The first National Weather Service was created by a resolution passed Feb. 9, 1870. Congressman Paine, a leader in this campaign, named the secretary of War as its coordinator.  The first station was at Breckenridge, Minnesota, later transfered to Moorhead and officially established there on Jan. 1st, 1881. Located first in the Merchants Bank, it was moved July 1st, 1890 to the third floor of the First National Bank Building.

The Breckenridge and Moorhead Weather Stations collection consists mainly of correspondence.  It is composed mainly of daily correspondence between March 15, 1872 and April 5, 1899. Various other files contain miscelleneous correspondence from later years, 1902-1903, and an amendment to the regulations dated April 1, 1919.  The subject files include a postage book, 1879-1881, cataloging stamps received and sent, and a scrapbook containing some newspaper clippings. A station Memorandum book contains some data for 1905.
 

Natural History