Thief River Falls area (Minneapolis, Fergus Falls: hotel, home, casino)

[GFinmylife]

My uncle is going to work at the digi warehouse or whatever it is out there and I'm hoping he can get my husband a job there. I want a good town to raise my baby in and not the big city. We currently live in Las Vegas so I know it will be a HUGE change. Anything I should know about small town life? What about MN in general? How about driving in the snow and just the climate in general? Raising a child out there? Anything else I should know? Thanks

[demtion35]

I can easily see why you would want to move, the cold winters and the marvelous summers are just another part of Northern Minnesota.

Cheers.

[mn55110]

Thief River Falls only has around 8,600 residents providing challenges for both Digi-Key Electronics and snowmobile/ATV manufacturer Arctic Cat which have each had difficulty finding enough Pennington County residents to staff their rapidly expanding operations on the southwest side of Thief River Falls.

Digi-Key Electronics now runs buses for employees to-and-from Grand Forks, North Dakota and another route bringing employees in from Crookston, MN then back home after their work shifts.

Seven Clans Casino and Hotel Resort is another major employer in Thief River Falls, along US highway 59 on the southeast edge of town; nothing like the Vegas strip, but big for guests traveling from Winnipeg or Fargo.

Northwest Minnesota and the Red River Valley have a very flat terrain, but are a close drive to the rolling hills with pine tree forests and lakes of: Bemidji, Walker, Itasca, Park Rapids, Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls etc for weekend recreation in both winter and summer.

Summer weather is some of the best in all of North America while winters have a stretch or two of brutally cold temperatures.

The original poster should also write a very similar post on the North Dakota forum, explaining your situation, because so many Digi-Key employees live in Grand Forks/ East Grand Forks " The Twin Forks" and ride the daily bus to work in Thief River Falls. Also, one of the major contributors to posts on the North Dakota forum is a Staff Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks and could do a far better job than I on describing the climate in NW Minnesota. Plus, far more residents from Fargo and Grand Forks travel to Thief River Falls than Minneapolis, so the entire are feels like North Dakota and less like the rest of Minnesota.

[Marv95]

LOL. I just got my job offer email from Express to work at Digi-Key, contract-to-possible hire by next April. Start in less than 2 weeks. I'm not passing up $20/hr FT and free lodging, even with the winters.