Steven Lee sent in these photos of Verendrye, North Dakota with the following comments:
Continue reading “Flooding in Verendrye”My father, Howard Lee, took these photos. They were taken during the flooding of the Mouse River sometime in the mid to late forties. He grew up on his grandfather’s (Herbrand Lee) farm, 2 or 3 miles northeast of Verendrye. Herbrand Lee homesteaded in the area.
Sherbrooke, North Dakota is in Steele County and it is a true ghost town with no population. Sherbrooke was the first totally abandoned town we ever visited back in 2003, at a time when we didn’t even have proper cameras — we just videotaped a walkthrough and then took screen capture photos. A decade later, nature has continued unwaveringly to reclaim this place.
When we moved south of the main road through Sherbrooke, we realized we had not paid close enough attention to the ruins there when we visited a decade ago. A large building once stood there, and today the field stone foundation remains with some intriguing artifacts within. We’ll detail that in the captions below.
This old Studebaker with suicide doors sits in a field.
This is the former home of Arlene Carpenter and it was the last occupied home in Sherbrooke until it was abandoned sometime in the 1980s — EDIT: perhaps into the nineties (see comments below).
The front porch has collapsed.
Inside the garage
If you’ve looked at many of the galleries on this site, you know we occasionally give reminders on the real danger of walking around in abandoned townsites, and this is a prime example. This well is deep, and full of water — and it’s about a thirty foot drop before you hit the water. If you fell in this headfirst, you would drown before anybody could get you out. Someone thoughtfully threw an old gate over the opening.
Someone broke a car window a long time ago.
Sherbrooke was once the county seat of Steele County before having it snatched away by business people who saw fit to move the seat somewhere more significant — Sherbrooke had neither a railroad or a navigable river. Sherbrooke’s residents fought it all the way to the North Dakota Supreme Court, but eventually lost, and the county seat was moved to Finley (also home to an abandoned Air Force Station). However, the ruins of this building on the south side of the road seem to be something of some importance, a building representative of a place that was once an important seat of government in the 1880s and 90s.
At first we wondered whether this may have been a courthouse.
It appears it was field stone on the bottom with brick on top.
This one charred timber told us a fire was responsible for the demise of this place.
Terry reminded me of the story of the Sherbrooke House Hotel which once stood in Sherbrooke, a place where President McKinley stayed in 1896 during a trip to visit North Dakota. So when Terry spotted the bed frames shown above in the ruins of this building, we couldn’t help but wonder if this was the ruins of the Sherbrooke House Hotel.
As we were walking around in these ruins, whoa, another open hole in the ground. It looked like a sewer main that once served whatever structure was here. One more hazard that could catch you off guard and cause you to break an ankle or tweak a knee. If you choose this as a hobby, please be careful.
This pink home is the only other structure still standing in Sherbooke, and it might be the most completely overrun home of any we’ve seen. Trees and weeds and vines have completely covered and infiltrated this place. We had to do some pretty extensive ducking of dense brush to get close enough for photos.
Exploring this lot in Sherbrooke is a little like a nightmare where you’re in a forest and the branches continually reach out for you, tugging at your clothes, threatening to sweep you away in an instant. The silence and remote location juxtaposed with images like the playhouse above with decorative curtains hanging in the window combine to create an eerie feeling in Sherbrooke. Terry and I both felt it.
The floor inside the pink house is barely distinguishable from the ground outside.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
We’ve known about Brantford, North Dakota — in Eddy County — for some time. Mark Johnson contributed some winter photos a few years back, and we posted some postcards as well, but this was the first time we got a chance to actually visit.
We saw only one home which appeared to be inhabited (it had a satellite dish on the roof), but we didn’t see a single person the whole time we were there. There were half a dozen abandoned homes, multiple foundations from buildings that no longer exist, the former Brantford Public School, and a church which was moved to a farm and then abandoned.
The view out the front door from Brantford Public School. Hundreds of little feet once strolled that sidewalk, but now it’s barely holding back the prairie; grass and weeds are poking through every crack.
Right inside the front door of Brantford Public School,
A former pump house
This was once somebody’s driveway.
There were thousands of bees buzzing around these hives, but they didn’t bother us at all.
We waded through chest-high grass in places to get to the beautiful church at the back of this farmstead.
This church appears to have been moved to this farmstead, for what purpose, we don’t know. The entire place is now vacant with only the bee colony on site.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp
Berlin, North Dakota is a small town in Lamoure County in southeastern North Dakota. Although many of the structures which once existed in Berlin are now gone (the school for one), there are some impressive structures still standing. Sabrina Hornung contributed a few photos of Berlin in 2011. In the summer of 2012 we were able to get to Berlin and capture these photos for ourselves. Continue reading “Derelict Firehouse in Berlin, North Dakota”
Sheyenne River Academy opened its doors on this site north of Harvey in 1904 and was in operation until the end of the 1976 school year. It was a Seventh Day Adventist secondary school. The new location known as Dakota Adventist Academy opened in 1977 near Bismarck.
The present owner of the property is using the grounds and the buildings for horses and other livestock. We knocked on a few doors at a nearby home in an attempt to get permission to go inside, but we were not able to find anyone around. So we snapped a few quick photos and left, hoping to return some time in the future when we can get permission.
There are four buildings in the academy facility, but you can barely see it from the road. The main gate is fenced and no longer used.
Someone has knocked out a window just to the left of the entrance to make it possible to park a vehicle inside the building.
Do you have our hardcover photo book, Churches of the High Plains?
Sheyenne River Academy has a Facebook page here, and you can read more about the history of the academy here.
Note the dirt ramp on the front steps.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
Manfred is a near-ghost town just off Highway 52 between Minot and Jamestown. We visited Manfred previously in 2006, and decided to stop again for an overdue visit on our way to north central North Dakota.
Manfred is home to about five residents these days, and several of them are doing a fantastic job at buying up properties and securing/restoring them. The Johnson Hotel was on the brink when we visited in 2006, but has since been repainted. In addition, there was an old school in Manfred which we chose not to photograph last time because it looked as though someone had been living in it. It is now undergoing a thorough cleaning, and the residents of Manfred have plans to restore the portico over the front stairs when they can raise the funds to do so.
Continue reading “Manfred: Six Years Later”Buttzville is in Ransom County, just northeast of Lisbon. These photos were taken on the abandoned farm just west of Buttzville.
This farm is just across the water from Buttzville.
Rain showers had just moved out.
Not quite sure what this ruin was… a barn?
Spring buds just on.
Penny for your memories.
Whomever lived on this farm had a tremendous view.
Photos by Troy Larson, Copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC.
Bartlett is about twenty miles east of Devils Lake and is about as close as you can get to ghost town without actually being totally abandoned… there is perhaps one occupied property, and we saw 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. As we drove into town, untrimmed branches reached into the road to greet us, nearly touching the sides of the car.
The Andreas Historical Atlas of Dakota (pre-statehood), published in 1884, describes Bartlett like this:
This place, located near the east line of the county, on Section 25, Town 153, Range 61 was commenced in the fall of 1882, upon the completion of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway to that point, and for a number of months had a wonderful growth and business, the population, at its maximum, reaching 1,000. there were 250 buildings in the place, and the people had high hopes that its boom would be a permanent one. But the laying out of Lakota, in Nelson County, four miles east of Bartlett, and the establishment of the county seat at the new town, resulted in the removal of the bulk of its business to Lakota and the city of Devils Lake. One hotel building was taken down and removed to West End, in Benson County, where it was metamorphosed into a number of cottages. There remains at Bartlett two hotels, several stores, and altogether some twenty five or thirty buildings.
A population of over one thousand in 1884 had become just 120 residents by 1910.
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
The railroad tracks just outside of Bartlett were the site of a terrible railroad accident in April, 1907. The Great Northern Oriental Limited derailed just after 1am, rolled down an embankment, and caught fire when a gas tank exploded, an explosion so loud it was heard in Lakota, four miles away. Three died, including mail clerk Harry Jones who was killed instantly when the car he was riding in was telescoped by another, and an unknown Greek laborer who burned to death, trapped in the wreckage.
There were reports that the tracks had been tampered-with, a suspicion perhaps bolstered by a derailment that had happened less than a year prior, on the same stretch of track, just 100 yards away.
When you’re the only resident left in town, there’s nobody around to object when you rename N. 24th Street to Bartlett Rd. with a paint brush.
This part of the state in the Ramsey/Nelson/Grand Forks County area has a couple cool little places to visit, like Whitman, Mapes, and Niagara.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp
Berwick is a near-ghost town in McHenry County, about 7 1/2 miles east of Towner, or 11 miles west of Rugby, and very much off the beaten path.
At one time, this was the main street in Berwick, North Dakota. A brick, single-story building wears a sign that reads “Holmes’ Bar,” and it stands one lot over from an abandoned building with peeling siding, the two conjoined by a weathered picket fence. People once came and went every day, but today, they are empty places, and farm trucks pass without stopping. They’re just the ghosts of Berwick Lane.
Berwick is near a historic site–St. Anselm’s Cemetery, Wrought-Iron Cross Site–which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. We weren’t aware of it when we visited Berwick in 2010, but you can bet we’ll get some photos next time we’re in the area.
The brick chimney on this tiny prairie home has collapsed, and the bricks lie scattered about the roof.
US Census Data for Berwick
Total Population by Place
1960 – 56
1970 – 33
1980 – 22
2000 – Does Not Appear
During our visit to Berwick we talked to several people, including one gentleman who was using his weekend to fix up a local home with an affordable remedy we’ve been seeing a lot of lately — galvanized steel roofing. He told us he’s trying to fix up as many as he can, and we were glad to hear it.
What was this place? A community center? Perhaps someone can comment below.
According to one online account from 2003, this former Lutheran Church in Berwick was purchased by a Rugby resident for $600. It is featured in our book Churches of the High Plains.
This foundation is reportedly the former site of the railroad depot in Berwick (see comments.) The building was moved to Towner where it became an antique shop.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
Temple, North Dakota is the kind of place you drive by on a hot summer afternoon or an overcast morning. The kind of place you pass through on your way to a place called Ray from a place known as Tioga. Temple, however, has a destiny now-defined by those prepositions “by” and “through.” You drive by, you pass through, but you’re never going to Temple, North Dakota, because the town as we knew it is a ghost town.
Continue reading “You’re Never Going to Temple, North Dakota”
Ghosts of North Dakota 