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Sanger, ND
Oliver County
Vacant as of 9/04
Sanger, ND is a true ghost town.
Sanger was also known as Bentley, ND when it was
founded in 1879, named after the town doctor W.
Bentley, who was also a member of the territorial
legislature.
Photos with a yellow border
= no enlargements available |
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We believe the building pictured
top-right was the Post Office, erected in 1881.
Bentley was considered the county seat until 1884,
when the county seat was moved to Center, ND and
the town was re-named Sanger, for Henry Sanger,
the owner of the townsite. |
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Early
in it's history, Sanger also had a brief battle
with the nearby town of Raymond for a Post Office.
Sanger eventually won out. |
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Sanger is located in Oliver
County, on the west bank of the Missouri River.
It was not easy to find. The Cross Ranch is right
across the road though, so if you can find that,
you'll find Sanger. Sanger didn't have any shortage
of visitors. There were about three other vehicles
that pulled up to take a look in the short span
we were there. |
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Sanger seems to be a different
breed of ghost town than those we've discovered
in the Eastern part of the state. It's vacant,
and has been for a very long time. There are no
modern structures, and everything seems as if
it's been abandoned for decades.
We received an email recently
from Bob & Caryl Rutten of Bismarck which
told of two people who may have been Sanger's
final residents. It read in part:
Sanger was in fact
occupied in the late 1970's (I believe) through
the early '80's by Linda Whitney and David Christie,
two ND visual artists who trained at UND and moved
out to Sanger to set up studios. We used to read
about them in the Bismarck paper now and then
back in the day. |
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The trap door pictured bottom
left is from one of Sanger's vacant homes. It
has an earthen basement with a trap door and a
ladder leading down. It is definitely not safe
anymore. The floor is sagging and the basement
walls are caving in. |
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In addition to all the houses
in Sanger, there several empty lots which clearly
had homes or buildings at one point.
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Visiting Sanger in person,
it's easy to imagine riding up to the town in
a horse & carriage. Unlike many ghost town
sites in the state, there seems to be very little
tampering and vandalizing of the town site. Very
pure. |
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We tried to locate Sanger
from the south, crossing the Missouri in Bismarck
and heading north from there. We ended up in a
maze of dirt roads and posted farmland. Eventually
we found Sanger by entering from the Washburn
area, about 8 miles north. |
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The white house pictured right,
9th from top, was sitting on stilts... like somebody
was planning on moving it but never did. |
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Note the old appliances behind
the house pictured 7th on the right. |
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Sanger's layout is still recognizable
with the vacant homes lining what used to be the
main streets. |
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Every home in Sanger had an
outhouse in the back yard. |
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