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 to Sanger about four years ago. They have been renovating one of the existing homes in Sanger, and they’ve built several new structures as well. We had a nice chat with them and learned quite a bit, some of which you’ll see in the photo captions below.
As we approached Sanger from the north, we spotted this homestead on the side of the road and stopped to snap some photos.
Just as we arrived at our final turn to drive into Sanger, we saw a group of cattle in the distance, spread out across the road, blocking our path. I stopped the car and tried to decide how to proceed.
It was only a few moments before we realized the cattle were coming right at us and we were caught in the middle of a genuine North Dakota cattle drive, complete with cowboys on horseback.
Terry had a front row seat.
There’s always one curious one in the bunch.
The former Sanger County House. Dan told us although most people think this was a Post Office or Land Office, it was actually a boarding house. Travelers in the horse and buggy era frequently stopped here to rest for the night before continuing their journey at sunrise.
At the time we took these photos in 2013, we noticed the County House was deteriorating rapidly and that it would not likely stand much longer. It collapsed in 2015.
//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
The house above was sitting on blocks when we first visited in 2004. We thought somebody might have had plans for it, but when we visited in 2013, it was still sitting there on blocks.
Above: The last time we were in Sanger, the home on the left was deteriorating. It is now undergoing restoration and expansion. The building on the right is a new structure which replaced another that was beyond saving.
See all of our Sanger Galleries.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, © 2013 Sonic Tremor Media
//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Ghosts of North Dakota 
While I didn’t go back to where the new houses were, I thought I’d report that from the road it looks like Sanger made it through the nasty wind storm last week. I thought for sure there would be nothing left after those 80mph winds came, but they sure built things sturdy back in the day. The County House is still upright, and doesn’t appear to have sustained any additional damage.
LikeLike
My grand parents were from Sanger! There is a lot of family history there.
LikeLike
My great grandparents ran a boardinghouse in Sanger in the 1880’s. Is there anyway to find out for sure if the one in the picture is the same one as the one they had?
LikeLike
I recently took a trip up to sanger and found that the county house had sadly collapsed. Its just a unrecognizable pile of rubble now. The sanger county house is no more. All the other buildings seen to be in the same condition that the photos show here.
LikeLike
Were you able to enter any buildings?
LikeLike
I lived in sanger appx 1949 or 48 with my step father and mother their names waas Albers
LikeLike
Sanger was, for a period, a dock for paddlewheelers, and I believe the County House was built for that trade (as well as overland). In the mid to late seventies Sanger was occupied by a pair of artists, Linda Brown and David Christy, who raised goats and occupied three of the buildings. Our cat, T’Cola came from a litter they had.
LikeLike