Walhalla, ND

Walhalla is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota, along the Pembina River near the Manitoba border. It is one of the state's oldest settlements and grew where river routes, Red River carts, and fur-trade trails met the Pembina Hills. The community was established in 1845 and first named St. Joseph after Father Belcourt's Catholic mission. The name changed to Walhalla in 1871, but the earlier St. Joseph chapter remains part of the city's layered history.

Trading posts give Walhalla its strongest connection to the Red River Valley. Norman Kittson built a post in 1843, and Antoine Gingras established a home and trading post northeast of town in the 1840s. The Kittson Trading Post and Gingras Trading Post are now preserved as state historic sites, keeping the fur trade and Métis history visible near the modern city. North Dakota Highway 32, County Highway 55, and the Pembina River still organize the local map. Walhalla is a small northern city, but its river, trading posts, old name, and borderland history give it unusual depth.