Abandoned And Forgotten Places - Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota

When people think of the United States, they most likely think of the big sprawling cities so prevalent from coast to coast, New York, L.A., Chicago, Atlanta, and so on. But there's another side to the country that doesn't often come to mind. There are wide open spaces that are sparsely populated. And out along the thin ribbons of crumbling two-lane asphalt threading through the remote portions of the country, and beside rarely traveled gravel and dirt roads, are reminders of another time. Forgotten structures like old houses, barns, churches, schools, gas stations, and old motels that have been left to the elements to deteriorate and melt back into the earth. And there are abandoned vehicles as well, left to decay in the fields. If discovering forgotten places of the past is your thing, you might find that these roads bring you to the end of the rainbow, where your pot of gold awaits. Or, they might bring you to a town with a taxidermied two-headed calf. I'm going to give you a tour of a portion of America that has been abandoned and forgotten. A tour of the forlorn. What I call Lost America. Rockhopper here, let's take a little tour of what I like to call Lost America. Before we start in Wyoming, here's a quick and quirky shot of Sisko, Utah. From our explorations in Wyoming, we'll make our way on to Montana, and head east across it to a portion of North Dakota, and even stray into Minnesota. The first step back in time is Bosler, Wyoming. When I stepped outside the car to get some footage, I was immediately swarmed by dozens of mosquitoes, and in only ten seconds had about five bites. This kept me confined to the car. There only appeared to be one resident left in the town, probably confined within the house by the mosquitoes. Bosler was named after Frank Bosler, the owner of the Diamond Ranch, a major early ranch in the area. The town was originally a railroad shipping center for the ranch, and a post office was established in 1908. The town moved when the railroad tracks moved. By the mid-1920s, Bosler had 75 people and several businesses. It slowly grew to 264 people by 1940. When Interstate 80 was opened in 1970, isolating it from the main travel routes, Bosler began a downward spiral, and when the post office closed, it was the final nail in the coffin for the town. Dilapidated structures, rusting cars, and an abandoned school are what's left, and left behind. I found this old Texaco station in Wheatland, Wyoming, built in 1955. Apparently, the building has been vacant since 2007. Hartville is Wyoming's oldest incorporated town, established in 1884. It was a thriving city at the turn of the century. Born from copper mining, it had saloons, an opera house, gaming halls, and coffee houses. The original cemetery, Boot Hill, is crowded with the bodies of men who died wearing their cowboy boots. Today, the town still has a handful of retirees and a few young families. Wyoming is a good place to get a glimpse into lost America. Every corner of the state, it seems, has forgotten and abandoned places. Hey, single ladies, you might want to check out this place. It's called Manville, but you probably won't find many men there, or much of anyone, for that matter. But you might see this old bank building, built in 1907. While driving a lonely dirt road in what would be considered by most people to be the middle of nowhere, I happened upon a lonely and forgotten building. This immediately enticed me, and the structure beckoned me to explore it. Every once in a while, I find a true time capsule. A place left undisturbed and intact, just as if people one day up and left, and everything is the same as the day they departed. Wow, this is pretty cool. An old schoolhouse, it looks to be. I was enthralled to find one such place in a remote part of Wyoming. I won't disclose the location in order to protect it, and I hope if you know where this is, you'll do the same. Old books, still laying on the table. Stuff still in the cupboards. Pretty dusty, but it's all there. Still have records here from 1962. Weekly memo from 1966. Wow, this is back from the 1950s. 1957 there. So they were keeping records of whatever they were doing back in that time in this booklet. The names go from 1927 to 1987. Looks like this was created in 1962. Well, there's something good to know about geese. I saw the eclipse in 2017, but I didn't know this. This is so old it doesn't even have a UPC code on it anywhere. I bet winters were really cold here, especially with that harsh Wyoming wind blowing. Looks like this might be from the 1950s. That furnace looks really old. Allen's Parlor Furnace. Joy to the World. Property of the Fairview Sunday School. Let's see if we can find a date on here. Wow, 1915? 1967. This place is a time capsule. Receipts from 1954. An old ledger from 1959. Stockman's Mail Bank, Lusk, Wyoming. This looks like something from the 1940s maybe. All the names on the chalkboard. Some old pencils. Cards. Mouse nest. An old electrical box. A view out the window. I wonder what's down in here. Let's go have a look. Looks like a really old stove over here. That's the Great Majestic. Some chairs and a wash tub. Screens over there. An old bucket of some kind there. Looks like an old coal bucket. Can't find a date on any of this, but this looks really old. Like maybe from the 1920s or 30s. Judging by the type style. Somebody hand wrote something in here. Goddess of Liberty and Aunt Uncle Sam. Very good play and drill is fine. That looks ancient. Sinclair Opaline. All purpose lubricant. Metal can. A faded old road sign made me feel like I was on a road to nowhere. But I was actually on a trip to the lost past. Not far north of the Wyoming border into Montana. North of Alzada. I found yet another abandoned school. I surmise there must have been a small town here at one time. But the school appeared to be the only structure that remained. Let's go inside and have a look. You can see the blackboard there above it. Got some sunflowers on some cloth. And there's just some scattered books and papers and letters. Mostly from the 80s in here. And if you go on back in here, a lot more papers and books. Because I already had a quick look at this. And if you come back here, there's a bunch of encyclopedias. VCR tapes. And yeah, just what you see here. That's the gym. Got an old piano. If you look across over to the other side, you can see the basketball hoop. The hoop's actually right there on the floor. And another piano back here. Must have had a good music program. Here's some old school desks. Right there. Another one right there. And a stove back there. Little kitchen area back here. I guess they were pretty low budget. They had to make their own ribbons, maybe. Instead of ordering them from the trophy shop. The old ghost windmills that serve no purpose anymore, but still spin in the wind. The small town of Beach, North Dakota was still alive, but looked to have portions of it that could definitely slip into oblivion. In Sentinel Butte, North Dakota, I saw an old church that was being ravaged by the winds of time. The nearby grain elevators were suffering the same fate. Anyone know what year this truck might be? I'm gonna guess maybe 1936? It's got a Ford V8 engine. You can't phone home in that booth. Places like this are where prosperity comes to die. Along with old cars. A Plymouth. And a Ford. It's actually in pretty good shape, believe it or not. The upholstery is even good. What looks to be what was once an old greyhound depot, it's now a gas station and a small store. But it's still hanging on, even if only by a thread. Sometimes an old truck can be handy for garden decor. Not far south of Williston, North Dakota, I decided to take a lonely road and see where it took me. And I was glad I did, because I found this surprise. Grain elevators, and what appeared to be the remains of a settlement. My presence had not gone unnoticed, and it became apparent I was being watched. When I stepped inside, this local resident had a wide-eyed, infuriated look. Who who are you? This one seemed to have a look of consternation. Old grain elevators, probably disused for decades, stand like lonely sentinels on the plains of North Dakota. Ow, I just got stung on the face by a bee. I wasn't even doing anything, I was just filming, and he just kept coming at me. And I just thought he was trying to get some sweat, some moisture off me or something, but then he stung me for no reason. I backtracked into eastern Montana for more exploration. I would head east again, but instead of driving through North Dakota, I traveled across Saskatchewan, where I did a video on the dying towns of southern Saskatchewan, so be sure to check that out. I continued across Manitoba, before dropping down into Minnesota. I didn't expect to find a Catholic church out here. Seems like the middle of nowhere. And a cemetery. Southview School was in operation for 82 years before it was abandoned. A declining student population was the major factor in its demise. And old touch-tone phone and phone books. You think of a place like this, and you think of the kids studying, learning, laughing, playing, and now it's all just left to the pigeons. During the school's last year, there was one kindergarten student. Class dismissed. School's out. Forever. Not far from a place known as Vida, Montana, was an abandoned farm or ranch. Vida means life in Spanish. But there wasn't any life here. At least, not of the human kind. Just reminders of their presence. Old abandoned cars wasting away in the fields. And old pickup trucks on a rusted road to vehicle heaven. I have just a real quick peek inside this building. Inside what looks to be a house. That little baby swallow probably wonders what I'm doing in here. I'm just looking at this really old linoleum. Sometimes what might have been lost America, or was bound to be lost America, gets restored and gets a second wind. Such as this place, the Huntley School. It's just a one-room schoolhouse where the newscaster Chet Huntley attended when he was quite young. Huntley later became a nationally known newscaster. That was back in the 60s and 1970s. This is what the school looked like before it was restored. Hey ladies, what do you think of that haircut? And there's always the forgotten gas stations. Sometimes I've come across entire towns that seem to be on the verge of becoming lost America. One such place is Saco, Montana, a little town that looked like it had little opportunity. Broken and boarded windows on the buildings and likely a diminishing population were probable signs portending a future ghost town. Even the grocery store was closed and up for sale. The only business that seemed to be open was the bar. I think it's fair to say that when the post office and bar close, it signals the end for a town. Some of these towns fade a little more year after year. They may leave a legacy of old cars behind. Sometimes artists discover these fading places and give them a little touch of their artwork and a little touch of life. The lonely back roads take one to the lonely places. The lost, the abandoned, the forgotten, and the forlorn. One such place was in Montana on a scarcely traveled dirt road. Coming inside the old house. And wow, it's just like somebody suddenly up and left. They still have clothes hanging. And there's some old magazines and things down here. I just found an old postcard from 1963. It's got a photo there. I don't know what kind of stuffing that is in this couch. And over here you've got the beds with the bedspreads still on them. Probably for 50 or 60 years. An old fruit crate right there. How did I get a grasshopper inside my shirt? Those are everywhere around here. What exactly is this? Does anybody know? At first I thought it was some kind of really weird can opener, but I don't think so. Somebody went to see California in 1947 and they have this big string of postcards, pictures right here that they sent to somebody. The Redwood Highway of California. A lot of stuff from the 1950s and the 1960s left behind in this place. Look at the price on butter. Pork and beans? What is that, eight for a dollar? Look at those dresses still hanging on the wall there. Magazines from 1970. Book magazines. Apparently Jesus isn't going to save this church. Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery. It looks like it could be a Native American cemetery. Sun Girl and behind George Speak Thunder. Some of the names. Let's go inside and have a quick peek. Yeah, this place is pretty far gone. And it's got a gnarly smell to it in here. Like something died. Pretty bad. I wonder how long this thing's been abandoned. Front door. What's down there? Nothing. Probably nothing. Just... rat poop and whatever. Have a quick look though. It's a big furnace. That's about it. I gotta get out of here. Nasty smell of pigeon poop. Should have brought a dust mask. Park Avenue, huh? And a rich cash store? I don't know about that. Zurich, Montana was named after the city in Switzerland. A post office was established in 1907 and the town site was platted in 1913. The population increased in 1923 when Volga Germans moved to the area to farm sugar beets. The town is near where Nez Perce chief Joseph surrendered in 1877. Today, about 22 people remain. Here's a nice surprise here in Zurich Park. You can stay here for the night for free if you don't need hookups. I parked just right over there and it was peaceful. Except for the train on occasion, but it wasn't too bad. It's a mile away. And there's water here if you need it. That's the tiny town of Zurich. For sale. Even the paint that was sprayed to advertise that it's for sale is fading. It does have a post office and a school that was built around 1989. Chinook, Montana is still very much alive, but had places that had slipped into lost America. Like the Chinook Hotel, built somewhere around the early 1900s as a stopover place for rail travelers and homesteaders coming west. Advertising modern cabins along Highway 2 west of Chinook, this abandoned roadside motel is in Loman, which was once a station on the Great Northern Railroad, originally known as Yantic. It was later named for a local rancher and banker. While this old mobile station in Carrick, Minnesota no longer sells gas, it still serves nostalgia. I hope you enjoyed having a glimpse into lost America. Don't forget to give me a like on the video, share, and subscribe. Until next time, this is the Rockhopper. I'll see ya! I leave you with the first In-N-Out burger stand in Baldwin Park, California.