By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

The 4th of July in 1907 was very special for residents of Otter Tail County. That’s when Charles Fairbanks, who was United States vice president in service to President Theodore Roosevelt, spoke to county residents in Fergus Falls.

In 1901, a trading post in Alaska was named in honor of Fairbanks who was then a U.S. senator from Indiana. Fairbanks had served on a commission that helped settle an Alaskan boundary dispute.

Fairbanks, in 1907, appeared in Alexandria and then traveled by train on July 3 to Fergus Falls, staying overnight at the Grand Hotel. He came to Fergus Falls through the efforts of Leonard Erickson of the Commercial Club.

In preparation for the vice president’s 1907 visit, merchants decorated their places of business. Multi-colored flags and pennants fluttered in the breezes from the ropes stretched diagonally across the streets overhead, giving the city a gala appearance.

Bandstands and various refreshment booths had been erected in Fergus Falls the previous day, on July 3. Word spread, and area residents made plans to travel to Fergus Falls to see the vice president on the 4th of July.

The Fergus Falls Fourth of July parade, which included Vice President Fairbanks riding in a carriage starting at 10:30 a.m., moved through the city and disbanded on Vine Street, a short distance from the Athletic Park. That’s where the vice president delivered his formal address.

“A vast throng collected there, a dense mass of humanity filling the open space,” noted a Fergus Falls Daily Journal reporter. “Carriages lined the street.”