The story
Omemee had every reason to last. Founded in 1887 in the Turtle Mountains country of Bottineau County and named for a town in Ontario, it sat at the junction of two railroads — the Great Northern and, from 1905, the Soo Line — and became a busy little shipping point. By 1906 it had around 650 people, two banks, a hotel, an implement dealer, an opera house, a newspaper, and seven grain elevators lined up along the tracks.
Then it simply drained away. The population was already down to 332 by 1910, and through the twentieth century the familiar Plains arithmetic — bigger farms, cars, and consolidated services — pulled people to Bottineau and beyond. By 1965 fewer than ten people were left, the school and post office closed, and the town lost even that. It has stood abandoned since 2003.
Omemee is now the classic empty northern-Plains town: a grid of streets with almost nothing on them, a lone elevator or two, and the wind.
What remains today
Empty streets, a grain elevator or two, and scattered building remnants on the open prairie.
Questions from the field
- What happened to Omemee, North Dakota?
- A two-railroad junction town of about 650 in 1906, it steadily lost people to consolidation over the twentieth century — down to under ten by 1965 — and has stood abandoned since 2003.
From the field
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Primary sources for this record
- — USGS GNIS feature 1030570
- — Wikipedia — Omemee, North Dakota
- — State Historical Society of North Dakota — North Dakota Studies