State atlas · filed under ND
Ghost Towns of North Dakota
North Dakota may lose towns faster than anywhere east of Nevada: rail-line villages of the homestead boom, emptied by drought, depression, and seventy years of farm consolidation — many with elevators still standing.
161 sites surveyed across North Dakota — 3 charted with full records so far, entered by year of settlement. The rest are awaiting verification.
Survey note
The federal place-name archive records 161 vanished or historical sites in North Dakota — ghost towns, mining camps, townsites, and railroad stops. We chart them a few at a time, as the records can be verified. Every mark on this map is a place that once had a name.
Society Pro
See North Dakota as the surveyors drew it, 1879 to 1919
76 USGS survey sheets from those years cover North Dakota. Pro lays them over today's map with a swipe between then and now, and adds every mine feature, lost place and mineral site the federal record holds for the state.
The full survey ledger
Every vanished town the federal archive records in North Dakota — each with its own record page, verified and expanded over time.