August 7, 2009
North Dakota has about a thousand ghost towns -- the result of a hit-and-miss expansion and settlement of the state from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was a book published in 1988, “No Place,” by Douglas A. Wick who listed these towns, giving a one-paragraph history of each one. Sanger is one of them.
What is left of the Town of Sanger is two miles south of the Cross Ranch State Park entrance. It is possible to see four or five homes nestled in the thickets and trees. The “County House” (pictured above) is the most prominent from the road and is possibly the first frame building ever constructed in Oliver County. It was used as a land office, poor house, temporary housing for weary travelers and a variety of other uses.
CRSP Interpreter Laura Kohn has researched Sanger extensively to learn that this town existed for approximately 80 years from 1879, the year of its establishment by George Sanger, to 1964, the year the Sanger Post Office was closed and moved to Hensler. Sanger was never a “boom town.” The largest recorded population of Sanger was 100 in 1920, and it is fair to conclude that the Sanger population built up to that number for the first 40 years and decreased from 1920 on.
How North Dakota towns got their names often derived from the postal address. George Sanger applied for and got a postal permit, made himself postmaster, and set up the post office in a room of his house. Mail was always directed through a post office, so letters going to Sanger made it a natural for Sanger to become the name of the town. George Sanger’s compensation for being a postmaster was $400 per year, plus he got a town named after him.
Why Sanger was an ideal site for a town was 1) a natural landing spot on the Missouri River, 2) lots of cottonwood trees were available for fueling steamboats and 3) a grain elevator was built to assist farmers in getting their grain to markets downstream. Later, when the railroad came through, Sanger’s grain elevator and trees made it a good stopping off point for refueling steam locomotives with water from the Missouri River and the local cottonwood groves.
At its peak, Sanger was the county seat of Oliver County (1888 - 1902 and had a school (1914), a hotel, community hall and newspaper, “The Sanger Advance,” The Farmer’s Excange Bank, opera house (1917), a ferry and shoe store (1920), Sanger Mercantile Company (1923), Sanger Radio Club (1923), a car dealership (1928), a second periodical, “The Weekly Reminder” (1930), even a baseball team, “The Sanger Larks” (1940’s).
Beyond that, the Town of Sanger never really thrived as various economic recessions and The Great Depression of the 1930’s negatively impacted the area’s development. Whenever crop prices fell, the farmers in this area were not able to pay their crop loans, leaving the bank holding a lot of paper. Were it not for a group of Sanger citizens, the bank would have gone bust in 1924. Eventually the bank failed during The Great Depression.
Laura Kohn’s program with slides and old-time exhibits is called “From Boom to Bust: Sanger.” Plans are to present the program again on September 5th during the Labor Day weekend , inviting the local community out to participate in this interesting bit of history. Free interpretive programs like this are given at Cross Ranch State Park every Friday and Saturday evening with fresh popcorn for all.
North Dakota has about a thousand ghost towns -- the result of a hit-and-miss expansion and settlement of the state from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was a book published in 1988, “No Place,” by Douglas A. Wick who listed these towns, giving a one-paragraph history of each one. Sanger is one of them.
What is left of the Town of Sanger is two miles south of the Cross Ranch State Park entrance. It is possible to see four or five homes nestled in the thickets and trees. The “County House” (pictured above) is the most prominent from the road and is possibly the first frame building ever constructed in Oliver County. It was used as a land office, poor house, temporary housing for weary travelers and a variety of other uses.
CRSP Interpreter Laura Kohn has researched Sanger extensively to learn that this town existed for approximately 80 years from 1879, the year of its establishment by George Sanger, to 1964, the year the Sanger Post Office was closed and moved to Hensler. Sanger was never a “boom town.” The largest recorded population of Sanger was 100 in 1920, and it is fair to conclude that the Sanger population built up to that number for the first 40 years and decreased from 1920 on.
How North Dakota towns got their names often derived from the postal address. George Sanger applied for and got a postal permit, made himself postmaster, and set up the post office in a room of his house. Mail was always directed through a post office, so letters going to Sanger made it a natural for Sanger to become the name of the town. George Sanger’s compensation for being a postmaster was $400 per year, plus he got a town named after him.
Why Sanger was an ideal site for a town was 1) a natural landing spot on the Missouri River, 2) lots of cottonwood trees were available for fueling steamboats and 3) a grain elevator was built to assist farmers in getting their grain to markets downstream. Later, when the railroad came through, Sanger’s grain elevator and trees made it a good stopping off point for refueling steam locomotives with water from the Missouri River and the local cottonwood groves.
At its peak, Sanger was the county seat of Oliver County (1888 - 1902 and had a school (1914), a hotel, community hall and newspaper, “The Sanger Advance,” The Farmer’s Excange Bank, opera house (1917), a ferry and shoe store (1920), Sanger Mercantile Company (1923), Sanger Radio Club (1923), a car dealership (1928), a second periodical, “The Weekly Reminder” (1930), even a baseball team, “The Sanger Larks” (1940’s).
Beyond that, the Town of Sanger never really thrived as various economic recessions and The Great Depression of the 1930’s negatively impacted the area’s development. Whenever crop prices fell, the farmers in this area were not able to pay their crop loans, leaving the bank holding a lot of paper. Were it not for a group of Sanger citizens, the bank would have gone bust in 1924. Eventually the bank failed during The Great Depression.
Laura Kohn’s program with slides and old-time exhibits is called “From Boom to Bust: Sanger.” Plans are to present the program again on September 5th during the Labor Day weekend , inviting the local community out to participate in this interesting bit of history. Free interpretive programs like this are given at Cross Ranch State Park every Friday and Saturday evening with fresh popcorn for all.
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