Mose, ND
Griggs County
Vacant as of 10/04
Mose was also known as Florence and Lewis prior to 1904. On Halloween 1904, it was renamed Mose in honor of a local lumberyard employee. It’s peak population is said to have been 25.
Mose was particularly hard hit by a tornado, hence the sign at the entrance to the town. Most of the townsite is on private property which is well posted.
Our expedition to Mose ended up being a little more eventful than we would have liked. Due to our poor planning, we found ourselves in the middle of an abandoned town during opening weekend of deer hunting season. And with no blaze orange to alert the hunters to our presence.
After hearing several rifle shots in the distance, Terry resorted to using the rainbow umbrella from his trunk to make himself visible to any prospective hunter who might think he was venison.
To further put a scare into us, on our way out of Mose, a carload of hunters zoomed off the shoulder of the road right into our path without looking. It took a little Hollywood driving to avoid a bad accident.
Ghost town hunting during deer hunting season is bad.
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I have to pass by this little ghost town whenever I go to visit my familys graves…I always Pull over…Feeling an Odd sense of Comfort…
I remember as a child traveling through Mose whenever we went to my Aunt and Uncles house. My Mother and father grew up around the McHenry area and my Mother (who is now 82 years old) remembers attending a birthday party at the first house pictured. She said that the party attenders were told that they could eat as much cake as they wanted….so she ate cake till she made herself sick! My relatives also spoke of some ghosts that inhabited the town. For real!
That is true, my mother also talked about how when they were young that there was some ghost in that town.
Growing up in the area, we always said Binford was the biggest town between Mose and Jessie.
I can remember selling raffle tickets for the Binford School Carnival at Mose in the fall of 1958 or 59.
I was born on a farm a little more than a mile south of Mose. I started school in Mose, one year, I was 5 years old.My teacher’s name was Edva Berg. My father went in the Army and we left the farm after the one year. I have many relatives in the cemetery about 1/2 mile north.
I lived in baker in the 40ies miss the old twon. My son still fars northwest of town.
I was born on the family farm three miles north of Mose and attended grade school there through 7th grade. I also taught there in 1959-60. My paternal grandparents are buried north of Mose, as well as my great grandparents. It is interesting to note that Ken Falla posted a comment. He and I are related somehow. I have fond memories of Mose and whenever I’m in the area, I like to drive by and remember the good old days. I’m 72 years old now.
As a young girl, I attended sunday school and church in the little white Naroen Norwegian Lutheran Church. My Mom was the organist, at least some of the time. I’m currently doing research on the townsite of Mose in hopes of putting togerher, in book form, a story of the town and it’s people. I have some photographs, and hope to interview family members that lived there.
In 2007 I completed a documentation of the Naroen Cemetery, located just north of the Mose townsite. The name of the “book” is The Naroen Cemetery, Who Lies Beneath” ? A copy of the book can be seen at the courthouse in Cooperstown, North Dakota as well as the library and museum.
I went to school with sisters of Larry Lynne, Sharon, Gayle and Carol. We are related, and so is Ken Falla. If our paths cross someday, I will perhaps be able to tell you how we are related. Of the 94 people that are buried in the Naroen Cemetery, we are related to 40 of them. Perhaps more if I did deep enough…..not meant to be literal.
I spent a lot of time at Mose as a kid and try to visit when I can. My grandparents own a part of that land. I spent quite a bit of time investigating those old houses…my grandpa is also buried at the cemetery near there.
The house in the 1st and 3rd pics is the house that my dad and his sisters were born in. My dad owns a big chunk of the land up there. Hoping to get up there some Sat this summer and take my kids to see the homestead..