Bonanzaville, USA is a history museum complex in

West Fargo, North Dakota West Fargo is a city in Cass County, North Dakota, United States. It is, as of the 2020 census, the fifth most populous city in the state of North Dakota with a population of 38,626, and it is one of the state's fastest growing cities. The cit ...

. Bonanzaville, the museum of the Cass County Historical Society, is made up of forty buildings on , many of them are historic and from the region. These buildings have been moved to the museum grounds and now form a village setting. Most of the buildings have a special theme. Displays include a prairie church, a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, a drug store, a fire station, Fargo's first house, and a schoolhouse. There are also several newer buildings which have been constructed on the grounds including an aircraft museum and an automobile museum. Other exhibits include

horse-drawn vehicle A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by auto ...

s, firefighting vehicles and equipment, medical and dental equipment, a law enforcement museum, a telephone museum, and a newspaper printing press. Bonanzaville has several hundred thousand artifacts in their collections and on display.

Location and events

Bonanzaville is located just off of

Interstate 94 Interstate 94 (I-94) is an east–west Interstate Highway connecting the Great Lakes and northern Great Plains regions of the United States. Its western terminus is just east of Billings, Montana, at a junction with I-90; its eastern ter ...

(Exit 343) and about west of the city of

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

. The complex is open from May through September, but event venues are open year-round. The highlight of the museum's year is the annual "Pioneer Days", the largest and longest-running annual event in the

Fargo–Moorhead Fargo–Moorhead, also known as the FM area, is a common name given to the metropolitan area comprising Fargo, North Dakota; Moorhead, Minnesota; and the surrounding communities. These two cities lie on the North Dakota–Minnesota border, on opp ...

area. The event is held the third weekend of August. Other popular events include the July 4 Celebration, Ghost Tours, Paranormal Investigations, and Christmas on the Prairie. In November 2018, the producers of ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...

'' announced that the historical television show was planning to film at Bonanzaville in June 2019.

Exhibits

An exhibit on the Jewish experience in North Dakota opened in 2017. The

North Dakota State University North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota, United States. It was ...

Fargo History Project prepared an exhibit on the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

that opened in 2019.

Telephone Pioneers Museum

The telephone museum was a hardware store donated by Oscar Loken of Tower City and converted by US WEST Telephone Pioneers. The exhibits show telecommunications devices, such as receivers, switching equipment, and glass or porcelain line insulators. Many of the telephone equipment was from the local service area of Northwestern Bell Telephone Company. Old and new type cable were removed from Fargo in 1978 and are on display. The Telephone Pioneers maintain the telephone equipment which allows calls to be made from one building to another. There are various telephony related items in the museum.

Flooding

A spill of of water flooded Bonanzaville in January 2019.

Gallery

File:Bonanzaville Water Tower for Train.jpg File:Dobrinz School House Bonanzaville USA.jpg File:Steam locomotive, Bonanzaville USA - 5912935761.jpg File:Bonanzaville USA - 14496963022.jpg File:Bonanzaville USA Street scene.jpg File:Bonanzaville USA.jpg File:Interior Cass County District Courthouse (recreated), Bonanzaville USA in Fargo Moorhead - 3931611427.jpg

References

External links

"Bonanzaville, USA" website"Fiber Arts Festival" website
{{authority control West Fargo, North Dakota History museums in North Dakota Open-air museums in North Dakota Aerospace museums in North Dakota Automobile museums in North Dakota Transportation museums in North Dakota North Dakota culture Museums in Cass County, North Dakota