MOORHEAD

city, seat (1872) of Clay county, western Minnesota, U.S. It lies along the Red River across from Fargo, N.D., in a mixed-farming area. Founded with the coming of the railroad in 1871, it was a natural transportation hub, with overland road and rail traffic meeting the barges and, later, steamboats on the river. Known first as Burbank, it was renamed for William G. Moorhead, a director of the Northern Pacific Railway. Moorhead State University (1887) and Concordia College (1891) are there. The city's agriculture-based economy depends chiefly on sugar-beet refining, dairying, and potato processing. The manufacture of farm equipment and fiberglass boats is important. Inc. village, 1875; city, 1881. Pop. (1991 est.) city, 32,715; (1990) Fargo-Moorhead MSA, 153,296.