Burt, ND is along Highway 21 in Hettinger County, roughly sixty miles southwest of Bismarck/Mandan. The post office was established in 1910 at Burt, which had previously been known as Alton. The name was changed to avoid confusion with Alton Junction.

Burt once had 200 people but is now home to a couple dozen.

Burt even had a newspaper once upon a time — the Burt Echo was the “official paper for Hettinger County” from 1914 to 1919 and featured both English and German-language columns for the predominantly German settlers in the area.

We visited Burt during a trip to check out a bunch of abandoned places in the southwest part of North Dakota — places like Lefor, Haley, Bucyrus and Gascoyne.

The main occupants of this place now are horses.

I really loved this place. That facade really says “frontier.”

Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

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adjective: abandoned

1. having been deserted or cast off.

verb: abandon

1. cease to support or look after; desert.

2. leave (a place or vehicle) empty or uninhabited, without intending to return.

3. condemn someone or something to (a specified fate) by ceasing to take an interest in or look after them.