An interesting website I visit occasionally is ghostsofnorthdakota.com. Two young men from Fargo run it, quite ambitiously. They drive all over the state finding little "used-to-be's" and photograph them and write a bit of narrative. The list of place names they've visited keeps growing; a few of them I recognize and have visited. They have not included the one above, but it maybe could be some day. It is the bar in Nome, ND. My hometown of Sheldon has not been included yet, but it probably fits their definition of a ghost town and might be included in the future.
I think of all the businesses that existed in Sheldon when I was a little boy, and when I go to the Heritage Center and read old newspapers, I find many more businesses that operated. On Saturday night the street used to fill with cars, diagonally on the business side and parallel on the opposite. Then if something special was going on, side streets held the overflow. On Friday night we attended a high school graduation reception in Flasher. The business district is filled with buildings on both sides of the street, most of them empty. At one time it thrived as a market for its trade area. The reception was held in an old hotel that surprised me as still being viable. It was old when Mary and I married almost 38 years ago. My parents and a few others stayed overnight in its rooms, but nos it still rents rooms to guests. Insert the word "venerable" somewhere in here.
Bismarck-Mandan thrive, actually bustle, in a boomtown atmosphere. Home builders say they cannot keep up with demand. Cities like Dickinson, Williston, Watford City, and others boom in relation to the development of the oil patch. How long? I probably won't see the end of it, but I can't help but think that some of the towns listed in the "ghosts of North Dakota" were boomtowns, too.
I think of all the businesses that existed in Sheldon when I was a little boy, and when I go to the Heritage Center and read old newspapers, I find many more businesses that operated. On Saturday night the street used to fill with cars, diagonally on the business side and parallel on the opposite. Then if something special was going on, side streets held the overflow. On Friday night we attended a high school graduation reception in Flasher. The business district is filled with buildings on both sides of the street, most of them empty. At one time it thrived as a market for its trade area. The reception was held in an old hotel that surprised me as still being viable. It was old when Mary and I married almost 38 years ago. My parents and a few others stayed overnight in its rooms, but nos it still rents rooms to guests. Insert the word "venerable" somewhere in here.
Bismarck-Mandan thrive, actually bustle, in a boomtown atmosphere. Home builders say they cannot keep up with demand. Cities like Dickinson, Williston, Watford City, and others boom in relation to the development of the oil patch. How long? I probably won't see the end of it, but I can't help but think that some of the towns listed in the "ghosts of North Dakota" were boomtowns, too.
