Ghosts of North Dakota 
Palermo is in Mountrail County, and quite populous compared to most towns you’ll see on this website, but there were a good number of abandoned structures that made for some great photo opportunities.
Palermo was founded in 1901 as a Great Northern Railroad town made up of primarily Norwegian settlers. It’s name was a tribute to the Italians who worked on the area railroads.
The school pictured here was built under the Works Progress (later ‘Projects’) Administration program and a site visitor reports it was used until the ’89-’90 school year.
The school is an impressive brick and stone building with art deco touches.
The small white building pictured here is the former Palermo Firehouse and Jail. There’s a story going around that Palermo welcomed transients and allowed them to use this structure as a place to bed down, but the town later changed their minds and ran off all the vagrants due to fear of vandalism.
US Census Data for Palermo
Total Population by Place
1960 – 188
1970 – 146
1980 – 97
2000 – 77
2010 — 74
One of Palermo’s notable former residents would be Miss North Dakota 2001, Michelle Guthmiller.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
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Eastedge, ND is in south-central North Dakota, in southern Barnes County, about twenty miles south of Valley City. The railroad construction camp that once existed here was named “Eastedge,” a name descriptive of its location on the east edge of the Sheyenne River Valley. Eastedge is near two other places we’ve photographed — Kathryn and Nome.
It was May 1st when we visited Eastedge, a date that normally prompts visions of spring sunshine and flowers, but on this day, the weather was unusually cold and misty with a blustery wind that chilled us to our bones. We were unsure of what we would find when we arrived at Eastedge.
Some might argue the weather was an appropriate harbinger of what was to come — just as we arrived, snowflakes started to fall, and we shortly discovered Eastedge is a true ghost town with only two homes standing on the former townsite, and an unnerving backstory.
After we posted these photos, Shawn Bjerke recently wrote us to say:
My Grandmother walked to school in the one room school house at Eastedge. I also remember her telling me that the last resident of Eastedge committed suicide in the late 60’s or early 70’s! Maybe its a true ghost town!
The small white home on the Eastedge townsite was moved here from another location, and several people have told us that the person who moved the house to the site was killed in the process when he touched an overhead powerline. This home is going through a slow-motion collapse and was in considerably worse shape when we returned six years later.
The remains of the old concrete railroad loading dock, below, are the only other remains on-site.
The tracks remain, but they’ve been out of service for many years.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
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Crystal Springs was founded in the Dakota Territory in 1873 and the Post Office opened with the name “CRYSTAL SPRINGS” in 1884–named for nearby Crystal Springs Lakes.
We were cruising west on the interstate one day and the Crystal Springs school, perched beautifully atop a hill along the highway, practically jumped out at us, and we stopped to get a few shots. Now arriving at Crystal Springs, North Dakota. Read More
Sargent County
Harlem is a town that no longer exists. We believe this former voting precinct building is the only structure left from what was once Harlem. This building stands right near a farmer’s home and he is farming the land on all sides. According to North Dakota Place Names by Douglas Wick, Harlem was once at the terminus of the Milwaukee Railroad line from Andover, South Dakota and had 225 residents by 1890, but the construction of the nearby NPRR line caused many Harlem residents to move to nearby communities like Cogswell. When the railroad was taken up in 1923, it spelled the end for Harlem.
The former site of Stirum, ND is just two miles north of here.
See also: Tyner Cemetery
See also: A Quick Stop in Stirum
Photos by Terry Hinnenkamp, Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
A farm post office for Merricourt was established in October 1883. North Dakota Place Names by Douglas Wick lists Merricourt’s peak population at 153 in the 1940’s.
During our visit to Merricourt, we saw one home which was occupied, right in the middle of the townsite. We also heard someone calling for their dog, so we didn’t stay in that area long. There are quite a few abandoned structures, as well as some buildings which are still maintained. The surrounding miles of farmland are dotted with crumbling farms in every direction. Population loss was hard on this part of the state. Read More
About 60 miles southwest of Wahpeton, in Sargent County, stands the ghost town known as Straubville, North Dakota. It was named for the first settler, Joseph W. Straub, who donated ten acres for the town site, in 1883. A Great Northern Railroad station was founded in 1886, and population peaked at 40.
This was a place we visited early in our Ghosts of North Dakota adventures, in 2005, and it was one of the first places we encountered where it seemed obvious that if we had arrived ten or fifteen years earlier, there would have been much more to photograph. Read More
Steele County
Inhabited as of 10/04
Blabon, ND is in Steele County, not far from another ghost town on this site, Sherbrooke, ND. Blabon is the first ghost town we ever investigated. It is presently inhabited by approximately 8 to 12 people. As many as three houses were clearly occupied and one trailer home had a satellite dish on the side.
Blabon was founded in 1896, named for Joseph Ward Blabon, a Great Northern Railroad official who visited the townsite in 1897.
We received an email from Norway that reads as follows:
Sending you some pictures of Blabon as it was about 1900. My great grandparents did own/run a grocery store/pool saloon. The moved back to Norway about 1915 i think. Nice site you’ve got here 🙂
Greetings from Norway!
Øyvind Sætrevik
CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
Temple was founded in Williams County along the Great Northern Railroad line. The post office was moved here from Haarstad in 1908. The significance of the town name is unknown.
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Juanita was founded along the Great Northern Railroad Line in 1911, about fifteen miles northeast of Carrington, North Dakota. It was originally named “Wanitah”, a Native American word of unknown meaning, but later renamed by town planners with the Spanish spelling. It reached a peak poulation of 150 in 1920. When we visited in 2004, it appeared to have a population around five to ten.
Juanita did have a fairly impressive stone school building, however it appeared to be in use by one of the town’s residents and we chose not to photograph it for privacy’s sake. There was also a big dog running loose which made our visit a quick one.
There were quite a few empty homes in Juanita and the landscape is severely overgrown. From one home, only the chimney was visible through the trees. Other than the homes, the school building was the only structure still standing in Juanita.
Do you have an update on what’s going on in Juanita these days? Let us know in the comments.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media
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