Community

Community Pride

Fosston is a town where people work together to get things done for the betterment of the community. Community pride is evident throughout the City's streets, businesses, and residences.

A Legacy of Leadership

Fosston is a town that has benefitted from exemplary leadership and a strong vision of success. Former Mayor Arvid Clementson was passionate about the City of Fosston and worked hard for decades to drive progress. Mayor Jim Offerdahl, the City’s current mayor, is a strong leader in his own right, and continues a strong legacy of visionary City leadership.

A Community That Finds Solutions

Fosston has a reputation as a City that finds solutions, even when faced by seemingly insurmountable issues. The City’s approach to tackling the childcare crisis was an excellent example of that. Like many rural communities, Fosston was in desperate need of additional childcare capacity. The problem came to light in 2017 when Fosston completed a comprehensive planning process. The Mayor called for the formation of a taskforce to tackle the issue. People from across the community pulled together to help fund and renovate a donated building that would host a newly formed nonprofit childcare center. (See the Prairie Pines Childcare Center website for more information.)

Economic Hub

Although the population within the city limits is 1,434 people, the community is the economic hub of a much larger rural region that encompasses nearly 20,000 people and has come to be known as a sub-regional center for the many small communities within a 30-mile radius.

Fosston is surrounded by lakes, set amid a mix of forested areas and agricultural land. It is known as a community "where the prairie meets the pines," and anyone who has lived in, or visited, the community, can attest to the truth of that statement. Thanks to its robust economy, Fosston draws thousands of people into town to work, learn, purchase goods and services, and to find healthcare.

It's also a community that has a significant nonprofit sector, including organizations that focus on the arts, childcare, wellbeing, and seniors.

Honoring Our Military

Fosston is town that honors those who have served, and continue to serve, our country through military service. The Veteran’s Memorial Park, located at Melland Park along U.S. Highway 2, on the east entrance to Fosston is a beautiful and moving tribute to the area's service men and women and includes historic military equipment, as well as memorial stones, and life-size bronze statues. Park upgrades and enhancements continue to be added, thanks to the efforts of the City and local men and women who contribute to the park. In 2017 a life size Army Paratrooper statue was installed as part of the wall of heroes. Two more life size statues were installed early Spring of 2020, an Army soldier, and a Navy sailor. See the Veteran’s Park Memorial page of this site for more information.

Local Beauty

Fosston is a beautiful city, whose residential streets are graced by a variety of trees. Fosston has celebrated Arbor Day for 27 years and has been named a Tree City USA for each of those 27 years. Fosston's commitment to celebrate Arbor Day and work with the National Arbor Day Foundation will continue for many years to come. See the Tree City USA section of the site for more information.

Celebrations

Fosston is a community that likes to celebrate! While there are many celebrations throughout the year, including Heritage Day, the Car Show, Crazy Days, Lefse-Fest, and Light Up the Night, every five years the community hosts an all-school reunion. In 2018, approximately one thousand people attended the all school reunion. FHS Alumni and their families took in the many activities, including a reunion tea, class gatherings, three dances with live music, a parade, kid’s games, pancake breakfast, a nickel dig, a big fireworks display, and a 5K run/walk.

We look forward to seeing our FHS Alumni again in 2023!

History of Fosston

In the year 1876 the first settlers came to the Thirteen Towns area, arriving in covered wagons, bringing with them a few cattle, oxen, horses and mules. Charles Adair, with his family is named as the first to arrive in the Fosston area, with nine others soon following, to file claims on the land. John Flesch was the first settler to file in the Thireen Towns district. He filed at Crookston in June 1878 with Edouard LaBree, the second to file. Others were Herman Eikens, William Jacob Hilligoss, George Hershberger, Richard Hershberger, Jerome Thayer, Andrew Eaton and Matt Portz family. These families composed what was known as the Rosebud settlement, located just south of Fosston and which later became Hansville, in Rosebud Township.

Some claim that John Flesch named Rosebud Township, having gone to Crookston to file his claim when the wild roses were abounding in full bloom, suggestiing the name to the County Auditor who approved it. Others say the township was named for Rose Eikens, daugher of the Herman Eikens, and the first white girl born in the settlement.

In 1878, Eastern Polk County was closed to settlers. The Indian Police ran all squatters from the area until only the nine families with their land papers remained.

These people had built their log cabins within short distances of one another. Their only neighbors were a few friendly Chippewa families living in tents or birch bark houses, who were reluctant to go to the reservations. To one of the Indian families named Wab Skib Nay Ash, and located on Mr. Hilligoss' farm, was born a baby boy on December 11, 1878. Mrs. Hilligoss was in the tent when the child was born and lent what aid she could to the mother and child. One week later, on Dec. 18, 1878, Charles, the first white boy in the settlement was born to Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Hilligoss.

Settlers had to travel to either Crookston or Detroit (now Detroit Lakes) over mud paths for supplies of merchandise and tobacco, for at that time not even poplar poles had been laid across swampy land to make a roadway.