Ellendale Abandoned Farmstead | ND Drift Prairie

September 30, 2012 Dan Traun 1 Comment

The last farmstead of the day was near Ellendale and the Tatanka Wind Farm. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The light cast out by the setting sun was fantastic. All the dust in the air for harvesting corn added a nice effect across the landscape.

This place had some real character; more so around the grounds than in the tiny house. The tulip wall paper that covered the pink walls wasn’t much of an improvement 🙂 The little Allis Chalmers in between the house and a shed made for an interesting subject to photography as well. This was a great spot to finish out our day.

Abandoned, Destination, Photography

Merricout Abandoned Farmstead | ND Drift Prairie

September 30, 2012 Dan Traun

After we explored the Forbes area we headed North towards Merricourt. This was another location that we found through the GhostsOfNorthDakota.com website. Merricourt was completely uninhabited. The only sign of life was the local farmer harvesting corn on the North side of town. There were several buildings and homes in town – all of which we would have loved to shoot inside and out, if not for the NO TRESPASSING signs everywhere :-/ I can’t blame the owners though, I wouldn’t want my property vandalized. Seeing very little opportunity here, we moved on.

It wasn’t long until we found another abandoned farmstead West of town. This farmstead had some really amazing texture in the flaky, pealing paint of the two-story house. The crown moldings and trim where in surprisingly great condition. This little gem is in its prime. A finite moment; a balance between what was and the inevitable decay to come.

Abandoned, Destination, Photography

Forbes Abandoned Farmstead | ND Drift Prairie

September 29, 2012 Dan Traun

This abandoned farmstead was located just North of Forbes. This property has several out building along with a house that was partially hidden by trees. I did see this on the way to Forbes. Cyndie was too busy surveying the gazetteer to notice this nugget of abandonment. I wanted to stop, but figured we would on the way back through – our first goal was to get to the school.

It was already 1:00 p.m. when we got to the abandoned school in Forbes. I wanted to burn some of the harsh mid-day light there and hope for a tamer glow later on at the farm and hopefully other sites. We spent some time in Forbes shooting the sites. There were several other locations of interest. It was 3:45 p.m. by the time we returned to the farmstead and there was still plenty of bright light. It was a gorgeous day; sadly we spent a fair chuck of the day in the car getting here. It was all good though as we were in the middle of an abandoned haven of sorts.

Abandoned, Destination, Photography

Forbes Abandoned School | ND Drift Prairie

September 29, 2012 Dan Traun

I’ve been following Ghosts of North Dakota for a while now and have been eyeing up various locations to photograph. This site has no shortages, but only seeming endless supply of possible places to shoot. Cyndie and I had an opportunity recently to go to North Dakota and search for abandoned structures to shoot. We used this site to pick out a few areas of interest to begin. We figured that we would wander around from town to town. We found numerous abandoned homes and farmsteads outside of the various town listed on this site.

Our first stop was Forbes, ND. This teeny tiny town is situated right on the border of North and South Dakota in Dickey County. The abandoned school there looked very interesting. A bright sunny afternoon provided for some great light to photograph this wonderful mess of an abandoned school. At some point, someone must have played some paint ball in the school or just walked around shooting paint balls everywhere. It added a titch of interesting color to an otherwise fairly drab interior.

Destination, Photography

Eau Claire County Amish | WI Driftless Area

September 3, 2012 Dan Traun

It was a beautiful day for a “Sunday Drive.” Our sights were set on Amish country; this time in Wisconsin.

Augusta is two hours nearly straight East of St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. Amish farmsteads dot the landscape from Augusta in the North to Osseo to the Southwest and Fairchild to the Southeast. This Amish settlement was founded in 1978 and consists of six church districts. Seventy-five percent of Wisconsin’s forty Amish communities are one or two church district.

Augusta is home to the Yoder family. Wisconsin vs. Yoder was particularly significant in regards to Amish educations. The local conflict reached the U.S. Supreme Court which resulted in a landmark 1972 decision which granted Amish and other religious groups the right to remove their children from school upon finishing the eighth grade.

It wasn’t much of a mystery as to where the Amish might be. All you have to do is look for buggy tracks or horse poo on the road. I love driving through Amish country. Their farms are very well-kept along with everything else, including beautiful vegetable and flower gardens. They are a simple and hard-working people. For the most part, they just want to be left alone to live their way.

This settlement had several sawmills and timber processing and furniture making appeared to be their Forté. Their sawmills were not the only thing visible on this rural landscape. There was something else here; something I was not aware of – something that many communities, including the Amish would rather not see at all. Something that is significantly impacting their way of life already. More on that later…