This is a simple truth. There is no greater pleasure per penny than searching through a box of old postcards in an antique store. A little hard on the lower back if you’re wearing the wrong pair of shoes, but pleasurable none-the-less. Here are a few old postcards featuring scenes from Marmarth.
Continue reading “Postcards from the Edge of North Dakota”
Last summer, we had the opportunity to go back to White Butte for the first time since 2007, so we couldn’t resist the chance to go to the summit and get some GoPro video in HD.
Continue reading “Video: White Butte — The Highest Point in North Dakota”
In July of 2015, we visited Marmarth, North Dakota and had plans to proceed from there to Ollie, Montana to photograph the former school (it was no longer standing) on the way to the prairie ghost town of Carlyle, Montana. Our route of choice was Old Highway 16, also referred to as Old Marmarth Road. It was a route that would take us through the Badlands north of Marmarth, where the views are fantastic.
Although Old Marmarth Road is in fairly nice condition these days, it is not your standard scenic drive. Continue reading “The Badlands of Old Marmarth Road”
Marmarth is in the far southwest corner of North Dakota, in the Badlands of Slope County, about seventy miles as the crow flies southwest of Dickinson. It’s a town we fell in love with the first time we visited in 2007, because, although there are still over 100 residents there (136 in the 2010 census), there are also a number of very impressive abandoned structures to photograph.
Continue reading “Return to Marmarth”
In 2004, a visitor to our website suggested a list of places we should investigate in the southwest corner of the state, a list I recall mostly from memory — DeSart, Pierce, Shollsmade, Hume, Ranger, Mound, Bessie. Back then, we had very little luck finding much on many of these places. Most of them were rural post offices where no development occurred, and another site visitor told us that nothing remained of DeSart, so we didn’t give it much more thought.
Continue reading “The Last of DeSart, North Dakota”White Butte is the highest point in the state of North Dakota at 3,506 feet above sea level. The peak is on private land and is not staffed. Of the 50 state highpoints, only seven are on private land — North Dakota, Nebraska, Maryland, Louisiana, Kansas, Indiana and Illinois. There is no development of any kind at White Butte. The closest town, Amidon, had a population of 26 in the 2000 Census, and is the smallest county seat in the nation as the seat of Slope County. According to the 2010 Census, Slope is one of only two counties in the state with a population density of less than one person per square mile… a lot of wide open space out here.
The hike to the top of White Butte is fairly easy if you follow the path up the ridgeline to the summit.
At the summit. The memorial at lower right is a tribute to the former property owner, Lawrence Buzalsky, who died in 1990.
There is a summit log notebook in this box. We signed it and left a stack of postcards in the box, but we have yet to hear from anyone who got one.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
Slope County
Inhabited as of 5-07
Marmarth, ND is a Badlands town in Slope County in the extreme southwest corner of the state.
Marmarth is one of the more populous towns we’ve photographed with 130 people according to the 2010 Census, but minimum conveniences. Marmarth has lost 190 residents since 1960.
There’s an exhilarating old west ambience in this part of the state… Montana is only five miles west and it’s just a three hour drive to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. The landscape is a harder, chalkier badland than the more pastoral lands to the east and radio signals sometimes elude the car radio as the highway winds past the occasional butte. There’s a gas station, a bar/steakhouse (with excellent food), and a railroad bunkhouse where you can rent a room with a double bed for $15 per night. At the time we visited, we were told they had dial-up internet in Marmarth, and satellite was the only way to get TV programming.
The most prominent abandoned structure in Marmarth is Barber Auditorium. It’s actually two buildings, Barber Auditorium and First National Bank of Marmarth.
The train depot has been cut in two pieces and relocated to a stretch of grass along the highway as you enter from the east.
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The 1st National Bank and Barber Auditorium in downtown Marmarth, built in 1918.
In the basement of Barber auditorium.
The red velvet theater seats still wait in the murky black.
The staircase on the main floor of the auditorium.
A former storefront, now only storage.
The former Mystic Theatre
These were the first two jail cells ever installed in Marmarth.
The Pastime Bar has cold drinks, and the food in the steakhouse at the rear is excellent.
One former filling station.
Another former filling station.
The depot has been moved.
It now rests on blocks alongside the road in downtown Marmarth.
A boarded-up school.
We rented rooms at this former railroad bunkhouse for $15 bucks a night.
See more photos of Marmarth here.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
Ghosts of North Dakota 