FARGO (KFGO) - When Charlie Francis sat down to view some old home movies he recently bought from a Fargo thrift store, he had no idea what to expect.
While looking at scenes that included an anonymous family’s summer picnic and a visit to a zoo, Francis says he was stunned when he saw what appears to be lost footage from the aftermath of the deadly 1957 Fargo tornado.
“I was watching it one night, going through it” Francis said. “And then, all of a sudden, footage of houses just destroyed showed up. It was just houses that were boarded up and people driving around and looking. The first thing that dawned on me was, it was from the tornado, the 1957 tornado.”
Francis says he bought the movies about a month ago during an online auction from the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch.
“This canister didn’t have any names. It did say ‘Duluth’, it said ‘Fargo’ and then some other illegible words written in cursive” according to Francis. It said ‘Black Hills’ and ‘Pelican Rapids.’ They had it in a nice metal canister.”
Francis says he has no idea where the 8mm color movies came from. He says he's still looking for clues that could lead to the family that originally owned them.
It was 60 years ago this week, when the huge tornado killed 12 people and destroyed a north Fargo neighborhood.