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Argyle, Minnesota is in Marshall County, along the Middle River in the northwestern part of the state. The portion of the state upon which Argyle was built was once covered by the ancient glacial Lake Aggasiz, which left behind a land made of rich soil. Before James J. Hill purchased the Great Northern Railway in 1879 and completed its tracks from Crookston to the Canadian border, a town by the name of Louisa was in the path that the railroad. However, the Great Northern founded a new railroad town just south of the Louisa town limits and named it Argyle. The early settlement consisted largely of French-Canadians, but immigrants from England, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Scotland and Germany were also represented. Argyle was incorporated in 1883, and named for the Scottish homeplace of Solomon Comstock, an attorney for the Great Northern. In the early years, Argyle was home to immigrants from many places, and it was not uncommon to hear seven languages spoken by early settlers. Because the town was situated on only one side of the Middle River, the town was able to control flooding of the river by building a dike in 1988, flooding out the former town of Louisia. Electric lights came to Argyle in 1897, but it was to be another seventy years before the streets were paved. Nearby communities include Big Woods, Florian, Foldahl, Great Eastern, Luna, Radium, and Stephen. Grand Forks, North Dakota is less than forty miles southwest of Argyle.

 

 

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