been due to the divorce colony which flourished in Fargo then. A 90-day divorce law was in effect, and the city became the temporary abode of many wealthy people who came to establish residence and obtain a separation from their mates. Lawyers, hotels, cafes, and bars did a rushing business. In the 30 years between 1900 and 1930 Fargo tripled its population. Almost half of its residents are of Norwegian descent. Feeling the effects of an economic depression in their own country in the late nineteenth century, thousands of Norwegians, exhorted by transportation companies and influenced by the glowing tales of their countrymen in the United States, emigrated to North Dakota. Taking advantage of the free lands opened to homesteading, they became some of the first farmers in the upper Red River Valley and helped settle Fargo. Those who made their homes here are today well mingled with the rest of the population and few of their Old World customs are kept alive with the exception of the preparation of Norwegian foods such as _lefse_, _lutefisk_, _fattigmand_, and _flad broed_. (_See_ RACIAL GROUPS AND FOLKWAYS.) Not forgotten, however, are important national holidays such as May 17, Norwegian Independence Day, which is celebrated with parades and appropriate ceremonies. The Norse influence is further seen in the statues and sculpture of and by noted Norsemen found throughout the city. POINTS OF INTEREST 1. THE NORTH DAKOTA AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 13th St. at 12th Ave. N., occupies a level, 100-acre campus in the northwest outskirts of the city. The large tree-enclosed square is cut by graveled driveways curving between rows of hedges, trees, and clumps of shrubbery connecting the irregularly placed, architecturally heterogenous buildings.