Palermo, ND
Mountrail County
Inhabited as of 6/05
Palermo is quite populous compared to most towns you’ll see on this website, but the large number of abandoned structures made for some great photo opportunities.
US Census Data for Palermo
Total Population by Place
1960 – 188
1970 – 146
1980 – 97
2000 – 77
2010 – 74
It was founded in 1901 as a GNRR town made up of primarily Norwegian settlers. It’s name was a tribute to the Italians who worked on the area railroads.
The school pictured below was built under the Works Progress (later ‘Projects’) Administration program using Federal dollars. A site visitor reports it was used until the ’89-’90 school year.
The small white building pictured below is the former Palermo Firehouse and Jail. There’s a story going around that Palermo welcomed transients and allowed them to use this structure as a place to bed down, but the town later changed their minds and ran off all the vagrants due to fear of vandalism.
One of Palermo’s notable former residents would be Miss North Dakota 2001, Michelle Guthmiller.
CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
All photos by Troy and Rat, copyright SonicTremorMedia.com
Just wanted to leave a correction for you — the Palermo school pictured above was in use until the 1989-90 school year.
Them are some great pictures of my old home town.I wish I was still there.
The old Hotel is now gone…. My mom says they tore it down. Glad you got it before it was gone!
Hey I got the opportunity to go inside of the school there… I just have no way to post up the pictures i had taken of it but it turned out to be a really interesting trip for us… if someone can email me on how to post pictures on the site I would be glad to share.
Palermo High School 1958_1959 would have been in class of1961
My best to the class of 1961 reuion comming up in 2001
sorry about that,mybest to the class of 1961 reunion in 2011
Hi Curt, was there in 2009 for my fiftieth reunion also there in 2011. Allan Christoferson
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Been along time and alot of water under under the bridge. Schoolhouse looks pretty good considering it’s age. I would like to see the inside. I was never in the new part. Hope all is well with you and yours
My dad’s cousin ranched a short period somewhere southwest of Palermo. The only time I was there, we stopped at the school and picked up my three cousins to save them the long bus ride home. This was in the mid-60′s, so half of us kids were still pretty small. But it was still 9 people in a ’59 Ford sedan! Pre-seatbelts… and I’m pretty sure we didn’t have written consent to pick up my cousins!
As some sort of revenge I suppose, they sent us home with a scrawny cat we named Palermo. No one who holds Palermo the town dear to their heart should be offended though, we kids thought we were bestowing a great honor!
Palermo is the cats meowww
It is awesome I’m here now for a couple more weeks then back to California
I went to school there grades 1-11, then moved to Oregon. The brick school has been vandalized beyond repair. My grandfather put the windows in that school, I believe.
what year the fire dept close ?
They used to have some great street dances in Palermo. I grew up in Stanley and the Palermo were the highlight of our summer.