The State Historical Society of North Dakota launched a photo contest featuring grain elevators.  http://history.nd.gov/photocontest/index.html  Since I had a penchant for roaming around the state looking for ghost towns and other abandoned buildings, it was an easy thing to add to my list of things to photograph.  There are A LOT of elevators in North Dakota and I didn’t capture but a small fraction of them.  No matter if I win a prize or not, I am very happy for the introduced focus and the opportunity to capture, and preserve a bit of history.

These two photos are of the grain elevators in the ghost town of Arena.  I previously published two versions of the old church which is also still standing and draws many photographers. 

http://greywolfphoto.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/arena-church-revision/

http://greywolfphoto.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/ghost-town-church/

I will most likely to do a post with all the photos I took at this ghost town at a later date.

Breien, North Dakota (yes, that’s spelled correctly).  The real treat of this photo shoot was the two dogs that came to visit, one of which came bearing a glove for playing.  I regret I didn’t get a picture of them.

This old elevator in Carson, ND appeared to be not forgotten as it was sporting new windows.  I spoke briefly with a woman at the tax auditor’s office and she informed me this building was owned by the Muggli family and was the last of a number of elevators that had once been here.  This is probably my favorite of this series.

Cole Harbor, ND

Hettinger, ND – one of the buildings at the elevator complex.  We also had lunch at the restaurant on the main drag, I do not recommend it.

The elevator complex in New England, ND.  New England was a destination visit after watching the movie “Prairie Love”, a low-budget, odd little film that had a scene at the women’s prison in this little town.

Reeder, ND – not a lot here anymore but there are some nice old buildings (abandoned?) in the town proper.  While wandering around the town, we met Jerry Verhulst who I would nominate as the Reeder Greeter.  He owns a funky little shop called Sticks, Stones and Bones of the Prairie; Jerry shared a lot of town history with us.

Solen, ND is on the Standing Rock Reservation and is darn near a ghost town.  The 2010 census has the town at 83 people. 

Sterling, ND

Tuttle, ND