Excellent stop. This outdoor museum includes historic buildings that were moved to this site including the first house (cabin) in Fargo, a German immigrants home, newspaper office with printing presses, barber shop, dry goods store, apothicary, fire station, sherifff office, saloon, and so much more. They also have an 80-ton train engine, caboose, pullman carriage and train snownplow in their train shed. It's a bit dark in there but absolutely worth a visit. You can walk through the caboose and the pullman. The airplane display also includes an ambulance and a snow vehicle. The helicopter is retired from service in Vietnam. You can walk through the C-47. Gliders, bi-plane, jet. It's a really good collection. Then you have the antique car cillection, agricultural machine collection, Telephone museum, and on and on. So much history in one place. There are picnic tables on site under full sun. Do be sure to bring water and wear sunscreen and a hat in summer as you will be walking between buildings. Public restrooms are in the main building and the church basement. The gift shop sells soda and water aside from toys and gifts, etc. Private parking lot. They have a variety of discounted entries so check out their website for information and add this to your list of places to visit. read more

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What is there to do in Fargo ND? Not much...but highly recommend checking out this spot. The team working there did a great job putting this place together. Lots of history in one spot. It's pretty neat to see the evolution of farming equipment and the homes the folks back then lived in. read more

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Always an amazing experience! Clean, friendly, always up to date! Kid friendly! I have been going here since I was a kid, even now as an adult, it never gets old! They have really cool events, space available for parties, vending machines, a cool store! read more

Very interesting historic museum. Lots of things to see, but it needs some curating help. I especially liked the ability to actually walk around in the houses, even upstairs. In Cali, the nanny state would forbid because of the liability. For the price of admission, it has a lot to see and digest. There's a little something for everyone's interest. read more

This is so much more than just a museum! The Cass County Historical Society has put together a fantastic complex of historical building on this gigantic site! Every building has its own story with several dedicated to specific displays. One building houses law enforcement memorabilia. Another is dedicated to firefighters, their apparatus & lifestyle. Some of the building were moved to the site from all over the area! My favorite by far that the airplane building. It's not got the most of the best displays but it's the only place I've ever been able to walk through a C-47!! We were there for four hours and didn't see it all. Well worth the price of admission. It's a must for anyone interested in the history of the Red River Valley. read more

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Bonanzaville is the best way to get to know the past of the Red River Valley. Meandering around and through the historic buildings and seeing all the artifacts was amazing. They have a fantastic antique car collection. So worth the stop! read more

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I was so disappointed to find the Thue Brink Store was demolished. It was one of my favorite buildings. I feel like there was so much more to see at Bonanzaville when I was a kid compared to now. I get things may need to change. But it doesn't feel like the old familiar place I grew up with. And not having any buildings from Horace makes me sad. read more

Bonanzaville is a large, sprawling museum - AN ENTIRE FRONTIER COMMUNITY - in West Fargo, ND. Every structure is original to North Dakota's settlement days. Each was relocated from some other spot to form the community of the Museum. You can see the first log cabin constructed near Fargo, a one room school that served the region in the early days, a simple prairie church, a drug store, a black smith's shop and much, much more. Every building is open to the public and each offers specific descriptions and displays. Walking around the grounds gives a real sensation of moving back in time. Best of all, THERE ARE MUSEUMS WITHIN THE MUSEUM! While strolling the grounds you'll find an antique car museum composed entirely of unrestored, bone-dry, rust free, original old cars, an aviation museum that ranges from early fabric covered biplanes to delta wing jet fighters, a farm implement museum with more tractors and gadgets and gizmos than you can imagine, and many more. Bonanzaville will surprise you - it's much better than you think it is! read more

This was a fun place to explore. When I drove up there were not many cars there on a Wednesday afternoon so I wondered if it was open. It was. I bought the Passport for Fargo-Morehead ($8.00 for a number of attractions) so quite a deal. This is more like a museum of museums. There is a historic town, a larger museum, car museum, plane museum, phone museum, and more. It was fun and I spent about two and a half hours after having a fun time there. read more

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A recreated pioneer village in the heart of West Fargo, this museum and living exhibition has tours, and sometimes people in period dress walking around the grounds for school tours. There's local history, from how the pioneers traveled and lived, to history from WWI and WWII from local heroes to replica battleships in display cases. From the website for tourism: Annual summer events include Antique Car Show (June), Fiber Arts Festival (July), Pioneer Days (August), Harvest Fest (September) and Christmas Memories (December). I've been to the Antique Car show (people have great passion for restoring the oldest vehicles), and Pioneer days (where lots of people dress up like the pioneers and there are food tents and mini-county fairs!), and Harvest Fest (food, again, and animals). Fun for the family to come through and learn a bit about the history of the region. read more

There's a small exhibit at the end of the initial walk through museum portion, before you go outside to the "street", where people have written what their American Dream is on Post-It notes and stuck them to a wall. The variety of dreams is immense and the idea a good one. However, there are no blank notes for you to write on, not pens with which to write. There are lots of notes that have fallen on the ground and no one seems too concerned with picking them up. There is no one around to explain any of this to you. This is the perfect metaphor for Bonanzaville. Bonanzaville is a mish-mash of several concepts and a master of none. You will find yourself either laughing and saying WTF, or you will find yourself rolling your eyes and wondering WTF. There's a train station with a train car that was THE creepiest place I've ever been in my entire life (and I've walked through Waverly Hospital amongst others) even though it was not intended that way. There's a lot of old buildings of varying vintages with claimed historical significance, so you think that this is about the history of North Dakota. But wait, then there's the automotive museum with cars lined up in no particular order that looked (and smelled) to have simply been parked and left. Seriously, the smell of oil and dust reminded me of my grandfather's tractor barn. Down the way is an airplane museum. Oh, and a courthouse. And just a lot to walk around without any supervision and very little explanation. There are some signs that explain what some exhibits are, but they vary between professional-looking plaques down to hand-written pieces of paper taped near the item. If you're the type who enjoys a very loose, somewhat mysterious museum experience, you can't beat the price. You have fairly free reign to walk around and inside of almost everything and, there was virtually no one there on a weekday. If you require a bit more structure to your amusements, you should probably look around, but seeing that there isn't much else in Fargo, you could certainly do worse than Bonanzaville. Just don't roll your eyes too hard. read more

I don't say this very often, particularly for places in the area, but people seem to be going after this place too hard. This is a labor of love and basically contains entire buildings that are meant to be time capsules. Much, if not all, of this is donated and maintenance is largely done via that and the gift shop and so on. I don't think all of the staff is volunteer, but many of them are, which doesn't leave a lot of availability for tours that are not pre-arranged. However, there is nearly unfettered access and as much time as you want to peruse (and with very low admission prices, you can go every day of the week on your own historic walking tour, if so inclined). There is some information, but it can be scant, as mentioned. They really are more or less trying to preserve the buildings intact, so no, there is not a bunch of modern conveniences (though many of the buildings were oddly and remarkably cool). It is important to remember this was the height of technology, at one time, and view it through that lens. There is really nothing like this anywhere else in the United States and I've been to many of these types of places across the country over the years. It is important to not view it as a museum, which it touches on at times, but is not an actual museum itself. While its name perhaps references the tv show, it is not particularly related to that, either, though it, again, touches at times. If you're into authenticity, this is your spot. For me, I had some reservations. While I can admire the preservation of breakneck staircases and various train, farm, aeronautic and automobile displays, none of them were exactly my cup of tea, so to speak. Lots of spoked-wheel cars here, which are interesting, but not really my jam. It does smell exactly like a garage, but given that the cars are actually hauled out and used, one naturally would expect that. The guy in the airplane museum, like many of the other staff, is intentionally passionate about his area and while there are definitely greater air museums, he makes the most of what he has, which is really what frontier life was about, a facet reflected in the nature of Bonanzaville itself. Sure, there was no shortage of hardships, which were also all preserved and historical context as well, but they were building blocks to the air conditioned visitors center we enjoy now. With so many things to experience (we couldn't get to them all the day we were there), there is much to appeal to everyone and a definite must-visit (even if you have to fight construction), if in the area. I would even go so far as to maybe consider a destination worth the trip... read more

So much more than I was expecting, and nothing to do with the TV show... Fascinatingly unpretentious, letting you get up close and immersed in the artifacts. Yes you trade off museum quality displays and attention to historic integrity, but the short QR Code activated audio guide clips along the way we're the perfect amount of historical context. It's amazing that they've been able to gather and preserve so many items in such good condition all from within the state of North Dakota and have a personal story for each and every one. Five stars! read more

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I travel all over United States and I've never seen such a great collection of cars, original homes, antiques and a true representation of the eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. This is a must-see for all travelers. My wife and I spent several hours here and had awesome time. A +++++ Kerry L Elgin Illinois read more

Despite its peculiar name, Bonanzaville is a great site with a huge number of interesting artifacts to see, and historic buildings to visit. On a quiet Sunday in October 2018, my wife and I spent two hours at Bonanzaville learning and gaining new perspectives on the history of Fargo, Cass County, and Dakota Territory, and we easily could've spent more time. It's really an incredible site -- easily worth the modest admission fee, and a must-see for anyone interested in American history. Having said that, Bonanzaville could greatly benefit from some key improvements. Most of the buildings are left open with no control over temperature, humidity, or dust, and as a result many artifacts and surfaces are rather dusty and seem to be in danger of deteriorating. Second, when we visited, there was almost no staff onsite, and no tours or interpretive guidance were available. The visitor's experience could be much enhanced with knowledgeable interpretation. (This site offers some truly unique opportunities for living history interpretation!) On that point, although some of the interpretive information was well developed and helpful, overall it was very inconsistent, and we were disappointed to see many exhibit placards with content copied from Wikipedia. Finally the museum store is pretty limited and is stocked mostly with toys and tourist items. We'd like to see more products that would complement or deepen visitors' connection with Dakota's remarkable history. Those complaints aside, our visit was really enjoyable and worthwhile. It's a priceless asset to North Dakota that merits investment. We look forward to returning, and we hope the site is able to make continued improvements in interpretive content and historic preservation. read more

This place could be cool - if someone cared to spend some money on it. We got there about 545pm and they closed at 8pm. It was a cloudy day and a lot of the buildings had no lights. We could barely make out the cars in the car building and the agriculture building could have been a lawsuit waiting to happen if someone had fallen into machinery (yes, I'm clumsy). Even some of the labels on the displays were flipped around. It just seemed sad. Too bad, because a lot of what we could see was kind of neat. read more

I had sent them a letter about my daughters wedding, requesting a refund because they double booked Dawson hall. They put us in the event center which did not fit with the theme. It was too bright, not the rustic look that we wanted. Even if we had been in Dawson hall it had not even been cleaned, cobwebs, the blackboard was not painted like they said they would. We had to decorate past midnight because we could not get in until 2pm Very unprofessional. My daughter was very very upset. They never gave us any kind of refund or even an I am sorry, They were actually mad at me because they are a "nonprofit" and not a business and I had the nerve to call them out on their mistake. read more

A really neat display of Fargo history. The inside portion of the museum can be viewed in less than an hour. The outdoor portion is quite larger. I gave myself plenty of time to walk around. I'd say an hour would be sufficient. read more

i live in south bend indiana and go to museums in chicago detroit and all over. this is a very good museum. the phone museum is one of the most comprehensive in the world unbelieveable. the drug store is very nice . lots of nice buildings filled with clothing and everything from pioneer days . i have been ther many times and never get tired of it. it is a real gem read more