Tagus was founded in 1900, on a rolling spot on the prairie, forty miles west of Minot, just off Highway 2. A railroad settlement town, it reached a peak population of 140 in 1940. It was originally named Wallace, but was later renamed Tagus to avoid confusion with the town of Wallace, Idaho. The origin of the name “Tagus” is still in dispute.
It is now primarily abandoned with a handful of residents and numerous vacant structures.
The Minot Daily News ran a story about GND several days before our actual trip to Tagus. You can imagine our surprise when we were met by two of the residents of Tagus who had been keeping an eye out for us. They had quite a story to tell.
As it turns out, Tagus has weathered way more than it’s fair share of vandalism and mean-spirited behavior. For years, vandals from the nearby areas have used Tagus as a party place. One of Tagus’ residents told us a story about one Halloween night in the 1980’s, when 300 kids showed up in this tiny town for an all-out Halloween trashing session. The Mountrail County Sherriff had been tipped however and put a stop to it.
It’s not often we run across an old country home with a turret.
That tree is huge!
In 2001, vandals again did their damage when they were found to be responsible for a fire which destroyed Tagus’ only remaining church. The spot is now marked with a stone marker. Although there are reports the fire was electrical, the resident we spoke to was adamant the fire was caused by vandals.
As you’ll see from some of the comments on this post, Tagus has been the subject of some very strange and persistent rumors and urban legends over the years, to a greater degree than any other town we’ve encountered. There are outlandish tales of Satanic activity, hellhounds, ghosts and ghoulish activity in Tagus. Anyone who has grown up in northwest North Dakota has likely heard them. At any rate, if you decide to visit Tagus, please be respectful of the town. They’ve already sacrificed far too much.
Who knows what this structure used to be? Please leave a comment.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, © Sonic Tremor Media
Ghosts of North Dakota 
Is the property posted, or can we walk around and photograph the structures?
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It’s still a town, Jane. Some of the individual properties may be posted, but there’s plenty to see in Tagus.
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I agree, my girlfriend just went through there and took some beautiful pictures. I look forward to visiting it. Very soon.
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Ive heard stories of a ghost on his horse walkin around, is that a common story you hear?
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I grew up outside of Berthold (about 10 miles from Tagus, and my best friend lived by Tagus), never heard of that…
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my parents grew up in the town.
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This location was the source of many urban legend including one indicating that the church which has since burned was used as the church of Satan…supposedly including an inverted cross. My belief is this is nonsense though if the church did have an inverted cross it was likely the result of vandals as mentioned in the text
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I can honestly say that this did happen. My cousin used to live there, and I was at her house for the week. We would go for walks every night at around 2am, and take the same trip around town and down the highway. We walked by the church one night, and all was fine, the second night we walked by, the cross was inverted. I cant say that anyone came around that night, we were in our teens and out all night, so I think its safe to say that we would have seen or heard something. That same summer, we cut through the cemetery, and we had a 5″ thick tree branch come swinging at our heads, and that night there was definitely nobody there to pull pranks…The town is one of a kind, and extremely unusual, but its just how the town has always been, a unique treasure, that continues to live on.
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I think it is the other way around i heard that the place was used for a church of satan and did have an inverted cross
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Hi Gavin, I lived in Tagus in the late 40’s and 50’s with Ole and Odin Sjaastad===bob
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From what I have heard, Tagus is supposed to be the epicenter of satanic activity/power and if Charles Manson were to ever get out of prison that is where he would go. Supposedly rituals have been seen thru windows, skinned animals left lining the streets, and a church w/ a staircase that decends and doesn’t end. The town gives me the creeps every time I’ve driven thru it!
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The town is mostly my family, I have a hard time believing that the church across from my 99 year old great grandmother, the one that my family went to for years was a bunch of Satan worshippers. Does make a good story though!
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Oh how the rumors fly. It’s a ghost town, really no different than any other ghost town…
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Back in the 80’s I was with community ambulance service, we we’re called out there a number of times for farm accidents. But they were not farm accidents. Sometime later we were called for a body under some farm equipment. It turns out he was 17, stabbed over 150 times. Different things carved on his body. Not long after the boys guitar was found in a house, sent to prison for the murder. It’s all public record back in the 1980’s.
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My granparents Walter and Alida Sloan’s address was Tagus ND begining in1903.
Also my parents Lyndon and Lulu Sloan farmed the same place in later years.
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My aunt and uncle still live in Tagus. I remember as a young child wandering around town and going thru the many empty houses. Some were like the people just woke up one day and walked off leaving everything. I remember playing with things in some of the attics. If there was anything satanic going on I never saw anything. Maybe this summer when I am back I’ll have to take another look!
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Would your aunt and uncle know if any of the houses in Tagus would be available for sale? I am looking for a house.
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I didn’t see anything either when my friend and I used to wander around…I grew up outside of Berthold and she is from by Tagus.
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very nice pictures! i was there last week looking! i have a site on FACEBOOK called “NORTH DAKOTA PICTURES” , WELL WORTH LOOKING AT! THANKS for doing a good job GHOSTS OF NORTH DAKOTA!!!!
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beautiful old houses!
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My mother (Carol Berg ) taught in a one room school house just outside of Tagus in 1943 just after she graduated from Minot State College. She always said there were just good people in Tagus. Never said anything about any problems or rumors. We had asked if she had been afraid to move to a strange place and
live in a stranger’s house. She said no but there were a lot of suitors who asked her out. Being a single
teacher she didn’t get to date from the community; there seemed to have been a couple of families who made sure everything would be ‘under control’. I guess I am glad as my dad was from Fillmore, another ghost town of ND.
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I’ve heard the satanic stories about Tagus from several people. Including that beneath the aforementioned church is the gateway to Hell itself. I never beleived any of these rumors, but I do find it very interesting that they remain so persisent and not only in the area, but with individuals thoughout North Dakota. I was driving down Highway 2 a few years ago from Glacier National Park to Fargo and was excited to make a quick stop in Tagus. Unfortunately there was a lot of road construction and it proved difficult to find the detour so we passed on by without stopping. Gives me another reason to go back and explore more of Northwestern part of the state I guess.
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One time I went there with some friends after hearing a story about it. We were met by a resident who took us on a tour. He lived in an old trailer and had a freezer outside like you would see in horror movies. When we were away both cars we took had their alarms go off and when we got back nobody was there. When we went back to where the resident was he was gone but there was a knife on the floor, so we left right away.
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Sounds to me like somebody was having run messing with you…….
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I’m a bomber guy at Minot AFB, been up North for about six years now. I first heard of Tagus when some of the dudes I work with took a Sunday off to go look at ghost towns. Tagus was the featured event. I did hear about the Satanic church. I also heard something about the Son of Sam killings, and their relationship to MAFB. one of the Carr brothers (neighbors to David Berkowitz) committed suicide on base. That much, at least, is documented-the suicide part, not the Tagus connection. The most detailed story I heard was from a missile cop about an event that transpired back in the 1960s or 1970s.
For those that don’t know, there are ICBM silos all over NW North Dakota. The crews that service and operate these sites are from the air base. As one could imagine, security surrounding the crews and equipment that go to and from the site is very tight, and not even local police have the authority to interfere in their movement. At some point, a group of protesters in the local area elected to try and block one of the roads these crews were traveling on. They made their intentions known, so the local sheriff attempted to talk them out of it. He was unsuccessful, and they set up a blockade. The motorcade of Security vehicles and trucks promptly plowed right through them without stopping, thus leaving the town with something of a sinister reputation.
I doubt this is true-being so close to Minot, I’m sure someone would remember an event like this-I suspect it would have even made national news. A lot of times events that occurred in one place will be transposed to another, so it’s possible that this was an actual event that happened nearby, or maybe even in another state.
Anyway, that’s my $.02
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Yep David Carr did “commit suicide” at MAFB in early 1978. He was living with his girlfriend who was stationed there David Berkowitz was arrested in August 1977. Thing was Carr apparently used a shotgun to shoot himself square in the face. And he wound up on the floor on his side gun a few feet away and his arms are crossed across his chest. You can see the scene photos in the book “The Ultimate Evil”. Sure dont look like a suicide. His younger brother Mike died in a one car accident early one morning in 1979 on NyC’s west side highway. Again strange because apparently he wasn’t traveling fast and his car veered off the road and somehow he broke his neck. The connection with them and the “son of Sam” is that the Carr brothers were the sons of Sam Carr and they lived in a house directly below the apartment bldg where Berkowitz lived. I’m from Minot and now live in NY so of course I had to visit this site on wharbourton Ave in Yonkers. The other connection with the son of Sam and ND is the fact that he mentioned Arliss Perry in one of his letters “stalked followed to Stanford killed”. The lovely Arliss was a newlywed from Bismarck who had moved with her husband who was attending Stanford Univeristy. She was found stabbed with picked inside Stanford’s cathedral in 1974 (two years prior to first son of Sam murder). And finally, the last son of Sam victim was Stacy moskowitz in Brooklyn. David Berkowtiz has stated in several interviews that a friend of the Carrs was flown in from ND for the murder. In a subsequent interview he said a small town in ND but couldn’t remember the name but thought it sounded like “targets”. To me that sounds like Tagus. Doesn’t mean it is true or the person came from Tagus but interesting all the same. Being a teen in Minot in the 90’s you heard all of this “stuff” and I just had to research se fact. So there you go. I doubt Tagus was ever home to devil worshipers but I’m sure some lost crazy hippie or two has passed through at some point
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I would like to buy a house in Tagus. Is anyone interested in selling?
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I have heard all these satanic stories about Tagus for years. I have been there many times and I never seen anything that would make me think that there was any truth to them at all.
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We commute from Minot to the oil fields every day and have noticed on the highway sign in Berthold that Tagus is 9 miles ahead, you never see a sigh pointing to Tagus, About 3 miles out of Berthold the Highway 2 mile markers jump from 120 to 117 in less than a mile for some reason. We have started calling this the Tagus Triangle
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???
I grew up outside of Berthold and never experienced this “Tagus Triangle” that you talk about. 3 miles outside of Berthold off Hwy 2 is where I would turn to go to my house, and if I didn’t turn to go to my house, I’d end up by my friend’s house in Tagus, and I assure you, I never had 3 miles just disappear in that time – and I drove it many nights, late, all alone or just my friend and I…oh the silly things people come up with!!
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i went to tagus at 0300 on easter morning 2012. i never thought id be a person telling a ghost story, but i cannot deny what myself and the rest of my group saw that morning.
we got into tagus and backed the car onto the driveway of an abandon structure. our vehicle faced the road. before we began our adventure, we made sure that we left the doors unlocked and had a difficult time getting the interior light to go off, but it did eventually. with the railroad to our backs, we began to walk down the street. we got to the first house on the left and hopped the barbed wire. we went inside and began to explore. it was spooky, just as any old, abandon house would be. we got to the stairs leadin into the basement. the cellar door was open when we got there. my friend Justin, who had been there two nights prior, had sworn that he and his group shut that door when they left during his first trip. anyways, we traveled downstairs, looked around and went back to the main floor. soon after, we went upstairs. we came to a room which had nothing in it but a mirror and a chair. the chair faced the window, and overlooked the cemetery. as i stood near the entrance of the room, the rest of my party looked through the window. the driver of the car we took asked the owner of the car if she thought that the light in the distance was from her car. we were certain that the light was something else, as we had made sure all lights we off before we started exploring. after the building had been thoroughly explored, we began to leave. once we were about 10 feet from where we had exited the house, we heard a loud bang. it sounded like a cupboard slamming or a window shutter. those of us who live, or have been to north dakota, know that its a very windy place. however, the air was very still this night. as this bang startled us, especially the two girls in our party, we began to hurry towards the fence. upon arriving at the fance, four more bangs were heard by all. very loud and clear. these bangs were very structured. four bangs spaced about a second apart. this startled us even more. the girl began to run towards the car. myself and another friend stayed by the fence for about 15-25 seconds, looking at the house and trying to find the source of the sounds. another friend was calling for us, so we hopped the fence and proceeded to the car. as i watched the girls running to the car, then stop about 15 feet from the car and run back towards us. we began to run to them to see what their panic was. once we met up with girl, they told us that all of the car doors open. upon hearing the news, i looked toward the car and saw for myself that all four doors were wide open. this was the straw that broke the camels back. we were leaving, now. we all began to run to the car. just before i got into my rear right seat, the driver said, “what the f*ck is that?!” i looked into the field on the other side of the road. we saw two human like silhouettes. the night was lit by a bright moon and we all clearly saw these dark figures, one being a little bit taller than the other. as these figures we completely black, we could not positively identify what they were. the front of the car was facing them, so i figured once the lights were turned on, we’d find out what they were. when the lights turned on, the figured seemingly disappeared. i looked harder and saw the figures again, this time with the lights on. the light seemed to travel through the figures as if they were transparent. the also cast no shadow. we wasted no time getting out of there, so our judgement of these figures can be questioned, however i can positively say that they were unlike anything ive ever seen.
i expected this trip to be the exploration of a typical abandon house, but it turned out to be much more. after searching for information about this town, im not surprised to find stories similar to mine. i am currently stationed at Minot AFB. im sure others here and those who hear my story will want to go see for themselves. i can only advice them to go with extreme caution and an open mind. respect the town and DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING. i plan to go back to gain more evidence to build a more complete story. i can only hope im not involved in the “actual event” that a future horror is based on.
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“we saw two human like silhouettes. the night was lit by a bright moon and we all clearly saw these dark figures, one being a little bit taller than the other. as these figures we completely black, we could not positively identify what they were.”
I’d say they were humans, further away than you thought they were. People who live by ghost towns sometimes think it is funny to mess with the tourists that come by, especially at night……………..
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Shadow figures.
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I went to Tagus in 1989 while stationed at Minot AFB. It was evening when we slowly drove thru. Only one home had lights on inside and an errie looking elderly woman starred out at us without moving. It was a very creepy feeling and we gladly left.
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I’m originally from Minot. Heard all the stories back in high school (late ’90’s). Finally visited in 2007 and UrbExed many of the buildings.
“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” That’s the ethic.
Met a local resident, Gaylen, who apparently lots of other visitors have met also. He lives in the trailer with the freezer outside. Hung out and visited with him for 1.5 hours in the trailer. He was pretty friendly, but I’ve heard some not so good stories about subsequent encounters with him.
His story relating to the satanic stuff is that there is this group of devil-worshipers living on some farmstead north of town. He blames them for the church burning down and other sources seem to confirm that the fire was the result of some type of vandalism.
Then again, that all might be part of the Tagus mythos.
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there are no ghosts or truth in any of this B.S. This town produced many fine and successful people in the 30-40-50-s. I lived in the house that is shown twice-gram Ret had it then later Anderson . The turret house was a fine xample of 30s building. My uncles store
was vandalized and burgled in the 60s by thiefs then burned down by the county .there are
several families there plus a new home and compound some rich folk have– for the peace and quiet. there are a lot of stories from the past but mostly humor and straight talking-(there were 2 taverns and one church!!)
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I have never been there. Dad has never said anything about ever going to tagus. Maybe you could email me or call me at (701) 389-7379. Thats my other number. okay this is gavin, your nephew. Call me
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I have never been there. Dad has never said anything about ever going to tagus. Maybe you could email me or call me at (701) 389-7379. Thats my other number.
P.S. This is gavin
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I am pretty sure you know my family. My mom, Mary Bjelland, often spoke of the Torges that lived by them. Ken Larson
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Very sad…The story about the church and the “steps to Hell in the basement,” sounds exactly like the story about Stull, Kansas. Vandals there, also destroyed the church and the surrounding cemetery. As for the “true” ghost story from above – face it, you’re out at 3 am and trespassing. It’s a shame that police didn’t find you. “IF” there were “dark figures” it’s probably the spirits of the good folks of Tagus trying to get vandals like your group out of what used to be someone’s home. Not only are you putting yourselves in danger – of being injured by hurting yourselves in these buildings, you continue to distort and bring negative thoughts to a town where once families lived and decent people went about their lives. Just because economic times changed this town, it’s sad to think that folks want to find “more” to blame for the collapse of a town. If your family had originally lived in this town for generations, I’m certain you would feel differently about it. Get a bible and learn the REAL story of how to make yourself “fireproof.”
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Lighten up francis. It’s a pretty big leap from exploring harmlessly to vandalism and arson….
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Glad to see I’m not crazy. This town is scary. I heard plenty of rumors of satanic activity as a teen. Ventured there a couple times to check it out. My stories aren’t as good as some of these, but we had some freaky experiences. One of the times we were chased by a car from Tagus to Stanley at speeds well over a hundred miles per hour. At Stanley, the other car finally turned around an went back the other direction. We presumed at the time these were satanists. Truthfully, I have know idea why we were chased, or who chased us. At the time, we didn’t care to find out.
The other time we drove through there to tease my friend’s girlfriend. We told her all the stories, just to have fun with her. She needed to go to the bathroom, so to further teased her, we told her that she’d have to go there. Well, the town looked peaceful enough, she was scared and refused. I step out of the car to show her is wasn’t really that bad. As soon as I closed the door, two huge hounds from hell appeared seemingly out of nowhere. They were growling, barking, and running full steam at me. I jumped back in the car as fast as I could, and told my friend to get the hell out of there. We sped off, and I haven’t been back since.
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I used to work in the missile field out in the area surrounding Tagus and have had my fill of experiences in that town both adverage and abnormal sometimes borderline paranormal. I myself do not believe that satanic activity is prevalent in this town but there is a small presence of spiritual pressure. I did have an experience much like Ben did with the hell hounds and other unnerving experiences just outside the town however those were most likely due to the intended nature of my visits-recon for paranormal investigations. The experience with the hounds has convinced me never to return but then again you’d think the buckshot imbedded in my old car years ago from an older man’s shotgun would have convinced me sooner.
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My friend had the same car chase incident as you. The car was a black old style roadster and he didn’t see anyone in the driver seat (but considering it was night that wouldn’t be unusual). The difference is that the car stopped chasing them after only a few miles. It just did a dead stop and then a U-turn and headed back to town. I have to wonder how many people this has happened to and if anyone stopped to see who was chasing them.
He also saw the inverted cross in the church but the whole place was trashed by vandals so that’s the most plausible reason.
The craziest story he told me about his trips there was where on the way to town a sheriff had someone pulled over and he had no pants and gave him and his friends a strange stare as they drove by.
My cousins also had some strange events happen to them.
There is apparently a gravestone that will glow green on certain nights that they witnessed first-hand. The other thing is that there is a ‘ghost train’ that sometimes goes down the tracks and is semi-translucent which they also claim to have seen.
Again (many years prior to knowing my friend), my cousins told me about the car that chased you out of town. So it’s pretty safe to say that that has happened to quite a few people but is just a matter of if it is an angry towns-person that wants to drive off or something else.
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Maybe it’s my grandfather in law’s gravestone lol
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Tagus was originally a station on the Great Northern Railway, with a siding track for trains to pass each other. Some time around 1928, a highway underpass was installed to carry a road south from Old Highway 2, bypassing Tagus to the east. This bridge had two railroad tracks across the top – one for the main line and one for the siding. The siding was removed in the 1960’s.
What maked this historical minutae vaguely interesting is that last year (2012), GN successor BNSF Railway built a new siding just east of town, using a couple thousand feet of the old siding’s roadbed and re-installing the second track across that bridge. Tagus now appears in the railroad timetable again, 0.9 miles east of where the original station was.
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That’s interesting stuff, Dan. Thanks for adding it.
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There is a movie in all of this. Come on Hollywood!
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A few members of my family lived there in the early 1900s, up through the 1960s: Maternal grandmother & aunt, great-grandparents, great-great grandparents. My family still owns property in and around Tegas. My great-grandmother was postmaster there for many years and owned a beautiful Victorian house just a block or two away that is now dilapidated (owned by someone else now) and mistreated, which is terribly sad; my mother, aunts, and grandmother have wonderful memories in that once beautiful, cozy home.
The stories of Satanic activity are bogus. The residents of the town were lovely, hard-working people. I love that people still visit the town, take pics, and enjoy the creepy feel that an abandoned town lends, but hope that they have enough respect to avoid destroying or taking things away from it.
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My husband’s family farms right next to Tagus. He was a member if the “satanic” Tagus Lutheran Church growing up until it burned down. He said the only thing creepy about it was the old church ladies 😉
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This isn’t the Jenn that I know, is it?? 🙂 How’s Cali?? teehee 😉
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Hi Brittany!
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In the late 80’s I remember stories about satanic activity there. The stories used to circulate early fall through Halloween. Some one actually threw red paint on the sign out by highway 2 and there were rumors of dogs being slayed etc… I used to travel frequently from Burlington to Stanley to visit family. Every time I would go alone my mother would warn me, “Just go right on by Tagus!” I live in the Stanley area now and have stopped several times as an adult at the Tagus Saloon…Always friendly people there.
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I love looking at the pics of Tagus & hearing all these stories. Here’s mine:
We moved there in the fall of 1966 as newlyweds. We lived there till Thanksgiving of 1969. Or 2 oldest kids, daughters, were born while we lived there. We lived in a house that could very easily be the one in 5th pic below the story. With the hip roof & sun porch.
We were about to move to the little cream colored house by the garage when we got a chance to buy the house with the torrent, the one with the round room. We were moving some furnishings into that house when we got a chance to move to a farmstead a few miles away. We took it, we still life there.
The garage is, I think, the remains of the fire station. The town even had a fire truck. I know, I garage burned down, I called them to put it out.
Nothing usual happened in all those years. At that time there was Nels’ store it was on the main drive, across from the church, on the west side of the street, the church on the east side. We lived across the tracks south of there.
I would walk to our mail box then on to the store & buy a few supplies, I always bought a jar of olives to eat on the walk back. When our first daughter was born, I pulled a wagon with her in it. Nels closed the store before we left. It was a page out of an old magazine. It had an old round heater, with a checker board beside it, sometimes there would be guys there playing checkers, but not always. Shelves were stocked like in those old magazines. Really neat place to go to.
I have been in the church many times for weddings & funerals. I even have pics of it. However we did not attend it regularly, it was Lutheran, and we weren’t.
The ONLY strange thing I can remember happening in those years was during hunting season 1966. My sister-in-law & I were alone in the house in the evening, before the guys got back from hunting. We heard what sounded like footsteps walking across the upstairs. What really freaked both of us was that her little dog started grueling & his hair stood on end. We were pretty relieved when the guys came home. Of course the just pushed it off as the imagination of 2 young gals.
One other time the was apparently a hobo following the railroad tracks, my brother-in-law went slowly driving by our house, I didn’t know why till later when he told me about the hobo. He want to make sure I was OK but not alarm me since I was home alone at the time.
I do of the Halloween incident, of supposedly 300 young people invading the town.
We still have relatives living within a mile of the town, & they are not freaked out about any unusual happenings.
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In May of 2015, there was an ad for a “Tagus, ND Fire Truck” for sale. The fire truck was a 1959 Ford F-350, red in color and looked it had a 500 or so gallon water tank on it. It was offered for sale from a private party around Foxholm, ND. That must have been the fire truck from Tagus, when it had a fire department.
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Where was the ad found? I would like to see it, the ad. This is probably the truck that came to my resuce when our garage burned down in about 1967.
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The ad was on the bismanonline website. It was listed there in early May, 2015.
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When my father was stationed at MAFB, I once went out to Tagus and took a ton of pics, including the church. I also took pics of the gravestones at the cemetery, and posted those on a genealogical website years later, giving family members who couldn’t travel to ND copies of the pics. I heard those “devil worship” rumors, but since I went in the middle of the day, I never experienced anything weird or threatening. If the rumors keep people from vandalizing these old towns, then I hope people heed the warnings!
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My grandmother’s family farmed in Montrail County, near Stanley, for many years. My dad was Estle, a good athlete in those days but ghosts make better stories.
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I drove truck all over the US and Canada for close to 30 years. In the mid 80s I was working for an outfit out of Minot. The first time I was in Baton Rouge La In 1986, I was unloading at the port. A gentleman came up to me and said “I see you are from Minot ND”. I said “yes sir just a little ways from home”. He asked me if it was anywhere around Tagus. I told him it was like 40 miles west of Minot and asked him if he was familiar with the area around Tagus. He said “no but I know people that that is a place that is well known to them for their faith”. Asked him what that was and all he would say was people in the swamp. First I ever heard of anything like this about the area and I was born and raised in Stanley. Asked my folks about Tagus and they filled me in on the satanic rumors. Nothing against anyone but voodoo is well known in La.
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I was an USAF SP stationed at Minot AFB in 1985. We frequently drove through Tagus whenever we had duty at a particular Launch Control Facility. I remember that church specifically. I never saw anyone in it or around it, but do remember the upside-down cross prevalent over the front door.
Funny story…We were driving back after 3 days duty and right in front of the Tagus church, the universal on our “peacekeeper” vehicle fell out of the truck. Being aware of where we were, all 4 of us stayed in the truck until a relief vehicle showed up.
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Joe, I was there from Mar ’85 through December ’88. I was in 91 FMMS. I remember the stories about Tagus and had been by there a few times, always wondering when/if something out of the ordinary would happen. I seem to remember the upside down cross.
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I won’t go into all the details but when I used to live in ND in the early 80’s me and several other people (at different times) went out to Tagus to “just check it out” because of all the stories we had heard about the Satanism etc… We had experienced some things that if someone was pulling a prank then they were doing some really heavy duty pranking (which still cant be explained). I was out there on 4 different occasions. On 2 of the occasions we were chased by the mystery car but on our way out of town the lights on the railroad crossing started flashing and the bars came down but there was no train coming, no train passing or anything….then a few minutes later the lights went off and the bars went up and we then crossed the tracks to get out of town with the mystery car behind us….as soon as we got across the tracks the car “disappeared”. It did not make a U-turn or pass us…it just disappeared ! Then we encountered a black dog….we thought we were seeing things but the dog jumped up on the drivers side of the car. The next morning we noticed that there was blood smeared across drivers side of the car ! The dog too disappeared ! We were watching for the dog and where it was coming from…but none of us could explain where the dog had disappeared to after it jumped up on the drivers door and window growling and barking intensely. We also witnessed the inverted cross on the church among other oddities. I am not saying that there are not nice people living there but I am saying that there are some strange things that happened there that we couldn’t explain. One other thing that we had noticed is that while we were driving through town at night that our headlights would start to dim slowly…and as soon as we left and returned to the highway then the lights would get brighter again… just sayin’ Draw your own conclusions to the mysteries of Tagus !
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yes this same think happend to myself and some friends when i was in highschool
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fun reading from these strange people….i remember honest sensible …real people like Liens,Lindahl(my aunt),
Sjastaad,Nels nelson,tom lundy,greenley and lowell torgerson,grants etc and lots of salamanders snakes and frogs what a great place for a kid.
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I was also intrigued by all the stories of Tagus. Growing up in Minot I heard all the ghost stories of people running you out of town, the sound of a train on the tracks at night but no train going through the town that connects to Blaisdell, the creepy cemetery on the hillside right outside of the Main Street that I witnessed that people dying in early 1900’s but no newer gravestones, the stories of the santanic cults gathering at certain times of the year near the fields outside of the town doing sacrificial santanic rites as well as hold private bonfires that only these people in cults and those people know of, the houses that had the previous owner’s belongings just left as if they fled the town back in the 50’s-60’s, and the stories of the sightings of black robed figures looking or watching you as you walked/drove through the tiny town. I was fortunate enough that when my friend and I finally found the nerve to drive to this old town we saw the church, St Oalf’s Lutheran still standing (before whomever/whatever burnt it to the ground) there were no signs of satanic devil worship or anything evil near or in the church. It was a small quaint little church with very few pews but wasn’t creepy or felt negative in anyway. Also the local “Book-mobile” was parked in the church’s parking lot to let kids from Tagus/Blaisdell and the few surrounding towns to stop in and check out books. Thoses kids that grew up in the rural areas near Minot or in Ward county know what the book-mobile was and that can authenticate that I really knew what I am talking about and trust that I grew up near this little town. The houses were very cool to look at from outside and only a couple of them were even safe at best to go in and look around. My friend and I never damaged anything or took anything from any of the properties that we visited. I left my car parked on the side of the main road and I knew that the few remaining families that lived there watched very carefully for vandals and after taking some cool pictures of these abandoned houses my friend and I left peacefully with no scary paranormal occurrences. Mind you we visited in the middle of an afternoon and in the late spring time. The only thing that was odd that in the few homes that you could walk into without huge gapping holes in the floors and or roofs collapsing in on the homes I did notice that if you tried to go into any of the rooms upstairs that they were nailed shut. That was the only weird thing but maybe there is something in those rooms that didn’t want to be disturbed or perhaps it maybe just the locals sealing those rooms shut because it would be a hazard to walk in them because of the floors collapsing and the visitors getting stuck/trapped or seriously injured. Both my parents grew up in/near Minot and when I asked them about the stories of this little town in the middle of nowhere they shrugged and said they’ve heard the same stories I’ve heard but said it gets vandalized so often that the townspeople that still live there are extremely cautious of the visitors they get and are very upset if you go in to Tagus and trash the properties or try to break in on their homes. I only counted about 3-4 houses that were actual livable and did see 1 man that watched myself and my friend very carefully but didn’t bother us since we were only taking pictures from the road and the church parking lot when the book-mobile was still there. He didn’t see when we went into 2 of the houses but we only went in real quick for 5-10 minutes and then left. I don’t know what all the hype is with this town but it is cool to visit a town with such history but it’s sad that people would go so far to vandalize a church-the only place of worship to the few townspeople is just outright rude! Then tagging, burning or taking things that don’t belong to them. So the stories of people getting chased out of town I fully believe are true and are meant to scare the visitors so they don’t come back but if you go during the middle of the day and don’t trespass and treat the remains respectfully you’ll have a pleasant visit as my friend and I did. Please visit if you must but don’t go at night, during Halloween, or go to vandalize or explore in the houses because you can seriously get hurt; these homes were very badly damaged over 15 years ago when I went so can you image how they are now after 15 or so harsh ND winters and all the time that has past. Let the people who live out by Tagus alone they choose to live far away from the hussle and bustle of the city for a reason. As long as you can be respectful I think the few people that live in Tagus are ok with you driving by and or taking pictures from the road but don’t try to go into the houses, desecrate the cemetery or break in /vandalize any property. I hope you enjoyed all the spooky stories but really it’s just a small town in ND that never had more than 140 people living in it at the highest census peak in its record. Take care and be safe.
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My family were members of the church. So sad when it burnt down. One stain glass window had my grandmothers name on it.
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Well, it appears to be a windmill frame base.
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Drove out to Blaisdell & Tagus one afternoon this week to explore, I reportedly had ancestors there at one time. An article about Sadie Webber (my Great-Grandfather’s sister) in the Ward County Independent of April 29, 1920 drew me there. Sadie was found dead on her farm near Blaisdell in 1920 but her headstone says she died in 1917. Would anyone have any clues as to why there would be this discrepancy?
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I retired from the Air Force at Minot AFB and stayed in the area. When I was first stationed here in the early ’70’s, I was told by my commander that Tagus wasn’t officially off limits, but he would be upset if he heard that any of us actually went there.
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In the early nineties, we had a punk club in Minot, and we’d often bring touring bands out to Tagus to check it out. Over dozens of trips, I never saw anything weird or scary that we weren’t responsible for. We liked to start the visit in style, pointing out some train tracks and saying, “This is the town border coming up.” When we went over the tracks, I’d drop into neutral and kill the engine and lights. Freaked ’em out good.
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My brother-in-law’s grandfather was born in Tagus ND. In 1881. Serge was the last name would be intersting if your family new of that last name as we are at a loss to help him find some history on his grandfather.
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One of the 2 buildings near the train tracks fell down. It’s also where I saw String Man.
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