Elbowoods

Overview

The agency town in the bend of the river

Elbowoods took its name from the wooded bottomland in a bend of the Missouri River where it stood. The MHA Nation's own history says that by 1888 Like-a-Fishhook Village was practically deserted and Elbowoods became the main community of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. The agency for the Fort Berthold Reservation was built there from 1889 (a marker at Indian Hill, east of the townsite, says the old agency office burned in March 1890 and the new one was in place by 1892), and the town grew to hold the agency offices, a school, a hospital, Catholic and Congregational mission churches and, from 1893, a post office. Smaller communities such as Lucky Mound, Nishu and Red Butte lay around it. Buffalo's Fire, reporting in 2025 on an exhibit built from elders' memories, describes a town that fed itself: almost every household had a garden in the river soil, families raised their own livestock, and coal came from a small dig at the edge of town. In 1934 the first Four Bears Bridge across the Missouri opened there.

Congress authorized Garrison Dam in 1944. The tribes fought it. The Fort Berthold Indian Defense Association published a booklet in 1946 to rally opposition, and the papers of longtime tribal chairman Martin Cross, now at the State Historical Society, record the fight. The Society's history for schools puts the outcome plainly: the tribes tried to get the dam built somewhere else so their homes could be saved, and they did not win. The last class graduated from Elbowoods High School in 1953. The post office closed in the spring of 1954 as the water rose, and families moved what buildings and graves they could. By 1954 the school was under 50 feet of water.

About 80 percent of the MHA people had to move, and about 155,000 acres of good farmland went under the lake. Families were sent from fertile bottomland to poorer uplands and scattered across isolated tracts, and the MHA Nation's history says compensation fell far below the true value of what was lost. The agency moved to New Town, built for the people of Elbowoods, Sanish and Van Hook, and the State Historical Society names Mandaree, Twin Buttes and White Shield among the new towns built on the reservation. In 2003 tribal chairman Tex Hall was still asking the Senate to replace the Elbowoods hospital.

Then and now

Elbowoods from the air, 1951 and 2023

Elbowoods stood on wooded bottomland in a bend of the Missouri River. On September 18, 1951, an aerial survey of the river photographed the town with its streets and buildings north of the river, a road running south-west to a bridge across the Missouri, and farm fields on the bottomland and the uplands. The first Four Bears Bridge had opened at Elbowoods in 1934.

Water started to fill the Garrison Dam reservoir in the spring of 1953. The post office closed in the spring of 1954 as the water rose, and by 1954 the school was under 50 feet of water. In the federal farm survey of July 2, 2023, Lake Sakakawea covers the whole valley here; the nearest land is the north shore at top right. The two shades of water are two survey strips taken in different light.

Elbowoods townsite, under the lakeLake SakakaweaBridge site, under the lakeNorth shore today2023

ElbowoodsMissouri RiverBridge across the MissouriFields on the upland1951

ElbowoodsMissouri RiverBridge across the MissouriFields on the upland1951

Elbowoods townsite, under the lakeLake SakakaweaBridge site, under the lakeNorth shore today2023

1951: Aerial survey of the Missouri River, agency not named in the record; scan by the North Dakota Department of Water Resources, source, Public domain. 2023: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain. Both photographs cover the same 6.4 by 4.8 km. The 1951 photograph was fitted to the 2023 survey with a camera model and USGS elevation data on 790 matched points on the land around the lake (RMS 4.6 m, about 1 pixel at this scale); nothing of the town survives to check against, so its position rests on the model, to within about 40 m. Labels: the town, the river and the lake from the sources on this page, the rest from what the photographs show.

Timeline

From agency town to lake bottom

1. 1888–1892The MHA Nation's history says Like-a-Fishhook Village was practically deserted by 1888 and Elbowoods became the main community of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. Prairie Public dates the start of the townsite, as the agency headquarters, to 1889. A marker at Indian Hill says the old agency office burned in March 1890 and the new headquarters at Elbowoods was in place by 1892.
2. 1893The Elbowoods post office opens.
3. 1934The first Four Bears Bridge over the Missouri opens at Elbowoods.
4. 1942The Elbowoods Warriors lose the Class B state basketball final to Lakota, 39 to 38. The title is awarded to Elbowoods that October.
5. 1944Congress authorizes the Garrison Dam and Reservoir Project.
6. 1946The Fort Berthold Indian Defense Association publishes a booklet to rally opposition to the dam.
7. 1949Congress appropriates $7.5 million. The MHA Nation's history records disagreement over how it would be shared out.
8. Nov 13, 1950Land appraisers arrive at Fort Berthold and ask residents to accept or reject the 1948 valuations.
9. Feb 1952The Fort Berthold Agency announces it will move its headquarters to New Town.
10. 1953The last class graduates from Elbowoods High School. Water starts to fill the reservoir that spring.
11. Spring 1954The post office closes as the water rises. Families move buildings and even cemeteries. By 1954 the school is under 50 feet of water.
12. Fall 1954The MHA Nation's history records the relocation as complete. The agency is now at New Town.
13. 2002The 1942 state title, voided in 1943, is awarded to Elbowoods again.
14. 2003MHA Nation chairman Tex Hall asks the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to replace the Elbowoods hospital lost to the flood.
15. Apr 22, 2019The Congregational church built at Elbowoods in 1926, moved to high ground ahead of the flood, burns down. In June a federal grand jury charges a man with arson.
16. 2025The MHA Interpretive Center in New Town opens an exhibit on life in Elbowoods before the flood.

1944–1954

What the dam took

Garrison Dam was planned for flood control, irrigation and power. On Fort Berthold its reservoir took the best land on the reservation: farms, homes, schools, a hospital, businesses, churches, parks, cemeteries, roads and whole towns, in the words of the State Historical Society's history. Prairie Public lists Red Butte, Lucky Mound, Nishu, Beaver Creek, Independence, Shell Creek and Charging Eagle among the communities lost with Elbowoods.

The MHA Nation's history sets out how it was done. Congress appropriated $7.5 million in 1949. Appraisers came to Fort Berthold on November 13, 1950, and asked residents to accept or reject land values set in 1948. A relocation plan moved families from Class I and II bottomland to land graded Class III to VI. Roads and schools were built, churches and cemeteries were moved, and the agency went to New Town. Buffalo's Fire reported in 2025 that some residents got only a day's notice, and that one family left with its laundry still drying outside.

"Communities, cemeteries, and farmland were lost forever." MHA Nation history

Families were scattered across isolated tracts, and many moved away altogether. The MHA Nation's history ties the dam to lasting harm: lost livelihoods in farming and ranching, unemployment, and disrupted ways of life.

1942–2002

The Warriors' title

The Elbowoods Warriors reached the 1942 Class B state basketball final and lost to the Lakota Raiders, 39 to 38, on a point scored in the last minute. That October the title was awarded to Elbowoods after it came out that Lakota had played a 20-year-old. The state association voided the championship in November 1943, and in 2002 it was awarded to Elbowoods again, long after the school itself had gone under the lake. PBS told the story in a 2019 documentary, Basketball, Water and the Lost City of Elbowoods.

What's left

Under the water

Nothing of Elbowoods stands above the water. The modern USGS topo and aerial imagery at the mapped point show only open lake. The 1982 USGS sheet, in the historic maps below, names Elbowoods Bay on the north shore just above the townsite, with the McLean and Mercer county line running down the old river channel to the south. The Watford City sheet is dated 1953 (aerial photographs of 1951 and 1952), but the copy shown is its 1967 limited revision, so it already draws the full lake and names it Lake Sakakawea. It marks the Indian Service Headquarters for the southern segment of the reservation, south of the water. We found no USGS sheet in the collection that shows the town before the flood.

Lake Sakakawea has been low in 2026, about 12 feet below average in early August. In July, falling water uncovered remains of Sanish, upstream near New Town. We found no similar report for Elbowoods, and the figures don't suggest one: even at 1,824.97 feet in September, the lake stood well above the 1,740 feet Wikipedia gives for the townsite. Part of the town's material history survives elsewhere. Prairie Public reports that the center span of the 1934 bridge was floated upriver and reused in the second Four Bears Bridge at New Town, and the MHA Nation's Interpretive Center in New Town tells the town's story. Its 2025 exhibit on Elbowoods was due to run until September 2026, so ask the center what is showing now.

The Congregational church, built at Elbowoods in 1926, was moved in 1953 with its cemetery to high ground about eight miles north-northeast, just off ND 1804. Ghosts of North Dakota photographed it on an unplanned stop in 2014 (the photos below). They wrote in January 2021 that their visit was taken as an unwelcome intrusion and that a fence and no-trespassing signs went up soon after. The church burned down on April 22, 2019, the Bismarck Tribune reported, and that June a federal grand jury charged a man with setting the fire. We found no report on the site since.

• Townsite under Lake Sakakawea
• Elbowoods Bay, named on USGS maps
• The town's story at the MHA Interpretive Center, New Town
• Site of the moved Congregational church (burned in 2019) and its cemetery, fenced and posted

Photo walk

What was carried out of Elbowoods, July 2014

Elbowoods itself can't be photographed now. What Ghosts of North Dakota found on a trip in July 2014 were things moved up out of the valley ahead of the water: a family homestead and the Congregational church with its cemetery. These photos are theirs, from that trip.

The blog says the Wells homestead house was moved out of the Elbowoods area before the Garrison Dam flooding. In 2014 it stood empty and remote on open prairie, reached on foot through thigh-deep grass. The bloggers kept its location private, and so do we.

Members of the family who wrote to the blog remembered that the house had no electricity or running water.

Not far from the homestead stood the church. A plaque on its corner gives its life in three dates: organized 1899, erected 1926, relocated 1953. It was moved about eight miles north-northeast, to high ground out of reach of the reservoir. The original photos are dated July 20, 2014.

Inside, in 2014, ceiling plaster lay across the floorboards, and the tall windows lit an empty hall with an arched recess at the far end.

The cemetery came with the church. The blog thought some of its graves had been moved too, though it lacked full records. Pines stand among the markers on the open hilltop.

A concrete obelisk in the middle of the cemetery is the Hall family monument, with a plaque for Charles L. Hall (1847–1940). Plaques nearby remember Emma Calhoun Hall (1850–1881), a missionary, and Susan Webb Hall (1852–1922), whose name the church bore.

We have left the names on the other graves off this page. Ghosts of North Dakota later wrote that their visit was taken as an unwelcome intrusion, and the grounds were fenced and posted against trespassing soon after. The church burned down in April 2019. These photos are a record of what was carried out of the valley, not an invitation to go.

Historic maps

Elbowoods on USGS maps, 1953–1982

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19531:250,00019821:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

There is no townsite to drive to. Both routes below were computed from OpenStreetMap and end where County Highway 8 stops above the lake, about 1.7 miles north of the mapped townsite. We have no source on access along this shore, which is Fort Berthold Reservation land; the North Dakota Monitor reports that the Corps of Engineers owns the land around the lake. For the history, go to New Town and the MHA Interpretive Center instead.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Elbowoods in photos and maps

Corps of Engineers map of Garrison project lands within the Fort Berthold Reservation, 2005An Elbowoods 4-H display of canned and fresh produce, 1942The Fort Berthold Indian Agency office under snow, 1952Bureau of Indian Affairs map of the reservation and Indian homes, 1912The second Four Bears Bridge from Crow Flies High, June 1994The Congregational church built at Elbowoods in 1926 and moved to high ground in 1953, in 2014. It burned down in April 2019The church's bell tower and front steps in 2014, five years before the fireInside the church, 2014, five years before the fireA track through the church's cemetery, 2014The Wells homestead seen far across the grass, with an outbuilding and a windmill tower, July 2014The cemetery from the church, July 2014The Wells house, relocated because of the dam, July 2014

Great thanks go out to Ghosts of North Dakota, Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, who released their photographs into the public domain so that their work on North Dakota's abandoned places can live on.

Visitor reports

Been to Elbowoods?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

Nearby

Other sites near Elbowoods

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our North Dakota index.

• Van Hook26.2 mi N · Mountrail
• Sanish32.5 mi NW · Mountrail
• Belden39.7 mi N · Mountrail
• Schafer49.9 mi W · McKenzie
• Palermo51.6 mi N · Mountrail
• Tagus53.1 mi N · Mountrail
• Hartland57.9 mi N · Ward
• Ukraina58.0 mi SW · Billings

Sources

Sources and credits

1. MHA Nation, "History", read October 2026: Elbowoods as the main community after 1888, the agency, school and hospital, Lucky Mound, Nishu and Red Butte, the $7.5 million of 1949, the November 13, 1950 appraisals, land classes, relocation complete by fall 1954, the bridge moved to New Town, compensation below true value and the lasting harm.
2. Prairie Public, "The Story of Elbowoods", Jack Dura, June 11, 2022: the name, 1889, the post office of 1893 and its closing in spring 1954, moved buildings and cemeteries, the 1934 Four Bears Bridge and its reused center span, the other flooded communities, New Town.
3. State Historical Society of North Dakota, North Dakota Studies, "Fort Berthold Reservation", read October 2026: the tribes' failed effort to move the dam, about 155,000 acres flooded, what was destroyed, the last class of 1953, the school under 50 feet of water by 1954, New Town.
4. Buffalo's Fire, "Lost in the flood: MHA Interpretive Center honors Elbowoods in new exhibit", Gabrielle Nelson, August 31, 2025: gardens, livestock and coal, about 80 percent of the MHA people relocated, a day's notice, the exhibit and its run to September 2026.
5. State Historical Society of North Dakota, "Documenting the MHA Nation: Marilyn Cross Hudson Collection Opens to the Public", Emily Kubischta, August 29, 2022: the 1946 Fort Berthold Indian Defense Association booklet and Martin Cross.
6. New Town Area Chamber of Commerce, "About", history excerpted from James McMaster's New Town 1951–1976, read October 2026: the 1944 authorization, the mission churches, the agency's February 1952 announcement.
7. National Library of Medicine, Native Voices timeline, 2003: Tex Hall's request to replace the Elbowoods hospital and the 1949 commitment to replace lost infrastructure.
8. Wikipedia, "Elbowoods, North Dakota", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, the 1,740 ft elevation, the 1942 final, the 1943 voiding and 2002 award, the PBS documentary.
9. Valley News Live, September 9, 2026: Lake Sakakawea at 1,824.97 feet, about 12.5 feet below the 1,837.5-foot normal pool, and the forecast drop of about 5 feet by February 2027, from Corps data.
10. North Dakota Monitor, Jeff Beach, August 3, 2026: the lake at 1,827.3 feet, about 12 feet below average, on August 2; the Corps owns the land around the lake; most access sites are leased to parks, Game and Fish and tribal governments.
11. Historical Marker Database, "Contemporary Towns", marker erected by Indian Hill Resort, entry of September 22, 2025: the agency office fire of March 1890, the Elbowoods headquarters by 1892, and about 175 people at the town's abandonment in April 1954.
12. Historical Marker Database, "Old Sanish Townsite", marker erected by Crow Flies High State Recreation Area, entry of July 31, 2024: water began to fill the reservoir in April 1953; residents of Elbowoods, Sanish and Van Hook moved to New Town.
13. Church photos: Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, Ghosts of North Dakota, "Elbowoods Memorial Congregational Church", March 27, 2016, of a 2014 visit: the church built at Elbowoods in 1926 and moved in 1953 to high ground nearly eight miles north-northeast, off ND 1804, and its cemetery; a fence put up and visitors unwelcome after the visit; an update that the church was reportedly burned by an arsonist in 2019. Photos public domain (CC0) by the authors' release of August 29, 2022.
14. Homestead photos: Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, Ghosts of North Dakota, "Wells Homestead, Rural Elbowoods", August 1, 2014, of a July 2014 trip: a house moved out of the Elbowoods area before the Garrison Dam flooding, not far from the church; empty and remote, reached on foot through thigh-deep grass; location withheld; family members' recollection that it had no electricity or running water. Full-resolution church originals of July 20, 2014 (date from the camera EXIF): Ghosts of North Dakota public-domain gallery, posted September 15, 2022. The church post (above) and the plaques in its photos also give the church organized in 1899, the Hall family monument with plaques for Charles L. Hall (1847–1940), Emma Calhoun Hall (1850–1881) and Susan Webb Hall (1852–1922), and the authors' uncertainty about which graves were moved.
15. Troy Larson, Ghosts of North Dakota, "8 More Lost North Dakota Places", January 5, 2021: the unplanned stop at the church in 2014, the fence and no-trespassing signs put up soon after, and the church burned to the ground by an arsonist in 2019.
16. Blair Emerson, Bismarck Tribune, "‘A piece of our history gone’: Burned church remembered for tragic history after Garrison Dam flooding", via the Grand Forks Herald, April 29, 2019: Memorial Congregational Church, about 10 miles northwest of White Shield in McLean County, burned down on April 22, 2019; built in 1926 at Elbowoods and moved with its cemetery.
17. Valley News Live, "Federal charges filed in destruction of historic Fort Berthold church", June 8, 2019: a grand jury charge of setting fire to the Elbowoods Memorial Congregational Church on the morning of April 22.
18. Archival photos and maps: Wikimedia Commons; church photos: Ghosts of North Dakota, as above. Each is credited below it. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Corps of Engineers map of Garrison project lands within the Fort Berthold Reservation, 2005: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• An Elbowoods 4-H display of canned and fresh produce, 1942: Unknown photographer (U.S. National Archives), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The Fort Berthold Indian Agency office under snow, 1952: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fort Berthold Agency (U.S. National Archives), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Bureau of Indian Affairs map of the reservation and Indian homes, 1912: Bureau of Indian Affairs; prepared by William R. Rosenkrans (U.S. National Archives), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The second Four Bears Bridge from Crow Flies High, June 1994: Naawada2016, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The Congregational church built at Elbowoods in 1926 and moved to high ground in 1953, in 2014. It burned down in April 2019: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The church's bell tower and front steps in 2014, five years before the fire: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Inside the church, 2014, five years before the fire: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A track through the church's cemetery, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The Wells homestead seen far across the grass, with an outbuilding and a windmill tower, July 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The cemetery from the church, July 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The Wells house, relocated because of the dam, July 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The Wells homestead house on the prairie, July 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Concrete steps up to the front door of the Wells house, July 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A weathered board outbuilding at the homestead, July 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Inside the Wells house: an armchair among fallen plaster, July 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The Memorial Congregational Church on its hilltop, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The corner plaque: Memorial Congregational Church, organized 1899, erected 1926, relocated 1953. July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The church hall, its ceiling plaster on the floor, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Along the windows inside the church, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The church's bell tower, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The church from behind, with the cemetery trees beyond, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The cemetery among pines on the hilltop, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The monument to Charles L. Hall, 1847–1940, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The plaque for Susan Webb Hall, 1852–1922, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The plaque in memory of Emma Calhoun Hall, 1850–1881, July 20, 2014: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• 1951 aerial photograph: Aerial survey of the Missouri River, agency not named in the record; scan by the North Dakota Department of Water Resources, source, Public domain
• 2023 aerial photograph: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Watford City 1953, 1:250,000; Parshall 1982, 1:100,000.