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Argusville: School’s Out
We paid a brief visit to Argusville High School today and found things have changed quite a bit since our last visit in 2011. The school was in a terrible state of disrepair and had been thoroughly vandalized when we last saw it, but it has since been secured and made safe. The rusting twin [...]
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Straubville, North Dakota: A True Ghost Town
We visited Straubville, North Dakota on a cloudy day in 2005 and found it totally abandoned. Unfortunately, we arrived a few years too late to capture the major remaining buildings when they were still standing. We’ve been told that things have deteriorated since our last visit, so we’re hoping to go back to Straubville some [...]
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Abandoned Structures: The Stages of Ruin
In our ten years of exploring North Dakota’s ghost towns and abandoned places, we’ve seen structures in all stages of condition. Many places meet an unnatural end due to fire, flood, and the bulldozer. If a building can survive without suffering an unfortunate fate however, it goes through a somewhat predictable process. We’ve learned a [...]
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The Great Fargo Fire of 1893
June 7th, 1893 was a typical Wednesday in Fargo, sunny but windy. Fargo’s six thousand residents were going about their lives, carrying out their business from mostly wooden storefronts and traveling from place to place in horse drawn carriages and wagons. Winds were gusting to 30 miles per hour that day. Even today, if you’ve [...]
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Video: Memorial Weekend Trip 2013
After getting suggestions from several people that we start doing videos again, we decided to ease back into it and we did just a little bit of video on our trip over Memorial Weekend. We stopped doing videos some years ago, mainly because there are only two of us, and when we go on a [...]
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Return to Crystal Springs
We first visited Crystal Springs in 2005, primarily to photograph the abandoned school which is quite visible from the Interstate. We didn’t find out until later that we had neglected to photograph a portion of Crystal Springs which sits just north of the highway. So, on Memorial Weekend of 2013, we returned to Crystal Springs. [...]
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Sanger: No Longer a Ghost Town
Nine years after our first visit to Sanger, North Dakota, we returned to see how things had changed. Imagine our surprise when we discovered Sanger is no longer a true ghost town. There had been no population when we visited in 2004, but today, Sanger is inhabited by two men, Ron and Dan, who moved [...]
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Sterling School No. 2
We’ve seen this school referenced online as Wing School #3, however the sign above the door appears to read Sterling No. 2. The school is located closer to Wing than it is Sterling, so we wonder whether this school originally stood somewhere else and was moved to this spot, about 9 miles north of Wing. [...]
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Arena: Nine Years Later
We first visited Arena in May of 2004. Nine years later, we returned to this rolling spot on the prairie in Burleigh County and found things much the same, if somewhat weathered. St. John’s Lutheran church still stands, though the white paint has weathered considerably over the last nine years. The cinderblock foundation on the [...]
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 [...]
Orrin, ND
R. David Adams contributed these photos of Orrin, ND, a near ghost town in Pierce county, west of Fillmore. We checked census records going back to 1920 and found no listing for Orrin. As we’ve seen time and time again, Orrin began it’s final decline with the closure of the elevator, which happened in 1965. [...]
Hesper, ND
Hesper, North Dakota is a true ghost town in Benson County, just west of Devils Lake — population zero. Hesper is one of those towns that has been on our list for some time but we just never made it there due to time contraints. We intend to make a visit soon. Philip Tron emailed [...]
Forbes School
We visited Forbes in May of 2011 and got pictures of the town, plus this gallery of the former school. Photos by Troy and Rat, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
Wellsburg, ND
Wellsburg is a small town in Wells County, both of which are named for the Edward P. Wells, a former legislator. It was founded in 1910 and harbored a population of 150 in 1920. According to Douglas Wick’s North Dakota Place Names, the population had dropped to 14 by by 1981. Scenic Dakotas has a [...]
Emrick, ND
Emrick, North Dakota is a tiny town in Wells County, about half way between Carrington and Harvey. Emrick was originally named Doland, but the name was changed to avoid confusion with a town in South Dakota. Emrick never held more than 25 people. R. David Adams continuted these photos of Emrick, and his captions accompany [...]
Antler, ND
Antler is a small town in Bottineau county, just two miles south of the Canadian border. The 2010 Census tallied 27 residents, but a local resident says there are 35. We’ve been meaning to get to Antler for some time, but we just never made it. Thankfully, Vince Azzarello recently sent in these photos for your [...]
Berlin, ND
Berlin, North Dakota is a small town in Lamoure County in southeastern North Dakota. Although many of the structures which once existed in Berlin are now gone, there are some impressive structures still standing. Sabrina Hornung contributed a few photos of Berlin in 2011. In the summer of 2012 we were able to get to [...]
Monango, ND
Monango is a small town in Dickey County, not far from Merricourt. Monango was founded in 1886 as a Milwaukee Road Railroad settlement, and the post office was established that same year. According to North Dakota Place Names by Douglas A. Wick, Monango peaked in population with 238 residents in 1910. According to the 2010 [...]
Alfred, ND
Alfred is a near-ghost town in Lamoure county, southwest of Jamestown. Alfred is unincorporated, hence official population figures are hard to come by, but there appear to be perhaps ten permanent residents in the actual town site with more in the surrounding rural area. Alfred’s reported peak population was 150 in 1930. Alfred has a [...]
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