The landscape of North Dakota is trimmed in places with the composting remnants of once thriving communities. Towns, and the people who occupied them, are slowly being wiped off the horizon and even the map!
It’s true that ruins inspire myriad emotions. A look back at our past provides wondrous insight into where we’ve been and where we’re going. It can also give us clues about who we were, as a people.
Flickr/Andrew Filer The ruins of this small rural community in North Dakota tell us the story of extinguished livelihoods, a people that either died off or simply moved on to bigger and perhaps more urban things.
Flickr/Andrew Filer Abandoned Lincoln Valley, or just “Lincoln” as it was first called when settled in 1900, now rests quietly, awaiting the sweet embrace of Mother Nature to come and “carry it home.”
Flickr/Andrew Filer This once thriving community, now reduced to four square blocks of ruins, once had a popular ice cream parlor and a beer tavern. And yes, Lincoln Valley had its very own post office and a gas station. Folks here used to congregate at the end of the long day and probably tell stories of both the present and the past.
Flickr/Andrew Filer But now, the only souls remaining in this four-block ghost town are in their own final resting place in the town’s cemetery. A bed made for a townspeople who spent their final glorious days here on the prairie of North Dakota.
Flickr/Andrew Filer As you look at what remains of the old ice cream parlor and beer tavern, you can’t help but see the small children circling the building with dripping cones in hand on a hot summer day; the fathers are inside having something cold of their own.
Flickr/Andrew Filer
Google Maps [streetview] Located not far from SD-14 approximately 15 miles due north of Denhoff, Lincoln Valley - or what remains of her - seems to paint a canvas of words akin to a thoughtfully cached poem; uplifting and high-spirited.
Flickr/Andrew Filer Parts of this ghost town may fill you with remorse for everything lost as the families here died off or moved away, their homes and their only shelter from the storm left behind to return to the earth.
Flickr/Andrew Filer This place, lost in a time capsule, is a reminder of a people in North Dakota that grew up in a different time.
Flickr/Andrew Filer These walls, made of now decaying plywood, an indication of perhaps a subsistence lifestyle that came to be in Lincoln Valley. A place where we can only hope there was no “keeping up with the Joneses,” and where everyone was just themselves.
Flickr/Andrew Filer Other ruins, like this cut stone foundation, are a reminder of the stark realism that soon this building in particular will no longer exist.
Flickr/Andrew Filer Mother Nature arrived years ago in Lincoln Valley. The U.S. Post Office here reportedly closed its doors in the mid-70s. After that, it’s said it was just a matter of time before the town was completely empty.
Flickr/Andrew Filer And now “time” is all Lincoln Valley has left. The few remaining pieces of evidence of this once bustling community jut out from the earth’s surface just high enough above the prairie to be seen and admired from afar.
Lincoln Valley is a beautiful testament to North Dakota’s past and its regeneration.
Flickr/Andrew Filer
The ruins of this small rural community in North Dakota tell us the story of extinguished livelihoods, a people that either died off or simply moved on to bigger and perhaps more urban things.
Abandoned Lincoln Valley, or just “Lincoln” as it was first called when settled in 1900, now rests quietly, awaiting the sweet embrace of Mother Nature to come and “carry it home.”
This once thriving community, now reduced to four square blocks of ruins, once had a popular ice cream parlor and a beer tavern. And yes, Lincoln Valley had its very own post office and a gas station. Folks here used to congregate at the end of the long day and probably tell stories of both the present and the past.
But now, the only souls remaining in this four-block ghost town are in their own final resting place in the town’s cemetery. A bed made for a townspeople who spent their final glorious days here on the prairie of North Dakota.
As you look at what remains of the old ice cream parlor and beer tavern, you can’t help but see the small children circling the building with dripping cones in hand on a hot summer day; the fathers are inside having something cold of their own.
Google Maps [streetview]
Located not far from SD-14 approximately 15 miles due north of Denhoff, Lincoln Valley - or what remains of her - seems to paint a canvas of words akin to a thoughtfully cached poem; uplifting and high-spirited.
Parts of this ghost town may fill you with remorse for everything lost as the families here died off or moved away, their homes and their only shelter from the storm left behind to return to the earth.
This place, lost in a time capsule, is a reminder of a people in North Dakota that grew up in a different time.
These walls, made of now decaying plywood, an indication of perhaps a subsistence lifestyle that came to be in Lincoln Valley. A place where we can only hope there was no “keeping up with the Joneses,” and where everyone was just themselves.
Other ruins, like this cut stone foundation, are a reminder of the stark realism that soon this building in particular will no longer exist.
Mother Nature arrived years ago in Lincoln Valley. The U.S. Post Office here reportedly closed its doors in the mid-70s. After that, it’s said it was just a matter of time before the town was completely empty.
And now “time” is all Lincoln Valley has left. The few remaining pieces of evidence of this once bustling community jut out from the earth’s surface just high enough above the prairie to be seen and admired from afar.
If you want to see more ghost towns in North Dakota, then read This Abandoned Ghost Town In North Dakota Is Hauntingly Beautiful.
OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article.
