The citizens of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks read in their local newspapers the accounts of destruction that occurred with the three tornadoes across southern Minnesota in the early to middle 1880s. Occasionally, they also heard of strange wind storms occurring in the countryside around them. However, they continued to believe that they were north of the tornado belt. This invisible barrier would somehow protect them from these freaks of nature. People in the middle 1880s did not even know what to call these strange storms. Were they hurricanes, cyclones, whirlwinds, or tornadoes? Photographs of the destruction from southern Minnesota reached the Grand Forks/East Grand Forks area, so the townspeople knew the destruction tornadoes could bring. They even solicited donations for the sufferers in southern Minnesota. June 16, 1887 changed their world. Furthermore, it was not just the citizens of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks who were shocked, but the entire weather world!
- Grand Forks Daily Herald Front Page
- Grand Forks Weekly Plaindealer Recreated Front Page
- Saint Paul Daily Globe Account
- National Newspaper Headlines
- Tornado Track Today