I was born in Fargo, North Dakota, don’t ‘cha know, and raised across the Red River in an even smaller town called Moorhead, Minnesota. When I moved to Louisville, Kentucky, I thought “Whoa! Big city!” because Louisville has things that I had only heard about before, such as theater, opera, and discotechs.

That was 17 years ago. Since that time, Fargo and I have both grown up a bit. Not only does Fargo now have theater and a fairly large concert hall, but it also has Microsoft. That’s right, Microsoft chose Fargo as one of its operations sites. And apparently things are going fairly well there, because Microsoft is expanding its Fargo campus by 185,000 square feet, which will increase the capacity to allow 575 more employees on the site.

“Microsoft currently employs 1,293 people in the Fargo area, including 956 full-time employees on its Fargo campus, and 337 vendors and contingent staff. … Through its current master plan of record for the Fargo campus, which includes future planned expansion, Microsoft projects that it will be able to house approximately 3,800 employees, vendors, and contingent staff when construction is complete.”

See the Microsoft PressPass for more information.

I don’t have to be a Microsoft fan to think this little piece of tech news is super cool. My dad, brother, and BFF still live in Fargo, and so it’ll be a real trip to see the expanded operations the next time I visit home (which is yearly, in July). I might even stop by there and see if I can scoop some photos for a photo gallery and an interview or two with some of the folks there. Hey, I know their lingo…. you betcha!

[Update 8/15/07 : I did get the opportunity to stop by Microsoft Fargo, take some pictures, and get a guided tour of the campus. Check out my follow-up post:  Microsoft expansion opens career opportunities in Fargo, ND and the photo gallery: Take a tour of Microsoft Fargo. ]