Ambrose, ND
Divide County
Inhabited as of 5/10
Ambrose is just north of Highway 5 in the northwestern corner of the state, just three miles from the US-Canadian border.
Ambrose has been on our radar for some time. It is a well-known town in ghost town circles and has been the subject of numerous media reports for a variety of reasons, most notably it’s dwindling population.
We knew Ambrose would be beautiful and there would be good photographs to be taken, but honestly, we were caught unprepared. We were three-quarters of the way through a two-day, one thousand mile ghost town trip, and when we rolled into Ambrose, honestly, there was almost a feeling of dread… because there were so many photos to take.
Ambrose is a large town as near-ghost towns go, covering some twenty square blocks. It is also much more wooded than we expected (due in part to the effort of early residents), requiring a lot of ‘adventure’ so-to-speak.
So this gallery is a small sampling of the photos we were able to take. Suffice to say, if you’re gonna photograph Ambrose, allow an extra day. See more photos of Ambrose, contributed by Laura Enerson Castro, here.
US Census Data for Ambrose
Total Population by Place
1910 – 320
1920 – 389
1930 – 334
1940 – 294
1950 – 286
1960 – 220
1970 – 109
1980 – 60
1990 – 48
2000 – 23
2010 – 26
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE
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- The former Ambrose hospital.
Photos by Troy and Rat, copyright SonicTremorMedia.com
The Ambrose website has a great gallery of black and white old time photos. http://www.ambrosend.com/5-gallery01.html
Thank you so much-these are great pictures. I wish the trees were all in full bloom-then the real beauty of Ambrose surfaces. Such wonderful memories-thank you again.
Yeah, they’re wonderful! I’ll have to take some more and put on Facebook one of these days! Your grandpa sure made the town beautiful with all the trees!
Great pictures, great fun in our younger days. Thanks
Thanks, Laura, I have always been proud of Grandpa for planting such a beautiful little town-basically, he built the town with the trees and the rest came later-ha. The story I heard was he
loved Ambrose but was frustrated because of the lack of trees and flowers so he took it upon himself to plant, plant, plant!!!
Its too bad you weren’t able to grow up in our generation-the population around that time was
283 and we had so much fun-we didn’t need computers, video games,etc. to keep us happy.
We always found plenty to do even if it was just riding our bikes to town in the summer to get a
popsicle. That was before all the fires that took our little town, building by building. I’m sure you have
read about the fires in the Ambrose history.
Hi Shirley, you mentioned your grandfather and planting trees in Ambrose. My grandfather (Ludwig Palm) lived in Ambrose from 1908 until about 1918. He had owned a nursery in Cottonwood, MN but it burned in 1908 and Ludwig lost everything. He then moved to Ambrose and continued selling nursery products including trees and shrubs. Do you happen to know or have any information about him? He also was the first Sons of Norway president of the lodge which was formed in 1913. At some point he shifted and began selling insurance. Thank you, Brian Tanning (alwaystanning@yahoo.com)
Thanks for the pictures of Ambrose. I was both glad & sad to see them. I grew up in Ambrose & attended school there. It was a wonderful town with plenty of residents but as Shirlee wrote, fires took much of the main street businesses. Thankfully, there are still people who refuse to let the town die.
Jr. Olson
Väddö, Sweden
Jr. Olson is my second cousin……..and I played with Shirlee Anderson when I was little.
We moved to Nebraska but I still consider Ambrose as my hometown. Would love to
own a lot with lilac bushes!!
Looks like the weather was gorgeous for photography
Velma Ness Lassen
Lincoln NE
spent many summers in ambrose my grandpa and grandma run the grocery store many many happy times
The little brown house once belonged to my greataunt and uncle-”Auntie and Omer”. It was white, then; the yard was perfectly neat with flowers and a Church bird house. Auntie made the best donuts ever! Omer ran the locker plant in Ambrose.
These photos are great! Can you see why people love ND? Look at the beautiful skies! I’m having a hard time identifying some of the homes. I can tell which was Grandpa Rud’s, Enoch Andersen and as for Auntie & Omer, (everyone in town called her “Auntie”!) I remember her for her delicious white sugar cookies & friends & families gathering at their place for big birthday celebrations. I assume for Auntie. I always love going back for visits & driving around the streets, trying to remember who lived in particular houses etc. My sister & I would often walk to my Grandma Moen’s for dinner during the school year. On the way back to school, her neighbor, Mrs. Sherick, would often call us over for a piece of homemade divinity! Carefree days & good memories.
I was just looking at the Ambrose pictures again tonight, Feb. 16th and thinking “Where else are the skies so blue and beautiful?” Yes, Auntie had the best homemade sugar cookies -everything she cooked was
absolutely wonderful & everyone loved Omer & Auntie as their own grandparents. What wonderful
memories we have of growing up in such a beautiful little town. I would not trade those memories for
anything.
Amazing photos…so many places like Ambrose, including my old hometown of St. Vincent, Minnesota…so many memories…
Thanks for the pictures and to who ever took all the pictures of the cemetery did a super job. The pictures and the looks of the cemetery shows the people have a warm heart.
Beautiful pics of a beautiful place!
Thank you for the great pictures. Haven’t lived in North Dakota for almost 40 years, but try to get back every few years. Dad graduated from Ambrose High School. When I was a kid, we would go out for ” a drive” and often go to Ambrose. Dad would point out favorite places.
Great pictures! They bring back memories of my time there .. 1999-2001.
ambrose- a small town population about 23 homes.post office and a grain elevator. very pretty town with nice people. obtained this information from a Mary. S officer in charge of ambrose po. zip code is 58833. she sent me a post mark from this location.
Thanks, Ria-I grew up in Ambrose and IS a pretty town with the nicest of people!! I miss it a lot but sadly, it isn’t what I remember it to be when I was growing up.
WAS THERE AS A KID IN THE 50′S….Great Uncle Bert Nelson lived there then,wonder if any of their children remember us or maybe great grandchildren
I think Im related to velma. Im kjell ness son. I spent every summer in the 1980′s in ambrose with my cousins will and travis ness, Dillon lewis and eric standing in the road. these pictures remind me of summer. so many great memories. i used to hate the end of summer when I would have to go back to san francisco.
I was born in Ambrose but lived in Crosby until about 1940 and then we moved to Bottineau so I remember very little about the area. Did go back to Crosby with my family and drove right to the house where we used to live – my kids couldn’t believe we had such a small house – think it had one bedroom. Have many pictures of it. I don’t imagine Ambrose is too deserted at this time with all the oil boom. My husband’s cousin has a gravel truck working in that area and he said they are living in Ambrose!!
I was born in the Ambrose hospital. My name is Marlene [hagen] Fuller Martin and I now live in Ponca City, Okalhoma. Sure did enjoy the pictures! My father was Roy Hagen of Alamo.
Is anyone familiar with (or knew of) Ingemar Oleson of Ambrose, ND?
http://www.ambrosend.com/44-anderson_clara.html (bottom of the page).