The Lincoln Drive neighborhood in Grand Forks was deeply transformed by the Grand Forks flood of 1997, when unusually heavy snowfall and rapid spring warming caused unprecedented flooding along the Red River that inundated seventy-five percent of Grand Forks and ninety-five percent of East Grand Forks. One of the most powerful scenes of the disaster showed water flowing over the top of the Lincoln Park Levee. Throughout its history, the neighborhood had been vulnerable to river flooding, especially in the spring, and efforts to reduce the danger included completion of an earthen levee and a concrete floodwall in 1956, though sandbagging was still necessary during high water. Before the 1997 flood, the area had been a flourishing neighborhood of nearly 350 homes and had played an important role in the Grand Forks community from its early beginnings in 1882. At various times it included a dairy farm, an ice harvesting business, and an elementary school, and nearby recreational facilities included a ski jump, a golf course, and a bike path. After the flood, the homes were removed to give the river more room, residents relocated, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a permanent flood protection system including a Greenway along the Red and Red Lake Rivers that encompasses more than 2,200 acres in flood-prone areas between the two communities.