[7] It was one of several sites along the Great Northern's transcontinental route between Devils Lake and Minot that were named after places in England (the others were Berwick, Leeds, Knox, Norwich, Penn, Surrey, Churches Ferry, Tunbridge, and York).

North Dakota's first permanent settlers arrived in 1812 from the Earl of Selkirk's colony in neighboring Rupert's Land.

[8]: 277  As farmers, they were more advanced than many of their contemporaries in the rest of the United States, having adopted sophisticated farming methods and machinery.

[citation needed] Many of these implements, including an early McCormick Deering threshing machine, have found their way to the restored Pioneer Village in Rugby.

In 1931, the town of Rugby erected a 15-foot-tall (4.6 m) rock obelisk marking the "Geographical Center of North America".

[10] Rugby is located in eastern Pierce County at the intersection of U.S. Route 2 and North Dakota Highway 3.

[11] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.94 square miles (5.02 km2), all land.

[12] Rugby claims to be the geographic center of North America and a monument stands in the city to signify this.

[13] Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, serves a station in Rugby via its Empire Builder, a once-daily train in each direction between Portland/Seattle and Chicago.

[14] The rail station was originally built by the Great Northern Railway in 1907 and has since undergone multiple renovations.

The top six ancestry groups in the city are German (49.6%), Norwegian (40.5%), Irish (5.3%), English (4.0%), Russian (3.7%), French (3.6%).