Highway 212, Carver County · winter 1995
No scene was shot in Fargo, and the true story isn’t true. The crew drove to the Canadian border to find snow. This is the empty road from the opening: scrape the glass and see where it really was.
A thumb-sized patch of road.
Before the first shot
This is a true story.
Minnesota, 1987. Names changed. The rest told exactly as it happened.
The card is stuck down flat.
The film opens on a card saying the events took place in Minnesota in 1987, that names were changed at the survivors’ request, and that the rest is told exactly as it happened.
Chasing the snow
Bathgate, N.D. is under the frost.
A small town on open farmland near the Canadian border. The lumberjack was a prop: come for the land and the sky.
Deakins and the Coens plan landscapes with no visible horizon, so snowy ground runs into a white sky, and schedule round blue skies.
Pembina County Road 1
0 of 25 feet
An empty road. Start with the boots.
Meanwhile, in Brainerd
Brainerd’s own Paul Bunyan is a 26-foot talking, moving lumberjack. He has greeted children by name since 1954. He can blink, raise a hand in greeting and speak to visitors by name as they come into his woodshed.
Summer season from Memorial Day weekend; Haunted Hidden Hollows on Friday and Saturday nights in October. Call 218-764-2524 to check hours.
Brainerd · Summer season from Memorial Day weekend · call 218-764-2524
The 26-foot talking Paul Bunyan, who greets children by name, with Babe, rides and This Old Farm Pioneer Village, seven miles east of Brainerd.
Plan a visitOutside Cavalier, North Dakota
The ransom is buried in the snow by a fence. The scene is filmed outside Cavalier.
In 2001 Takako Konishi, a Japanese woman with a hand-drawn map, dies of exposure in Minnesota. Police conclude she was hunting the film’s buried money and the story spreads. The filmmaker Paul Berczeller later finds her journey had nothing to do with Fargo.
The Zellner brothers turn the myth into Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, with Rinko Kikuchi as a woman who believes the film is real.
A county town on the plain. Nothing marks a spot by any fence, and there is nothing to dig for. Stay on public roads.
Where it was really made
In the film
Carl takes a date to see José Feliciano in the Celebrity Room, played by Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.
A working dinner theatre. Book dinner and a show; show-only seats go on sale ten days ahead.
In the film
The King of Clubs on Central Avenue plays the film’s dive bar.
Homes now: look from Central Avenue and leave the residents in peace.
In the film
The night ransom drop was shot on the roof of the Minneapolis Club’s parking ramp.
The club is for members only; its six-level ramp is open to anyone parking downtown.
Downtown Minneapolis · Public parking rates
The Minneapolis Club is members only, but its six-level ramp is open to anyone parking downtown. Explore Minnesota’s 30th-anniversary tour links it with the theatre, the truck stop and the lake.
See the tourFargo-Moorhead Visitors Center
The center lends a hat like this for photographs.
Provenance 1 of 5
Winter 1995
Used in the film, which was shot in Minnesota and North Dakota. Never in Fargo.
The film opens in 36 theatres on 8 March 1996 and eventually plays in more than 700. Seven Academy Award nominations and two wins: Frances McDormand for Best Actress, and the Coens for Best Original Screenplay.
Fargo · Free · open year round
The original woodchipper, signed by the Coens, beside a signed script, with a replica and a Fargo-style hat for photographs. 2001 44th Street South.
Plan a visitDowntown Fargo · Rates on booking
A seventeen-room heritage hotel in downtown Fargo, each room built round one regional artist’s work, with a rooftop terrace. A hotel since 2003, after more than a century as a lodge and hotel.
Check rooms
9 places you can visit, from the visitors center in Fargo to the Twin Cities. The King of Clubs is gone; its site is homes now. The ramp roof is a working car park.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free and open year round. Ask for the hat. The original is inside; the replica is the one for photographs.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A small town on open farmland near the Canadian border. The lumberjack was a prop: come for the land and the sky.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A county town on the plain. Nothing marks a spot by any fence, and there is nothing to dig for. Stay on public roads.
2001 44th Street South, Fargo
The visitors center has both the real woodchipper from the film and a replica. Admission is free and it is open year round.
Free and open year round. Ask for the hat. The original is inside; the replica is the one for photographs.
Bathgate, Pembina County, North Dakota
Several scenes were shot near Bathgate, in the north-eastern corner of North Dakota.
A small town on open farmland near the Canadian border. The lumberjack was a prop: come for the land and the sky.
Cavalier, Pembina County, North Dakota
The scene where the ransom is buried in the snow was filmed outside Cavalier, North Dakota.
A county town on the plain. Nothing marks a spot by any fence, and there is nothing to dig for. Stay on public roads.
Stay
Hotel Donaldson downtown, and Cragun’s Resort near Paul Bunyan Land.
Downtown Fargo · Rates on booking
A seventeen-room heritage hotel in downtown Fargo, each room built round one regional artist’s work, with a rooftop terrace. A hotel since 2003, after more than a century as a lodge and hotel.
Check roomsBrainerd · Rates on booking
Lakeside cabins, lodge rooms and homes at 11000 Craguns Drive, Brainerd, for a stay near Paul Bunyan Land.
Plan a stayGo there
The visitors center in Fargo, Paul Bunyan Land and the downtown ramp, plus tours of Minneapolis.
Fargo · Free · open year round
The original woodchipper, signed by the Coens, beside a signed script, with a replica and a Fargo-style hat for photographs. 2001 44th Street South.
Plan a visitBrainerd · Summer season from Memorial Day weekend · call 218-764-2524
The 26-foot talking Paul Bunyan, who greets children by name, with Babe, rides and This Old Farm Pioneer Village, seven miles east of Brainerd.
Plan a visitDowntown Minneapolis · Public parking rates
The Minneapolis Club is members only, but its six-level ramp is open to anyone parking downtown. Explore Minnesota’s 30th-anniversary tour links it with the theatre, the truck stop and the lake.
See the tourMinneapolis
Live marketplace results for tours of Minneapolis. None is a Fargo tour as such: check each itinerary.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Annie at Chanhassen through February, and Haunted Hidden Hollows at Paul Bunyan Land on October weekends.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
An original 1996 one-sheet from our store’s archive, the Faber screenplay, Adam Nayman’s Coen book and Carter Burwell’s score.
An original 1996 US one-sheet, 27 x 40 in, rolled, in mint condition.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterEthan Coen and Joel Coen
The screenplay, published by Faber and Faber in 1996.
Find the bookAdam Nayman
Adam Nayman’s 2018 book on every Coen film, Fargo included.
Find the bookCarter Burwell · CD, TVT Soundtrax, 1996
Carter Burwell’s scores for Fargo and Barton Fink, released in the US in May 1996.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Drive safe. Scrape the glass.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
9 of 9 places · 18 of 18 Moments
2001 44th Street South, Fargo
The Coens sign a section of the woodchipper’s chute on the set of A Serious Man.
The woodchipper goes on show in Fargo for National Tourism Week and stays for good.
The film opens in 36 theatres on 8 March 1996 and eventually plays in more than 700.
Seven Academy Award nominations and two wins: Frances McDormand for Best Actress, and the Coens for Best Original Screenplay.
Bathgate, Pembina County, North Dakota
Deakins and the Coens plan landscapes with no visible horizon, so snowy ground runs into a white sky, and schedule round blue skies.
Minnesota has almost no snow, so the crew goes north to Pembina County, North Dakota.
The crew puts up a Brainerd welcome sign and a 25-foot Paul Bunyan on Pembina County Road 1.
Cavalier, Pembina County, North Dakota
The ransom is buried in the snow by a fence. The scene is filmed outside Cavalier.
In 2001 Takako Konishi, a Japanese woman with a hand-drawn map, dies of exposure in Minnesota. Police conclude she was hunting the film’s buried money and the story spreads. The filmmaker Paul Berczeller later finds her journey had nothing to do with Fargo.
The Zellner brothers turn the myth into Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, with Rinko Kikuchi as a woman who believes the film is real.
Hallock, Kittson County, Minnesota
Filming planned for the Twin Cities moves to Hallock for the snow.
17553 State Highway 18, Brainerd
Brainerd’s talking Paul Bunyan, greeting children by name since 1954, moves to Highway 18 in 2003.
501 West 78th Street, Chanhassen
Carl takes a date to see José Feliciano in the Celebrity Room, played by Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.
Central Avenue Northeast, Minneapolis
The King of Clubs on Central Avenue plays the film’s dive bar.
2nd Avenue South, downtown Minneapolis
The night ransom drop on the Minneapolis Club ramp roof, snowed by the effects team.
Carver County Road 51 at Highway 212, south-west of Minneapolis
The film opens on a card saying the events took place in Minnesota in 1987, that names were changed at the survivors’ request, and that the rest is told exactly as it happened.
The true-story claim is invented.
The title card and the first empty road scenes are shot in Carver County, on Highway 212 near Bongards.
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