Ghosts of North Dakota North Dakota’s Ghost Towns and Abandoned Places
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp
Time marches on. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the drift prairie of North Dakota. As the automobile rose to prominence and the steam locomotive faded, hundreds of small North Dakota towns began to vanish. The dust bowl and the industrial revolution contributed to the exodus. One day, when most of these places have lost their battle with incessant, unrelenting time, these photos will remain as a record – a testament to the determined humanity which once inhabited these places. North Dakota is the seventeenth largest state but the third least populous. There are thousands of stories to be told. These are the Ghosts of North Dakota.
Ghosts of North Dakota
In October of 2003 we had an idea. We would find an abandoned house, spend the night in it, and record our experiences for a Halloween radio program to be broadcast on the radio station where we worked in Fargo. We never did spend the night in the abandoned house. But in the process of researching the potential locations, we discovered that we had a shared interest and appreciation for history, architecture, and abandoned places. We both grew up in North Dakota. Troy was born and raised in a historic neighborhood in Minot, and as a teenager spent a lot of time exploring an abandoned pedestrian tunnel under a railroad viaduct... his first taste of exploring the abandoned. Terry is from Fargo but spent many summers visiting his relatives in the Neche area. During those long summer days, he loved to explore the remains of Bathgate, a rapidly shrinking town that was also the former home of the North Dakota School for the Blind. We couldn’t have known then that exploring those abandoned places would become a passion many years later. In 2003 and 2004, we visited our first handful of towns and photographed what we found. We were left with many questions. Why were there so many abandoned places? Who would leave their home, leaving everything behind? Will anybody preserve these places? We bought a domain name, GhostsofNorthDakota.com, and started a website to share the photos we had taken. The name was meant as a metaphor... we felt we were photographing the ‘ghosts’ of North Dakota -- the remains of abandoned contemporary civilizations. Soon, positive feedback was rolling in, and we knew we had to continue. We spent many weekends visiting vanishing North Dakota towns all over the state. We drove well over ten thousand miles inside the borders of North Dakota and put several tired vehicles out to pasture as a result. And we began to learn the answers to a few of our questions. One of the first things we learned was North Dakota is a product of the railroad. When people no longer relied on the railroad for their personal transportation, places like these began to disappear around the state.
Berwick, North Dakota
Lincoln Valley, North Dakota Historic properties in population centers are frequently the subject of media attention and preservation efforts, but structures in true ghost towns frequently suffer a very different fate. With no residents to care for abandoned properties, they simply deteriorate in the elements. One example is Lincoln Valley. Lincoln Valley is a true ghost town in Sheridan County, North Dakota. Joe Leintz garnered national media attention as the last resident of Lincoln Valley in 1972. Shortly thereafter, he moved to New Rockford and Lincoln Valley became a true ghost town, population zero. Lincoln Valley was originally founded in 1900 as Lincoln, North Dakota by brothers George and Conrad Reiswig. It was renamed Lincoln Valley in 1912 to avoid confusion with Lincoln, Nebraska.
This is the former home of the Opp family just outside of Lincoln Valley. A visitor to our website told us of exploring this house as a child and finding it full of the Opp’s possessions. One can only imagine the circumstances that would lead one to leave your home and possessions behind. Sadly, this house was razed in the late-2000’s and no longer stands.
Appam, North Dakota is home to a number of beautiful structures including the former bank shown here. In addition, many of the structures that have been lost over time, including the dance hall and the auto shop, now have their empty lots designated with signage. Due to its western oil patch location, Appam is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence lately due to an influx of oil workers.
Appam, North Dakota
Eastedge, North Dakota Eastedge is a true ghost town on the east edge of the Sheyenne River Valley in southeastern North Dakota. The houses shown here are the only two remaining structures on the townsite. An old railroad loading dock stands alongside the long abandoned rail bed, a relic of Eastedge’s railroad origins. At one time, there were several more homes, a one room schoolhouse, and a post office. Eastedge only held 80 residents at its peak in 1920 It is now empty. On our last visit in 2011, we discovered the owner of the land has blocked the road into the townsite with field stone. There weren’t any ‘No Trespassing” signs however, so we made the trek into the site on foot. The white home shown in the inset photo has been undergoing a slow motion implosion for years. It will collapse soon, if it hasn’t already.
Argusville High School
Haley, North Dakota Haley is a tiny town in Bowman County just a short distance from the South Dakota border. We visited Haley at the suggestion of a store clerk we met in Bowman, North Dakota during a two day trip to the southwestern part of the state. At the time of our visit in May of 2007, Haley was home to two residents. In addition to the one-room schoolhouse, bank, and post office shown here, Haley is also home to a very nice church where area residents congregate on Sundays. Haley’s location on a little-traveled road makes it the kind of place where it’s rare to see a car drive through.
Hesper, North Dakota Hesper is a true ghost town in Benson County -- population zero.