Omemee, North Dakota, a ghost town in Bottineau County, has been a source of intrigue since we first became aware of it in 2005. We were initially made aware of Omemee by a North Dakota resident who alerted us that someone was trying to sell lots in Omemee to out-of-state buyers under questionable circumstances, an effort which amounted to nothing in the end. Later, Fargo resident Mark Johnson sent us some photos of Omemee taken around 2010, and we also received some correspondence and photos from people who had family roots in Omemee, too, but we had never visited Omemee ourselves until Easter weekend, 2017.
It’s hard to appreciate the vanishing act Omemee pulled by just looking at photos, but the postcard shown above gives you some idea of the magnitude. The view is from 1904 (approximately) and Omemee’s peak population was reported at 650 in 1906. The postcard shows us grain elevators, a school, a church, and dozens of homes. Like any growing prairie town of the era, Omemee had a bank, a blacksmith shop, a hotel, a restaurant, an opera house, and even its own newspaper, The Omemee Herald.
Something happened, though, and Omemee vanished from the landscape.
On the site of Omemee in 2017, we struggled to find many structures to photograph.
At first glance, this place looked like a former residential dwelling, with a garage and a home surrounded by a crumbling picket fence.
There’s even an outhouse in the back.
Upon closer inspection, it looked too small to have been a house. Below: a peek inside.
The story of this particular structure remains a mystery. Hopefully, someone can fill in the facts in the comments.
Above: a look inside the garage.
photo by Mark Johnson
When we arrived in Omemee, we were most interested in photographing the building above, sometimes referred to as the “Superintendent’s House”. For many years, it had been the most significant remaining structure in Omemee. However, we looked around, and couldn’t find it anywhere. Then Terry ran across a pile of bricks.
A look at Google Earth revealed the tale… sometime between 2010 and 2013, someone bulldozed the structure. As a result, almost all of the structures in Omemee, particularly the ones built from materials like wood and brick, are now gone, with the few structures shown on this page as the exceptions. It won’t be long before Omemee is no longer a ghost town, but an archaeological ruin.
What happened to Omemee, North Dakota? What would make 650 people pack up and leave town? Documented answers aren’t easy to come by. A 1906 review by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture listed competition from nearby Bottineau, and the lack of a townsite promoter, as reasons for Omemee’s decline. Someone also once told us that there were water problems in Omemee. Whatever the cause, the junction of two railroads (the Soo Line and the Great Northern) couldn’t save Omemee. The last census which listed Omemee as inhabited was in 1990, and the population was 3.
On a separate post about Omemee, there is a comment from Stacy, a former resident of Omemee, which reads:
I was one of the last people to truly reside in the town. I lived there until I was 15 in 1996. I moved from there to Bottineau and my family stayed there several years after that. I just wanted to let you know that from what I know most people actually picked up there houses and moved. I don’t mean their belongings, but their actual houses. A few buildings were left standing when my family purchased the land, but not many. The buildings that were left we used to house farm animals and they didn’t last long. The town didn’t vanish, those of us that lived there moved on. The spirit of the town will forever and will also haunt me forever. I have no plans of ever returning to the “ghost” town of Omemee.
In places, there are remnants of pavement and sidewalks still showing.
Unless someone razes the remains, the structures made from fieldstone will be the last aboveground clues to Omemee’s existence.
A local farmer still uses the Omemee town site to store some equipment and straw bales.
There are open holes around the site which makes it somewhat perilous to visit. Above: possibly a former cistern with rubble dumped in it.
See Cathy Zabel’s photos of Old Omemee. See Tim Brannon’s photos of old Omemee. What do you know about Omemee? Please leave a comment below.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp except where noted, copyright © Sonic Tremor Media
Ghosts of North Dakota 
I remember in 1972, my grandfather, whom owned and operated Festvogs Welding and Machine in nearby Landa, N-Dakota, told me about the blacksmith whom worked in Omemee, ND. I asked about the town as my girlfriend and I would always drive by there on our way to my grandfathers cabin at Lake Metigoshe. He basically said that the larger towns drew people out of there. A few years of bad crops, can always force populations to larger cities for work.
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That little red shed or building could have been a Summer kitchen or possibly a chicken coop, years ago homes were quite small and a Summer kitchen was used to cook meals in to feed farm workers, but not seeing much for windows, in that building lean more to a chicken coop. to house chickens that were used for meat and eggs. just know that from our own area, in seeing little buildings like that.. So sad that there is no other reminder of this town, so possibly some one could have a large Rock moved in with the name painted on it as a location marker. so not all is lost of this town.
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When we were there in 2012 the Superintendent’s house only had a corner standing. We had been told someone had burned the interior a year or so before.
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Mother nature reclaims everything in the end. The human need to say, “I was here,” is very strong. Memorials, signs, rocks, those too will be reclaimed in time. Leave some tobacco and smudge and leave the place to itself.
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Wanamaker North Dakota vanished in 1905. The Great Northern Railroad decided not to run tracks to it. Most buildings were moved 4 miles east to the existing terminus and Turtle Lake was founded from those buildings. As I heard it told, Wanamaker didn’t even get to be a ghost town.
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My grandparents and my Mom lived in Omemee.
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My brother and I have been collecting postcards of Omemee for the past 15 years. We spent many summer vacations there visiting my grandparents, Grace and Erick Schultz. My grandma was the last postmaster of Omemee with the little post office in the back of their house. If anyone is interested in seeing the pictures, go to PINTEREST and “search” for Omemee, ND and click on my board with the name Betsy Lien – there are 38 photos !
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That’s very cool, Betsy. Thank you for sharing.
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In an effort to piece the town together I bought up 35 lots that had been sold to the corners of the world. Omeemee was supposed to be the county seat. With two railroads crossing it should have been the city……. sone of us talk about having a party there in the summer
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Note my reference to Wanamaker’s disappearance and re-birth as Turtle Lake 4 miles east. There’s a back story to Wanamaker’s demise: It is alleged that Mr. Wanamaker – from which the town took its name – got into a litigious dispute with the railway. It is inferred by some that such sourness influenced Great Northern to truncate its line at the Turtle Lake town site. Perhaps there was some like circumstance that affected Omemee? Just wondering …
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Another factor may have been the relatively late arrival of electricity in Omemee (in fall 1927), whereas Bottineau had electricity since 1904 and Willow City since 1918. Other area towns and when they got lights: Dunseith (ca. 1915?), Overly (1917 / 1946), and Barton (fall 1927).
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My mothers family were the Brandt’s from the area & later Bantry, ND. Andy Brandt (my grandpa) headed a famous baseball team in Omemee with his brothers/cousins. We still visit the cemetery every year around this time
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I have some pictures of the Brandt baseball team – – would be happy to get your copies if you don’t have them
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I would be interested in copies of the Brandt baseball team if you are willing to share. My name is Kara (Nyhus) Johnson. My grandfather was Edwin Brandt – and was part of the baseball team. He was one of the younger children of Johann Brandt.
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Judging by what’s left in that little building I’m thinking it might have been a wash house. Some former neighbors of ours had one, it contained a sink, washing machine, table, coal stove, drying racks for clothes in the winter, and an old clawfoot bathtub.
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Back in about 1983 or 1984 there was a train derailment near the town. I was working for a Minot tv station and was sent to get footage for the newscast. Before GPS or cell phones, this was not an easy place to find. It was on the map, but driving around, I had a hard time realizing that an abandoned building near the road was actually the town.
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The little buildiing pictured is what remains of the Chris Rasmusson home site, it is a garage and the house was located just west of this building. Rasmusson owned and operated the pop factory. I lived in Omemee from 1935 to 1952
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My father, Herb Perrin, was born in Omemee in 1898, His father, George Perrin, French Canadian, owned the livery stable that became the garage. According to my Dad, Omemee actually got things like telephone and electricity before the surrounding towns. Pop made something of a name for himself as a fiddle player for barn dances and other social events.
After WWI Pop and Grandfather put in 20 acres of potatoes to re-establish the family fortunes. They harvested the first acre, packed the taters into a rail car, and the harvest didn’t pay the rental of the rail car. So they left the other 19 acres in the ground and lit out for warmer climes: grampa to Alabama and Pop to California, where a lot of other Perrins had already migrated.
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I believe the red barn outhouse and picket fence belonged to my great grandfather Chris Rasmussen. I believe the house in front of the barn burned down in the 90’s sometime. He ran the soda factory in omemee brings back some fond memories.
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Yes that was Grandpa’s house and workshop. We used to go back in the 90’s as kids!
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Candace, I own a wooden pop bottle crate from Omemee and would like to pass it on to a relative of Chris Rasmussen.
blien@comcast.net
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My dad was born in Omemee in 1918 and lived there until he was 16 when he and his brother jumped on a rail car heading west. My grandfather worked for the railroad. The family name was Simonson, my grandfather came from Denmark and settled in Omemee – we assume he was sent there by the railroad.
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My family went looking for Omemee (“You might not find much, a lot of those little towns have disappeared” the man at the North Dakota Historical Museum told us) and about all we found was an old cemetery. But my great grandparents were buried there! I haven’t seen any mention of the cemetery– I wonder if it is still there.
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Yes, the cemetery is there and is well cared for by the Kippen Family. I have a summary with some pictures that was put together by a family a few years ago It is digital, and I can email it to you.
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FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA-MY BEST FRIEND AND I DATED GIRLS FROM OMEMEE IN THE 1950’S ! THE ONLY BUSINESS I REMEMBER WAS A BOTTLING / POP PLANT IN THE TOWN. THE TOWN HAD A FEW PEOPLE IN IT AT THAT TIME…CANNOT REMEMBER WHERE THEY WENT TO SCHOOL. I WILL CONTACT MY FRIEND AND SEE WHAT HE REMEMBERS ?
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As I remember the story my parents Joseph and Ourore Duff purchase a home from Omemee and moved it to our form between Overly and Willow City in 1945. It was supposed to have been at one time a ministers house. The original portion of that house is still standing. It has been remodeled and added to during the following years.
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My mother went to school in Omemee until it shut down after her 8th grade year. My grandfather was the bus driver and janitor and my grandmother was the school cook. I spoke with my mom and she told me that the railroad just went through town and didn’t stop anymore. They had to take their milk from the farm to Bottineau or Willow City. She didn’t know exactly why the town disappeared but she was pretty sure it had to do with the railroad.
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I went to 2 grade there. My dad worked in the Butchers shop in the grocery store . Some of us kids use to catch snakes under the church steps. It was a little town on its way to dying out back then. Some good memories there.
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I spent a bit of time up north of Bottineau with my best friends family and his grandma was a wonderful woman in her 90s and still sharp. Anyway she told us that she was born in oak creek which if i remember right she said changed names to omemee which was the county seat that got moved to Bottineau.
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My great-grandparents (Larsons) had a farm near Overly and had their photograph taken in Omemee at some point. The portrait is stamped with the town and photographer’s name but no date, although by their age in the photo, it looks like it could have been later 1880’s or maybe very early 1900’s. My grandmother (Lilya) had kept it all these years and it was handed down to me when my parents passed away. This site is interesting to learn about the history of ND since I was raised in Minot.Thanks for the stories and photos!
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