Following the cleanup of the Flood of 1997, community leaders, along with representatives from FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, began work on plans for a new levee system to protect Grand Forks and East Grand Forks from future flooding. The new system will allow the Red River and Red Lake River more space as they flow through our cities during spring flooding. Some low-lying neighborhoods were not allowed to rebuild. Rather, those areas are now part of the new Greenway, which is a large park with recreation paths and picnic areas.
These new levees will protect our communities to a height of sixty feet, whereas the previous system was built to a height of only fifty feet. Since the grounds of GFCHS overlook the Red River, it was necessary for our organization to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and city officials to re-design the layout of our buildings, so that they were further away from the river and out of the path of the new concrete flood-wall.
Four of GFCHS’s museum buildings were repositioned in 2004: the historic Campbell House, Myra Carriage House, Original Post Office and Blooming Schoolhouse. The buildings were moved carefully and positioned on new concrete foundations, ensuring their availability to visitors for many years.
We would like to thank the City of Grand Forks, the Grand Forks Historic Preservation Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Myron Denbrook, the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Strata Corp., Milbank House Movers, Advance Electric, Whalen’s Moving and Storage and everyone else who worked on the project. Thank you for making our “new” museum grounds possible. Once again, we have a beautiful setting in which to promote the history of Grand Forks and Grand Forks County.