Auburn, ND
Auburn is a very small town in Walsh County, north of Grafton. There was an active harvest happening the day I visited, and most of the homes are still inhabited. The population appears to be a dozen or two.
Due to a finicky camera, I was only able to capture the photos you see below on my Android. The church is the most impressive structure on the townsite. It looks like it’s been abandoned for some time, and it appears to be locked up tight. There is also a grain elevator in Auburn that looks to be largely out of service, but certain parts of it are still being utilized.
Photos by Troy, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
That 40′s coupe that was in front of the garage in your last pics of the pink building is gone… It didn’t look like that thing would ever move again.
They are still very nice captures of the church!
perhaps the house inspired “little pink houses” song….
When newly weds my husband and I lived in Auburn North Dakota for about seven years. We considered being married in the church you have photographed. At that time it was used for worship by migrant workers. We knew the priest who served there. Instead we were married in the Landstad Lutheran Church stood at the corner of the entrance to Auburn which had long stood vacant. The following summer the Lanstad Church was moved to the historical park in the nearby town of Grafton, the County Seat. Thanks for taking time to capture this picture. It brought happy memories of the hamlet we lived in, our “old” neighborhood.
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My great grandfather’s brother homesteaded the land that was to become Auburn when James J Hill brought the Great Northern Railroad north of Grafton. The line ended at Neche on the Canadian border. When I was growing up Auburn was a very live and active community. For example, the Auburn Family Fun Club would put on musicals. Today, as in all of ND the land is still farmed. Every acre. However, the only farmers calling Auburn home is ours, a Davis family, an Anderson farm, a Lykken farm, and a Thompson farm, all great grandsons of the pioneers. At one time there was a farm on every quarter section. That’s called technological progress and it why American’s spend less of their disposable income on food than any nation in the world. As for the other descendents of those pioneers they are spread from sea to shining sea across our country. America, with an occasional stumble has kept its promise of freedom and opportunity, even today.
Concerning remaining farms in the Auburn community I forgot to add the Burns farm and a DeSautel farm, also descendended from pioneering families.