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is a town in Clay County, Minnesota, United States, along the Buffalo River. The population was 1,882 at the 2000 census. The town went through six quick name changes after 1871 until, in 1872, it was finally named after Thomas Hawley Canfield, an officer in the Northern Pacific Railway, which laid out the town. General Custer visited the town in 1876. In 2007 the town started an ad campaign called "Hawley Would" (a homophonic play on words of "Hollywood"). The campaign focuses on both the small-town atmosphere of Hawley and its proximity to the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area; Hawley is just 22 miles from downtown Fargo.
Hawley is east of Moorhead, at the intersection of the Buffalo River, U.S. Route 10, and the Burlington Northern Railroad. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.5 square miles (6.4 km²). 2.5 square miles (6.4 km²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water. It is located in Vikingland of Minnesota, and has a number of pasture and farmlands nearby.
The land is flat (mostly treeless) farmland west of the city, and more hilly-forested land to the east. There is much wildlife including deer, moose, waterfowl, raccoon, skunk, wolf, fox, and many other indigenous animal species. The indigenous trees in the forests are mostly leafy, with very few natural evergreens.