Few people would guess that Grand Forks came into being because of a keg of beer, but supposedly it’s true. In 1858 – with necessity being the mother of invention – St. Paul businessmen offered $1,000 to anyone who could successfully establish a steamboat on the Red River, thereby improving travel from St. Paul to Winnipeg. In 1859, Anson Northrup beat out the competition by coming up the Mississippi River to Crow Wing, MN, where he dismantled his boat, hauled it overland to the Red River,