Further intrigue stems from the inscriptions on the Guidestones themselves.  Ten principles are inscribed on the granite slabs, in each of the eight most commonly spoken languages on Earth — English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.  The principles, or guidelines, read as follows:

1.  Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2.  Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3.  Unite humanity with a living new language.
4.  Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5.  Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6.  Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7.  Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8.  Balance personal rights with social duties.
9.  Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.  Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

The guidestones have been the subject of much controversy.  Some religious leaders have condemned the monument as an occultic shrine.  Others claim principle number one is a call to genocide on behalf of the Rosicrucians — a contention fueled by the initials of the monument’s benefactor, R.C. Christian.   The guidestones were erected at the height of the Cold War, when many believed we were on the brink of nuclear apocalypse, and some think the guidestones are a Rosetta stone for whomever would follow humans as the inhabitants of planet Earth, a way to ensure our languages will be decipherable in future millennia.  Despite the multitude of theories, nobody knows for sure.

At this point you might be asking, “Where’s the Dakota connection?”  Glad you asked.

During construction of the Guidestones, only two people met with the man using the name R.C. Christian, the owner of the granite company and a local banker — both of whom took an oath to take Christian’s real identity to the grave.  However, Hudson Cone of the Elberton Granite Association was present during construction, and claims he also met the man known as R.C. Christian.  He describes Christian as a man of about six feet four inches, bald on top with light gray hair on the sides, sharp features, and glasses.  Cone, who has done a lot of traveling in the granite business, claims to be skilled at picking out accents.  He claims the man known as R.C. Christian was from the upper midwest.  On the TV Show “Decoded,” Cone went on record saying he believed Christian to be from the Dakotas, specifically.

We were intrigued by the story for several reasons.  First, it’s a relatively modern mystery.  In addition, considering the information available on R.C. Christian, it shouldn’t be that hard to get to the bottom of his identity.  When we first heard the story, we wondered whether R.C. Christian might have been Roger Christian, the famous hockey player and founder of the Christian Brothers hockey stick company.  He was not a Dakotan, but Minnesotan.  Roger Christian was a wealthy man in his later years, and his physical descpription was similar to that of R.C. Christian is most respects except one — Roger was only five foot nine.

So let’s put the question to you — ever heard of the Georgia Guidestones?  Any ideas on who could be R.C. Christian?  Perhaps the the Dakotan connection is a little thin, yes, but it’s a really intriguing story nonetheless.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Brian Miller, the sole remaining resident of Heaton. We found him on the tractor, working well past sundown on a chilly November evening.

Only twenty five years old, Miller was raised on a farm about a half mile outside of town. As a child, Miller and his friends used to ride their bikes into town to get a can of pop and a candy bar at the local store. “There used to be an old bank there,” Miller says. “We’d sit on the steps and eat our candy bars.”  The store closed in 2003.  Miller says the Post Office closed when he was quite young, but he remembers going into Heaton early one morning to get their baby chickens off the mail truck. “We were excited about that,” he says.

There were perhaps fifteen residents in town in those days, enough to justify a trip to town on Halloween. “I remember we used go there and trick or treat when I was real young, too,” Miller says. There were two elevators, a lumber yard, a post office, a bank, and a church in Heaton back then.

But over the years, the population steadily declined. “Everybody that was there was getting older,” he says. “People passed away. Some just moved.” A tornado that wiped out some of the structures contributed to the decline.

The owner of the gas station went into the nursing home and then passed away some time later. Miller’s father bought the place and turned it into a meat processing facility. “That’s going pretty good for us,” he said.

In 2009, he bought a house and moved it to a vacant lot in the center of town. “I got in there about January of 2010,” he said.  He wasn’t the only resident at that time, however. “When I moved in, there was another family living in town and they had three kids,” he said. They split up and moved out of town last summer, leaving Miller and his dog as the only remaining inhabitants. Miller’s closest neighbors are now an elderly couple who live just west of town.

When asked if he gets lonely, Miller said “Yeah, I guess. I grew up on the farm and I’m pretty self-sufficient. I enjoy the freedom of that.” Miller had planned on returning when he finished college, and had hoped to find a farm to buy. But when he bought his house, he was attracted to the Heaton lot by the availability of water and electricity.  “I enjoy the freedom,” he says. “You can go and do what you want, but I guess it does get a little lonely.”

A farmer by trade, Miller works for a local rancher and maintains his own cows and chickens. Like any other farmer, Miller starts his day by feeding his animals, then spends most of the day at work. “You never know how many hours a day you’re gonna have to work,” he says. “During the busy times it’s morning ’til dark pretty much.” In his free time, Miller goes hunting and fishing.

In addition to water and electric, Heaton even has fiberoptic internet service. Last summer, Daktel installed it for all the farms in the area, Miller said. “Every farm in our area has it too, so we’re livin’ pretty good.” Miller has to provide his own heat in the winter via a propane furnace.

Despite the modern amenities, living in a ghost town is not without challenges. Although the mail comes via rural mail delivery, Miller drives to Jamestown or Bismarck about once a month for groceries. He visits the grocery store in Carrington, about twenty five miles away, for more immediate needs. The small town of Bowdon about eight miles away is a frequent stop as well. “They have a credit card gas pump there, and a little grocery store too,” Miller says.

We noticed on our last trip to Heaton that things had changed quite a bit in the six years since our previous visit–many structures were gone. Miller says many of the properties were forfeited to the county due to unpaid property taxes, and then Speedwell township took over and razed many of the properties due to health hazards.  And the process of ‘cleanup’ will continue. “They plan on burning a couple of the old buildings down this winter,” he said.

Miller says the property owner of several lots in Heaton is a Montana resident who only occasionally comes to town.  “He was back here about a month ago,” Miller says, “And he was coming to get some of his stuff out of these old houses, and he said a bunch of stuff was missing. And I said, the front door’s been open on the place, and there’s been a lot of people coming through and going through these places. It’s kinda like, what do you expect?”

Although proud to be a resident of Heaton, Miller doesn’t plan on spending the rest of his life there. “I’d still like to get out on a real farm,” he said. He expects to end up on his parents’ farm or his grandmother’s farm, which is just a couple of miles from Heaton.

I asked Miller if he plans to leave Heaton empty when the time comes. “I’d hope… I plan on selling my house, I mean if I could leave it there and sell it or if I have to sell it and have it moved, either way.” I asked him what are the chances he could sell his house to someone knowing they would be the only residents of Heaton. “You’d be surprised, I think. It would be pretty easy to sell it.” What does a house sell for in Heaton? Miller estimates he could get twenty thousand for his. And if he can’t sell it, he’s open to renting it. “There are a lot of jobs here,” he says.

Being the last resident of Heaton does have it’s advantages. “People ask me where I live and I tell them I’m the only one left in Heaton. I’m the Mayor, the Sherriff and everything,” Miller says. “They get a kick out of that.”

See our Heaton Galleries here and here

This is the Highline trestle in Valley City, built between 1906 and 1908.  It is still in use today.  The Highline is 3,860 feet long and 162 feet high.  We are including it on this site in homage to the importance of the railroad in settling North Dakota.  Check out our gallery for another of North Dakota’s trestles, the Gassman Coulee Trestle, here.

Photos by Troy
Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

Arena was only the second true ghost town we ever visited, back in 2004.  At that time, the school had already been torn down and we were never able to locate some large photos of it, until now.

Thanks to these photos contributed by Dale Fisher, we can now see Arena as it looked in 1992.  There are a few interesting comparisons to be made with our photos from 2004:

In the photo above, we can see a small home which was not standing when we visited in 2004.  The church still stands, as does the yellow house behind the two pine trees.  But there was no trace of the little house in between.  On the left side, the light brown structure (just above the car) was also gone by the time of our visit.  And at the far left, partially cut off, is the little white building which we photographed and also still stands.

The church seems to be in much better shape in the photo above as well.  The paint is not quite as weathered, and the roof seems to be in better shape too.  This photo was taken from the vantage point of the swings near the school.  On the far right, you can see the support post for the swing set.

This was the Arena school — a place we really regret missing out on.  You can see the school looks remarkably better in this 1992 image as versus the image contributed by Stephen Berg in our Arena gallery… the windows are still intact in this image, and the structure just looks more stable.  Someone did a real number on this school in the twelve years between ’92 and ’04.

A question we’d still like to answer… what year did the last full-time resident move out of Arena?

 Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

As we mentioned in that post, there is only one operating drive-in theater in the state of North Dakota — the Lake Park Drive-In in Williston.

Here is a larger list which includes open drive-in theaters within reasonable driving distance of North Dakota.  I’ve included official websites where possible.  Many of these facilities have seldom updated websites, so please call or email ahead before you drive too far…

• Pheasant Drive-In
  1600 20th St SW
  Mobridge, SD
• Midway Drive-In
  19808 Rainbow Ranch Place
  Miller, SD
  http://www.midwaydrivein.info/
  
• Pheasant City Drive-In
  625 E Third Street
  Redfield, SD
  http://www.galluptheatres.com
  
• Long Drive-In
  24257 Riverside Dr.
  Long Prairie, MN
  http://www.thelongdrivein.com/
  
• Verne Drive-In
  1607 1/2 S Kniss Avenue
  Luverne, MN
  http://www.vernedrivein.com/darksite/default.asp
  
• Sky-Vu Drive-In
  Hwy 1 E
  Warren, MN
  http://www.skyvumovies.com
  
• Starlite Drive-In
  Hwy 22
  Litchfield, MN
  http://www.starlitemovies.com/
  
• Sunset Drive-In
  414 E Boundway
  Plentywood, MT

Bartlett is about as close as you can get to ghost town without actually being totally abandoned… perhaps one occupied property and the remains of several crumbling homes.  The former town site is quickly getting overrun by nature, the roads are shaded even on a bright day like this one… untrimmed branches reach into the road to greet us as we enter.

It’s hard to imagine Bartlett as it was in 1940, when the reported population was 78.

US Census Data for Bartlett
Total Population by Place

1910 – 120
1920 – 98
1930 – 67
1940 – 78
1950 – 51
1960 – 39
1970 – 19
1980 – Delisted

When you’re the only resident left in town, you can rename the streets with a paint brush.

Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp
Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

Fordville just happened to be on our route as we explored a few towns in Walsh and Ramsey counties.  It is not a ghost town or a near-ghost town… more like Pleasantville.  According to the 2000 Census, Fordville had 266 residents, shrinking to 212 in 2010.

The most prominent landmark was the Ford Theatre, a beautiful brick building that’s been carefully tended, but in need of help with the roof. 

The owner kindly posted a flyer which reads as follows:

FORD THEATRE

Est. 1948 by
Hub (Hulbert) and Richard Casement

Construction by: Martin Hustad, Peter and John Peterson.

Brickwork by Arnie Steen

First movie shown: “Little Mr. Jim” on March 19th, 1948.
Starring Butch Jenkins, James Craig, and Francis Clifford

Theatre was closed in the early 1960′s
Purchased by Donald and Jean Omdahl on Dec. 8th, 1970
Used for community plays and gospel services in the 1980′s
Purchased by DeLon Freije
from Don Omdahl on June 18th, 2010
Don went home to Jean on August 31st, 2010

Future plans: Restore theatre, display train collection for public display and offer tours of the theatre.
Popcorn sales on Thursday evenings through the summer
Any help with roof repairs would be much appreciated.

There were a few structures that looked ‘semi-vacant’– in that gray area between seldom used and used every day.  No real abandoned structures however.  So we just took a few shots that looked nice.

The clock struck noon while we were visiting and the air raid siren on top of this tower sounded.

Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp
Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp
Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

Terry was able to break free from the canine parade, so we proceeded to the elevator.  Terry took some shots while I did a social media update.  He got some good ones.

Terry got back to the car after photographing this elevator and realized his phone was missing.  So I took out my phone and called his repeatedly while he listened for it to ring.  He eventually found it in the tall grass near the garage door pictured above.

Photos by Terry Hinnenkamp
Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

Conway is a near-ghost town in Walsh County, southwest of Grafton.  Conway’s peak population was reported in the 1900 census as 216.  Today the population is 23.

US Census Data for Conway
Total Population by Place

1900 – 216
1910 – 184
1920 – 148
1930 – 100
1940 – 120
1950 – 107
1960 – 67
1970 – 57
1980 – 33
1990 – 24
2000 – 23
2010 – 23

On September 7th, 1897, the New York Times published the following story:

KILLED TRYING TO ESCAPE

Tramps Imprisoned in Conway Set Fire to Jail

Fargo, ND. Sept 6th — The city marshal and a posse, after a hard fight, captured three tramps who had robbed several stores at Conway, a small town in western Walsh county, and lodged them in the city jail.

At an early hour Sunday morning the jail was discovered to be on fire, and before the flames could be extinguished, one of the vagrants was cremated and the other two have since died from frightful burns.  It is supposed the men tried to burn a whole [sic] through which they could escape and the blaze got beyond their control.

Conway Memorial Park was dedicated to the soldier shown below, Lt. Frank L. Vorachek.  We were able to determine that he was a veteran of the Army Air Corps ca. 1916-17, and that he later graduated from the UND School of Law.  If anyone else knows more about Lt. Voracheck, we’d like to hear from you.

Sadly, the park doesn’t seem to get much use anymore.

Terry walked into this belt of trees and discovered the park.

It is sometimes… unsettling, to be in a playground where there are no children to play.

Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp
Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC