Fillmore, ND
Benson County
Inhabited as of 4/06

Fillmore, ND is in Benson County, about 20 miles SE of Rugby, the geographical center of North America. Fillmore reportedly had 150 citizens in 1920, but that declined to 74 by 1960 and today Fillmore is home to only two part-time residents.

We weren't actually expecting much from Fillmore, so it just goes to show, you never can tell.

When we arrived, we were surprised to find Fillmore may just be the best North Dakota ghost town we've run across so far.

There is a defined Main Street in town with vacant buildings staring each other down from opposite sides of the street. There are many vacant homes too, not to mention two vacant churches.

The townsite pictured here is actually the second townsite to bear the name Fillmore. The original townsite several miles southeast is now wiped from the prairie.

The name Fillmore was given by settlers from Fillmore County, MN which in turn was named for the 13th President, Millard Fillmore.

Like most ghost towns in North Dakota, Fillmore was another casualty of the decline of the train and the rise of the automobile.

The site of the former rail-bed is still clearly visible even though the tracks have been removed. One dead giveaway is a jagged notch in a nearby ridgeline, cut by the railroad to allow a train to pass through, and though it is now overgrown, it lines up perfectly with the rail bed which runs by Fillmore.

On our visit to Fillmore, we ran into one of the town's part-time residents. He said he doesn't actually live in Fillmore, but that he bought one of the old houses there and was just "playing around with it".

He also stated that the owner of the well-kept home down the street is also only a part-time resident, spending most of his winters in the south.

We ran into a second person while visiting Fillmore who was using a workshop and he looked at us like we were extraterrestrials. They don't get many TV crews and website photographers in Fillmore.

Click Here to see a county-by-county North Dakota map of the Ghost Towns we've visited.

Our research about Fillmore's past is ongoing. If you have any information about Fillmore, please contact us or leave a comment in the Ghosts of North Dakota Forums.

source material - North Dakota Place Names by Douglas A. Wick, Hedemarken Collectibles

Our expedition to Manfred was also captured on GND Video Volume 3. See the video footage on the Galleries page.

Watch for more videos coming soon to Ghosts Of North Dakota.