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The following story from “Fargo: From Frontier Village to All America City, 1875-2000,”  demonstrates the end of an era of lenient divorce laws for Fargo. Many fought to see an end to Fargo’s notoriety as the “divorce capital of the Midwest,” but there was a negative side, too. Fargo lost the revenues from a large number of people who established a three-month temporary residence in Farg

The Dakota Territory was the divorce capitol of the west up until 1899.  This was due to the fact that this area was believed to be a place where people could go to start a new life and the legislation echoed this belief.  The first legislation gave immediate access to divorces in 1866, but was later lengthened to three months in 1877.[1]  With the railroad running through Fargo it was easy for couples to establish r