Instead, the origins of this flat plain lie as the floor of what was an enormous glacial lake. The actual "valley" of the Red River is only a few hundred feet wide at Fargo. Because of the low gradient of the Red and the young age of the river, the "valley" is not fully mature.

The U.S. government uses the term Red River Valley generally to describe the sections of northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota to which it secured title following the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 that settled the northern boundary of the US and Canada.

The Red River Valley has been called “The Breadbasket of the World” because so much food is raised there. Sugar beets, potatoes, corn, and wheat are some of the main crops raised by farmers in the Red River Valley.

The soil is very deep. The alluvial soil depth at Grand Forks, including topsoil, loam and clay, is “fifty to seventy-five feet deep,” and under that lies cretaceous shale 300-feet thick – over granite or gneiss bedrock.