Editing Fergus Falls, Minnesota (section)

===21st century===
Fergus Falls features different parks, including tallgrass prairie and eastern woodlands, stores, and other tourist attractions. The Union Avenue Bridge spans the [[Otter Tail River]], and was reconstructed in 2004. Just below the bridge is part of scenic River Walk Park, which spans about a mile of the river. The part nearest the Union Avenue Bridge was redone along with the bridge. The town hall was modeled after [[Independence Hall]] in [[Philadelphia]]. Its west wing housed the city fire station until the 1970s. Other points of interest include the county museum, Lake Alice, George B. Wright Park, Pebble Lake Golf Course, and Veteran's Memorial Park. Arts in Fergus Falls are booming with a community theater program downtown. Many local and professional artists perform at A Center for the Arts.

The city also lends its name to the song "Fergus Falls" by the band [[Field Report]] on its 2012 self-titled album.

Fergus Falls received international coverage in early 2017 <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://magazin.spiegel.de/SP/2017/13/150231550/index.html|title = DER SPIEGEL 13/2017 - Inhaltsverzeichnis}}</ref> and late 2018 after a news article in ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' falsely claimed there was an anti-Mexican sign at the city's entrance and fabricated other things about the town.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/minnesota-town-defamed-by-german-reporter-is-ready-to-forgive/ar-BBRtUmt |title=Minnesota Town Defamed by German Reporter Is Ready to Forgive |last1=Ferber |first1=Matt |date=December 30, 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=December 30, 2018 |last2=Smith |first2=Mitch |language=en-US |via=MSN}}</ref> The story's author, [[Claas Relotius]], admitted to numerous instances of [[journalistic fraud]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thomas Borgböhmer |title=Der Spiegel and its noble Faker: Two inhabitants of a small US town show how boldly Relotius falsified reports |url=https://meedia.de/2018/12/20/der-spiegel-und-sein-edel-faker-zwei-bewohner-einer-us-kleinstadt-zeigen-wie-dreist-relotius-reportagen-faelschte/ |access-date=December 20, 2018 |work=MEEDIA |date=December 20, 2018 |language=de |quote=The extent to which Relotius has falsified his reportage is now demonstrated by an article published Wednesday evening on the portal Medium.com, which refers to the Der Spiegel story of late March 2017, a snapshot from Fergus Falls in Minnesota}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kelly Smith |title=German journalist admits to fabricating 2017 article on Fergus Falls |url=http://www.startribune.com/german-journalist-admits-to-fabricating-2017-article-on-fergus-falls/503163842/ |access-date=20 December 2018 |work=[[Star Tribune]] |date=December 20, 2018 |language=en |quote=Relotius traveled to Fergus Falls, a city of 13,000 residents in Otter Tail County, and spent three weeks there, hoping to interview voters in one of the rural Minnesota counties Trump won. Der Spiegel said it sent Relotius to write an article to give readers better insight into Americans.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=IAN STEWART |title=Celebrated 33-Year-Old German Journalist Adds A Line To His Resume: Fraudster |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/12/19/678330959/celebrated-33-year-old-german-journalist-adds-a-line-to-his-resume-fraudster |access-date=December 20, 2018 |work=[[NPR]] |date=December 19, 2018 |language=en |quote=A 2017 piece about a rural Minnesota town's love of President Trump opened with a striking anecdote about a sign at the city's entrance that read "Mexicans keep out." Der Spiegel now says the sign never existed. Two residents of the town posted an article Wednesday outlining other fabrications in the piece.}}</ref> In December 2018 two residents of Fergus Falls, Michele Anderson and Jake Krohn, published a report pointing out the "11 most absurd lies" of the 2017 article.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://medium.com/@micheleanderson/der-spiegel-journalist-messed-with-the-wrong-small-town-d92f3e0e01a7 |author=Michele Anderson, Jake Krohn |title=Der Spiegel journalist messed with the wrong small town| publisher=Medium.com |date=December 17, 2018 |access-date=December 27, 2018}}</ref> The same month ''Der Spiegel'' also sent a reporter to Fergus Falls to investigate and apologize.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/fergus-falls-a-fantastic-town-a-1245308.html |author=Christoph Scheuermann |title= Fergus Falls - A Fantastic Town |magazine=Der Spiegel| date=December 23, 2018| access-date=December 26, 2018}}</ref>