The name is derived from the word móar which is the plural form of mór which means "moorland".

Originally the village (and later the growing town) was generally known simply as Mo, but since many Norwegian settlements bear that name, disambiguating it by specifying it as the one that is located in Rana became commonplace.

[6] In Mo i Rana, Nord University is located at Campus Helgeland just a short distance from shops, cafes and bars, cinema, theater, training facilities, and transport services including an airport.

In 1860, wholesale merchant L.A. Meyer started a trade center, licensed by royal authority.

Meyer traded flour, herring and tobacco, reindeer meat, skins and venison with the Swedes.

One example is a path that starts in the Vindelfjällens Nature Reserve at Ammarnäs and follows the Vindel River valley, then joins Vindelkroken and eventually crosses the Norwegian border to Mo i Rana.

The Dunderland Iron Ore Company (1902–1947), owned by Thomas Edison,[8] established the first mines in Storforshei (27 kilometres or 17 miles north of Mo i Rana).

The mining company Rana Gruber was also established in 1937, and in 1946, the Norwegian Parliament approved plans for the construction of an Iron mill in Norway.

The community needed homes for thousands of new residents and, the construction of houses and residential blocks started immediately.

From the end of the Second World War until the early 1990s, Mo i Rana, with the town's steel mill as its cornerstone, was dependent upon heavy industry.

During the autumn of 1951, around "700 or 800" protesters showed up at the local graveyard as a result of a "night-time mobilisation"[10] to oppose the government's attempt to remove Soviet corpses from graves.

On 1 January 1923, the village of Mo was designated as a ladested and so it was separated from the rest of the municipality to become a town-municipality of its own.

[13] The municipal council (Bystyre) of Mo was made up of 29 representatives that were elected to four year terms.

The European route E12 begins in Mo i Rana and connect the city to Sweden and Finland.

An international tourist route Blue Highway (in Norwegian: Blå vegen) begins in Mo i Rana.

Havmann (English: The Man from the Sea) is a sculpture made from Arctic granite located in the Ranfjord.

The museum has a special focus on industrial history, and the main exhibition shows everything from large machines to listening stations with films from old Rana.

The industrial adventure and the development that happened also changed the fashion and peoples homes, also showcased through interiors and clothes from the 1960s and 70s.

Arctic Circle Raceway is a motorsports and road racing track, situated 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Mo i Rana.

The church was built on the initiative of Thomas von Westen, a Norwegian priest and missionary who worked among the Sami.

Mo i Rana is located at the head of Ranfjorden, just on the southern side of the Saltfjellet mountains with the Svartisen glacier, Norway's second largest.

Mo i Rana's climate is usually classified as subarctic (Köppen Dfc bordering on Dsc),[26] with long, cold winters, and short, warm summers.

Blizzards in winter can go on for hours, potentially creating traffic difficulties and cancelling flights.

It varies in intensity, coloured from white green to deep red, and comes in different shapes, such as beams, arches and draperies.

On rare occasions, the overnight low does not go below 20 °C (68 °F), known in Norway as tropical night (tropenatt Norwegian).

During November, fresh water and rivers start to freeze, and the landscape is covered with snow.

Tellingskrets (enumeration districts): 1, Dalsgrenn (lime); 2, Sjånes - Andfiskvatne (red); 3, Mo (blue); 4, Gruben - Umbugtenø (green); 5, Villen - Fiskkjønli (black); 6, Plurdalen (purple).

Tellingskrets (enumeration districts): 7, Skonseng (lime); 8, Grønfjelddalen (red); 9, Øvre Dunderlandsdalen (blue); 10, Eiteraa - Urtfjeld (green).

Tellingskrets (enumeration districts): 11, Selfors - Langvashoved (lime); 12, Røvasdalen (red); 13, Langvasgrændenø (purple); 14, Ytteren (blue); 15, Enge - Røberg (green), 16, Alteren (black).

This tradition began to change in the mid to late 19th century, and inherited surnames were codified into law in 1923.