Driscoll Church… Like They Just Left Yesterday

September 27, 2016November 29, 2021Troy Larson 4 Comments

It’s always amazing when you run across a place like this rural Driscoll Church… like they just left yesterday.

We were on our way to visit Arena, North Dakota in September, 2016, when we drove right past this place and decided to stop for a visit.

Zion Lutheran Church is in Burleigh County, Harriet-Lein Township, and is described as “rural Driscoll.” In reality, it is about ten miles north of Driscoll, or eleven miles southeast of Wing, North Dakota.

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How Much Longer for Ghost Town Arena?

September 19, 2016Troy Larson 17 Comments

We first visited Arena, North Dakota, a ghost town in Burleigh County, about 35 miles northeast of Bismarck, in 2004, and we’ve been keeping our eyes on it ever since, with the assistance of some kindred spirit adventurers who check-in from time to time to let us know what’s happening.

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Defining what exactly constitutes a “ghost town” can sometimes be tricky. In our years of exploring North Dakota’s abandoned places, we’ve often encountered former towns where the townsite itself is empty, but there’s a farm about half a mile down the road. Sometimes a former town like Sims, North Dakota has an active church, but nobody actually lives on the town site. And still other times, we will hear objections from people who feel as though we’ve misrepresented their town, or somehow labeled it a ghost town because it appears on this website, in which case we clarify that this site is about ghost towns and abandoned places, like the former First National Bank and Barber Auditorium in Marmarth, North Dakota, a town with a population numbering more than a hundred.

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20 True Ghost Towns: Population Zero

October 30, 2015November 29, 2021Troy Larson 74 Comments

Vintage View of Bismarck, Dakota Territory, 1883

February 24, 2015Troy Larson 2 Comments

In 1883, Bismarck had only been “Bismarck” for ten years, having existed first as a tiny frontier settlement called Missouri Crossing, then as Edwinton, until 1873. Bismarck assumed an important place in the history of the American west when it supplanted Yankton as the capital of Dakota Territory in 1883. Settlers were soon streaming in. Continue reading “Vintage View of Bismarck, Dakota Territory, 1883” →

The Great Bismarck Fire of 1898

August 7, 2014Troy Larson Leave a comment

Like Fargo in 1893 and Chicago in 1871, Bismarck fell victim to a massive wind-whipped fire on August 8th, 1898.

As was the case with so many pioneer-era cities around the nation, Bismarck in 1898 was a city constructed largely of wood. When coupled with a frequently unrelenting prairie wind, any unusual dry spell created extraordinarily dangerous conditions.

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Sterling School No. 2

May 28, 2013Troy Larson Leave a comment

We’ve seen this school referenced online as Wing School #3, however the sign above the door appears to read Sterling No. 2. The school is located closer to Wing than it is Sterling, so we wonder whether this school originally stood somewhere else and was moved to this spot, about 9 miles north of Wing. If someone could shed some light on this school’s history, we would appreciate your insight.

Update: Wanda Burrer posted on our Facebook page with more details.

“The school building was originally built in Sterling Township in Burleigh County in 1917 under the name , Sterling No. 2. This was about 22 [miles] south of where it is today. Due to declining enrollment the school closed in 1927. In 1937 Florence Lake Township purchased the schoolhouse and moved it to it’s present location after their building was destroyed by fire. Due to the financial struggles of the Great Depression Era it was easier and faster for the township to relocate an existing building instead of constructing a new school house. It served students till 1961. In November 2011 it was listed with the National Register of Historic Places. The Florence Lake Township is in the process of fixing it up.”

The architecture of this school is unique compared to the other country schools we’ve seen.

Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

We first visited Arena in May of 2004. Nine years later, we returned to this rolling spot on the prairie in Burleigh County and found things much the same, if somewhat weathered.

St. John’s Lutheran church still stands, though the white paint has weathered considerably over the last nine years. The cinderblock foundation on the east side of the church has continued to crumble, and will likely cause the church to topple into its own basement eventually. The outhouse out back has also crumbled in the last nine years.

The yellow house last occupied by the grandparents of Marlon Leno (his account is in the comments section, here) is obviously visited by vandals and party-hounds from time to time — the devastated window frames tell the story. The small white school house which was moved to the Arena town site from somewhere else still looks solid.

On the trip that led us to Arena on Memorial Weekend of 2013, we were plagued by terrible weather all morning. Flat gray, overcast skies, fog and rain. When we arrived in Arena, we expected more of the same. But something incredible happened the moment we got close to the church — the sun peeked out and some blue sky started to show. We couldn’t help but smile and start snapping.

Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

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Arena: Nine Years Later

May 27, 2013Troy Larson 11 Comments

Arena was only the second true ghost town we ever visited, back in 2004. At that time, the school had already been torn down and we were never able to locate some large photos of it, until now.

Thanks to these photos contributed by Dale Fisher, we can now see Arena as it looked in 1992. There are a few interesting comparisons to be made with our photos from 2004:

In the photo above, we can see a small home which was not standing when we visited in 2004. The church still stands, as does the yellow house behind the two pine trees. But there was no trace of the little house in between. On the left side, the light brown structure (just above the car) was also gone by the time of our visit. And at the far left, partially cut off, is the little white building which we photographed and also still stands.

This was the Arena school — a place we really regret missing out on. You can see the school looks remarkably better in this 1992 image as versus the image contributed by Stephen Berg in our Arena gallery… the windows are still intact in this image, and the structure just looks more stable. Someone did a real number on this school in the twelve years between ’92 and ’04.

A question we’d still like to answer… what year did the last full-time resident move out of Arena?

Original Content copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC

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Arena in 1992

August 26, 2011November 29, 2021Troy Larson 28 Comments

Arena was founded with a rural post office January 23rd, 1906. It is said to have had a peak population of 150 around 1920, but had withered to 35 residents by 1930. It is now abandoned.

The photo shown left is the former Arena School, photo contributed by Stephen Berg. As of our visit in 2004, the school was gone. This was the only photo we’d been able to locate of the school for quite some time, but in summer of 2011, Dale Fisher contributed a few shots of Arena in 1992.

Although there aren’t any residents in the immediate vicinity of the town, there is a yellow house on the townsite which had blankets hanging in the windows, suggesting someone used it for something relatively recently.

Marlon Leno commented at the bottom of our Arena in 1992 entry, and filled-in quite a few of the details. Marlon said his grandparents lived in the yellow house as late as 1981, and that his cousin, George Pehl, demolished the school when it became a hazard. Mr. Leno also informed us of the name of the church — St. Johns Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod.

The road leading south out of Arena is a short, scenic drive, bordered tightly on both shoulders by a couple of small lakes.