Ada, population 1,700, is located on Highways 9 and 200 in northwest Minnesota. Ada is located about 45 miles northeast of Fargo-Moorhead, a metropolitan area with a population of 100,000.

Ada owes its existence and livelihood to the strength of the local agricultural economy. It has the quality of life cherished by strong agricultural communities. As the county seat of Norman county, the city enjoys the benefits of services found only in larger communities. Some of these services and facilities include...

He liked the area and persuaded six other settlers to move here with him that year. Shields erected a grain warehouse and began buying grain from the farmers in the vicinity. Soon, others followed, and when the post office moved to the settlement in 1876, people began calling it Ada. The name was chosen in memory of Ada Nelson Fisher, the daughter of prominent local resident and farmer, H. W. Fisher. She died at the age of six in 1880.

Starting with William Shields' lead in 1876 until around 1900, people came in large numbers, rapidly settling all available land. The 1875 census showed only 22 people in the township. Ten years later there were 720 people in Ada.

In 1884, Ada was incorporated as a village under the then existing state law; in 1890 it received a new charter and became a town. This charter existed until 1908 at which time Ada became a city.