Soon, Red Owl became a staple of downtown Fargo. In the 1940s and early 1950s, the chain had stores bordering the north and south ends of Broadway, less than one mile apart from each other.
In 1970, brothers Dave and John Kunst—with $1,500 in cash, a letter of recommendation from former VP Hubert Humphrey, and a mule named Willie Makeit—left Waseca, Minn., on foot. They hoped to walk ...