We’ve long hoped to run across some photos of the town that was once Verendrye, North Dakota. We drove by the crumbling facade of the school a few years ago and snapped a photo, but we hadn’t yet seen any photos of Verendrye when it still looked like a town. So, we were thrilled when we got an email from Kathy Haynes with some photos and a drawing attached. She was very informative, and her comments and captions are shown below.
My Aunt, Uncle, and 5 cousins lived in the white house that can be seen beyond the kids in the back of the school photo [below]. The last time I was there that house was just a foundation. I think the two photos of the school were taken about the year 1960 or 1961. I have to check with my brother to be sure on that. He would know since he graduated from the 8th grade there in, I believe, the last year it was open. I went there in the 2nd & 3rd grades until the school closed and we were bused to school in Velva.
Only the facade remains standing today. Photo by Terry Hinnenkamp.
This is an ink drawing composite and I’m sorry that it’s not very clear. I did the ink drawing several years ago using all the enclosed cafe photos as well as memory.
I lived in the restaurant building in Verendrye with my parents and 4 siblings in the 1960’s. My mother ran the restaurant for a couple of years but when the customers dwindled she closed it.
Most of the photos are of the restaurant/bar/garage/home that once stood near the railroad track. The side door faced the tracks & the front with gas pump faced the road that crossed the tracks. The restaurant was on the right-front, a bar inside to the left and on the far left a small mechanic’s garage with a grease pit. The bar and mechanic’s garage was not used when we lived there. We lived in the back part of the building that faced the tracks on the right side of the photo [below]… that separate garage on the right side of the photo was our car garage.
Anyway, down the street and to the left of the front (gas pump) of the restaurant was a hotel that was later moved to the Walhowe farm. Fred Walhowe’s sister and brother-in-law ran the hotel. (I can’t remember their names.)
These photos of the cafe were taken in 1966.
If a person where standing on the road at the railroad crossing (looking towards the school) you would see the cafe building in front of you & on your right. You would have the elevators behind you and on your left. Also the building that can be seen behind our garage [on the right, in the photo above] was a home also used for a US Post Office. The last time I drove through Verendrye that buiding was still there.
This last photo is of “the cabin” as we have always called it just a few years ago. There was a series of, I think 9, stories printed in the Minot Daily News, starting on June 10, 1967 written about 14 log cabins in a 15 mile area of the Mouse River near Verendrye. The cabin that we lived in (we added a kitchen & bedroom as well as putting in electricity) was log cabin #7 in this series. — Kathy Haynes
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Ghosts of North Dakota 
The cars parked by the school are a 1950 Plymouth (or Dodge) while the newer car is a 1957 Ford – which may help date the photo a little better.
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The photos of the school with the cars were taken by my older brother and I believe the time frame to be in the spring of 1961. My family moved to Verendrye in November of 1960 and my brother graduated from the 8th grade, in that school, the spring of 1961. He took many photos of that area in that time frame.
People used to keep cars a lot longer than we do now.
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I just found this site while doing some research on my family roots. My grandparents lived in Verendrye and this is where my mother grew up. They were the Mannings, Dan and Mary. Our family used to visit every summer, my grandpa worked in the depot.
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