Northwood, ND

Northwood is a Grand Forks County city founded in 1884 by Norwegian immigrants from Northwood, Iowa. It sits in the Red River Valley, where the surrounding farmland is as much a part of the town's setting as the main streets. Northwood's defining recent chapter came on August 26, 2007, when an EF4 tornado tore through town and killed one person. The storm damaged buildings across the community, leaving some burned, collapsed, or removed afterward. That history gives Northwood a particular kind of local identity: a prairie town with Scandinavian roots, a full civic setup, and a recovery story that everyone on the map has to account for.