Venturia, ND
Mcintosh County
Inhabited as of 5/11
Venturia is located in a very sparsely populated region of the state, near the South Dakota border and just east of the Missouri river, near Ashley.
When we arrived in Venturia, we were excited by the photo opportunities but we needed a break from the rain. It took us a few minutes of sitting in the car before we realized the neon sign on the bar behind us was lit — OPEN.
Inside, we met Don, the owner of the “Duck Inn,” a bar that could also double as his living room. We had a beer and he showed us his 104-year-old pool table. He was born and raised in Venturia, then left to see the world before returning to become the town barkeep. Although we were the only people in the place, he said he was expecting a good crowd of people from surrounding towns since it was Memorial weekend. Rat bought a t-shirt that said “Duck Inn and Waddle Out.” According to Don, there are 21 people in Venturia.
There was no shortage of photo opportunities in Venturia — we got shots of an abandoned lumber yard, an armory, and the train depot which appears to be undergoing restoration.
That’s the Duck Inn, center in the photo above.
The now abandoned Venturia Lumber Company.
Yes, I’d like a one-way ticket to anywhere, please.
Photos by Troy and Rat, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
That was so cool! I enjoyed reading about this town. Loved the Duck Inn slogan. What I wanna know – was the beer cold and did Don know of any “ghosts” in town? LOL
My great great grandfather used to run, maybe own the lumberyard in Venturia. I love McIntosh county. Both of my parents are from that area and I have spent A LOT of time there as well. This area means so much to me and it is truely a very unique and special plac
e.
One Christmas I snowmobiled across the snowy fields to stop for a warm drink at the Duck Inn. My family is from Ashley, ND so Venturia was a perfect snow ride away.
Keep up the wonderful story telling of North Dakota. A wonderful place and great people.
How many concrete municipal buildings are there like that in ND? There’s one in Hensel too.
The inside of the train station is just beautiful.
Back in the late 1980s and early 90′s the “armory” or city hall was purchased for $600 by an Ashley resident named Bob Delzer (who still lives in Ashley). Bob is a rock music encyclopedia (especially if you want to know anything about KISS) and was also an amateur promoter and used to book some kick-ass bands to play the hall. These events always drew a large crowd from across the region (to the point that you could hardly move because the place was so packed) and on several occasions were visited by the local State’s Attorney and the county sheriff’s department, who tried to shut the place down for what they called “violation of the fire code.” The real reason was because a local minister didn’t like the music or the fact that the area young people were being “adversely influenced” by the place. The Duck Inn always did well on those nights too!
I still have a t-shirt that says ‘Venture to Venturia & party at the Dog House’. lol
“The Dog House”!!!!! I went to a concert there once and Zwarte ROCKED sooooo hard the ceiling tiles were falling off!!
This town is a awesome town. a good chunk of immediate family lives here and Forbes as well. really surprised you guys wrote about these places.
The rail station in Venturia has got to be an identical twin to the one in Egeland, ND which is on the complete opposite side of the state! Color scheme and everything. I was in Egeland last October. They must have had a few standard floor plans, but I don’t know off the top of my head if these cities were on the same rail lines (IE NP, GN). Interesting….anyone have any insight?
Both Venturia and Egeland were on the Soo Line. Yes, the railroads had set plans for their buildings. For depots, they would have like 3 or 4 plans depending on the size of the city/town. They would be Class 1, Class 2, etc. The building plans tended to be identical within a Class. However, that said, I think with the larger depots (Class I ?) there tended to be much more leeway in the design, at least on the outside appearance. I think on the NP, and probably other railroads, they also had a ‘Passenger Station’ classification. And these larger depots were probably all somewhat different. But I’m guessing that with the Class 2 and 3 depots they pretty much looked the same.
I remember being a new teacher out here in 1988 when the city hall was host to some great concerts. It is very sparce with people out here, so it was quite a shock to see so many kids come out from the woodwork.
My mother grew up in Venturia in the early 1930′s. It was a booming town back then with 2 grocery stores, the lumber yard, the depot, 2 elevators, 2 bars, city hall, numerous churches, an elementary school, and at least two gas stations. There were always activities going on at city hall.
My uncle, Art Tesky and his wife Pauline, had a butcher shop and also owned the Chevy garage which has since fallen down. It is the building that has fallen next to city hall.
I spent many days there during my childhood.
A number of my uncles played for the town’s softball team.
The Jacob Tesky family held their family reunions at city hall for many years.
As kids, in the 60′s, we used to love to go through the old abandoned houses to see what treasures we could find.
My father grew up in Greenway, SD, just south of Venturia. On Friday nights the Bertsch boys would head to Venturia and light up the town.
Lots of great memories from Venturia.
Amost all small towns (as well as large and larger towns) had amateur baseball teams up until around 1960, when softball, especially slow-pitch softball started taking over.
so cool my mom’s family farmed there many yrs ago
I was in one of those bands that played at the Dog House MANY times… it was so much fun – I will never forget it… the best had to be the fact that after the show, the party went to the basement of the Dog House and that was when the fun began … the party never stopped….. Once the sun came out, everyone went back to Bob’ house in Ashley and crashed in his basement – oh the good times!!! Bobs the Greatest, Venturia is the Greatest, and I remember Don ALWAYS had the best Jag…. lol
Do you remember my name John Miller from Ashley. How about 3 day weekends we would do the same things on Sunday night as well
I grew up in this wonderful little town where my Dad managed the elevators that you see in the photos above. I have the best childhood memories of being raised here…Desiree (above) mentioned her uncle, Art Tesky, and his service station. I can’t even count the number of Pepsi’s with peanuts I drank on the little bench in front of that station with friends as we took our breaks from tearing up the town on our bikes. Many years ago, the little general store owned by Mike & Maggie Ritter was right across the street from the station. That store had everything! My brother and I attended school there with 13 other kids in grades 1 – 8. Some grade levels didn’t have any students, a few had only 1 or 2, but my class was one of the largest with 3…and one of them was my cousin! We spent hours and hours exploring that little town. I knew many of the old buildings shown in the photos like the back of my hand. My brother is great friends with Donny from the Duck Inn. I knew the bar mostly from earlier days. If those walls could talk, what stories they’d tell!! Thank you for this great little trip down memory lane!
Why no pictures of the beautiful church that is still meeting there?