Fans of the television drama “Deadwood” will appreciate this: O. J. deLendrecie arrived in Fargo on a summer day in 1879. According to the Fargo Forum:

By the end of his first day here he had selected the store's site and drawn up building plans. His store, originally known as the Chicago Dry Goods Store, was soon up and running in a small one-story frame building in downtown Fargo.

They didn’t waste time.

Mr. deLendrecie later moved to the structure in the middle of the picture above; at first it had but two stories. Prosperity provided another three, complete with a flagpole that required someone to shinny up and paint a new flag on the sky every day. Weather permitting, of course.

That’s the Waldorf hotel on the right, incidentally. This was the view you saw when you got off the train: your elegant lodging across the street next to a fine dry-goods emporium. Eee-lectric lights and silks from Paree: The camp had done well.