Nanson

Overview

Named for an explorer

Nanson was laid out in 1905 in the farm country of southern Rolette County, about eight miles south and two miles east of Rolette. It took its name from Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer and scientist. A post office opened the same year, and the 1953 USGS map shows the town on a railroad line through Wolford. A descendant of its homesteaders recalls that his grandfather ran the elevator and that the school and general store were later moved to the Hawk Museum near Wolford.

By the 1960s only a handful of people were left. The post office closed in 1982, and by the 1990s the town was completely abandoned.

Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp of Ghosts of North Dakota came in May 2012 and again at Easter 2017. Both times they found four houses and a few garages and outbuildings standing in a line on the west side of the road, with no power or phone lines and no one living there. Five years made them a little worse. Their photographs are the record of what is left.

Video

Walking the road through Nanson in spring

Two friends walk the overgrown road through Nanson on a sunny spring day, with no telephone poles in sight. The video shows the brick-pattern-sided house and its fallen garage, the porch-fronted house standing alone in the grass, a blue roof buried in brush, and a house lying collapsed among the trees. Near it are a recent fire pit and beer cans, and the creator mentions ticks. The narration says the land still belongs to the state or is listed as a town; we found no source on who owns it. The on-screen figures (133 people in 1930, abandoned about 1981) are not in our sources, which date the abandonment to the 1990s. One of the pair went into a building off camera; don't enter the collapsing houses.

Play “Exploring an Abandoned Town!” from YouTube

Timeline

1905 to population zero

1. 1904Homesteaders are taking up land around the future townsite, by a descendant's account.
2. 1905Nanson is laid out and its post office opens. It is named for the Norwegian explorer and scientist Fridtjof Nansen.
3. 1953The USGS Devils Lake sheet shows Nanson on a railroad line through Wolford.
4. 1960sOnly a handful of residents are left.
5. 1982The post office closes.
6. 1990sNanson is completely abandoned.
7. May 12, 2012Ghosts of North Dakota finds four houses and a few garages and sheds in a line on the west side of the road, with no power or phone lines.
8. Apr 15, 2017A return visit finds the same houses a little worse, one crumbling into its flooded basement, and open basements, wells and cisterns everywhere.
9. May 2025A visit video shows the houses still standing in the grass, one lying collapsed among the trees.

What's left

A line of houses

Four houses, a few garages and sheds, scattered foundations and a lot of holes. In 2017 the house at the north end was crumbling into its flooded basement, and Ghosts of North Dakota warned of open basements, wells and cisterns everywhere in the grass. The store and school are not here: a descendant of the town's homesteaders says both went to the Hawk Museum near Wolford.

The historic maps show the change. The 1953 Devils Lake sheet marks Nanson on a railroad between Wolford and Rolette; the 1971 Nanson sheet shows a few buildings at a crossroads beside the line; and by the 1985 Rock Lake sheet the line is drawn dashed past an almost empty corner.

• Four empty houses
• Garages, sheds and a green shed at the north end
• Foundations, cellar holes, wells and cisterns
• Old hand pump

Photo walk

Nanson in 2012 and 2017

Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp photographed Nanson on May 12, 2012, in full spring green, and came back on April 15, 2017, before the grass had turned. These are their pictures from the full-size originals they released, walking the line of houses from the first one you come to.

May 12, 2012. Four houses and a few garages and outbuildings stood in a line on the west side of the road, with no power or phone lines. The grass was green and full of ticks.

At the north end one house was collapsing, and only a small green shed was left of another home.

April 15, 2017. Nanson was a true ghost town, with no one living there. The same few houses stood, a little worse for five more winters.

The house at the north end was crumbling into its flooded basement.

Open basements, wells and cisterns were hidden everywhere in the grass, along with the town's leftovers.

Historic maps

Nanson on USGS maps, 1953–1985

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.

19531:250,00019711:24,00019851:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Rugby is the closest city with services, about 47 minutes away by ND 3, ND 17 and section roads. From Minot the route runs east on US 2 to Rugby and follows the same roads.

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

Photos

Nanson in photos

A house and an outbuilding in the spring grass, May 12, 2012Two rusted tanks in the grass, May 12, 2012

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 Nanson?

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.

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Nearby

Other sites near Nanson

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

• Thorne13.4 mi NW · Rolette
• Omemee27.8 mi W · Bottineau
• Gardena33.9 mi W · Bottineau
• Churchs Ferry34.1 mi SE · Ramsey
• Orrin37.8 mi SW · Pierce
• Carbury41.2 mi NW · Bottineau
• Josephine48.8 mi SE · Benson
• Russell51.7 mi W · Bottineau

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Nanson": county, road, climate, best time, location south and east of Rolette, the 1904 homestead, the elevator, the school and store at the Hawk Museum, foundations.
2. Wikipedia, "Nanson, North Dakota", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, the 1905 layout and name, the 1905 to 1982 post office, the 1960s and the 1990s abandonment.
3. Ghosts of North Dakota, "20 True Ghost Towns: Population Zero", October 30, 2015: Nanson with no residents.
4. Ghosts of North Dakota, "Nanson: A North Dakota Ghost Town", January 25, 2016, on the May 2012 visit: the four houses in a line, no power or phone lines, ticks, the store at the Hawk Museum.
5. Ghosts of North Dakota, "Revisiting Nanson: The Ghost Town in Waving Country", May 1, 2017, on the April 15, 2017 visit: zero residents, the houses a little worse, the north-end house and the open holes.
6. Photos: Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, Ghosts of North Dakota: full-size originals of May 12, 2012 and April 15, 2017 from their public-domain Nanson gallery (posted December 9, 2022), and one photo from the 2017 post; public domain (CC0) by the authors' release of August 29, 2022.
7. Maverick Outdoors, "Exploring an Abandoned Town!", YouTube, posted May 25, 2025: the video on this page; the houses still standing, the collapsed north-end house, the fire pit, the overgrown road.
8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• A house and an outbuilding in the spring grass, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Two rusted tanks in the grass, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Nanson's houses across an open field, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The house with siding pressed to look like brick, its roof collapsing, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The same house among green trees, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Inside it: a toppled stove and a cabinet among the debris, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Inside a wooden garage, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A house with an enclosed porch under a big tree, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A blue roof behind brush and trees, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A house collapsing on its foundation, its gable sagging, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A collapsing house in tall grass, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The leaning wall of a collapsing house, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A small green shed, all that is left of a home at the north end, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A slough, with a collapsed house beyond, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The concrete-block foundation of a collapsed building, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• An old basement filled with bottles and cans under fallen branches, May 12, 2012: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The first house you come to, among bare trees, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The brick-pattern-sided house from the side, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The same room as in 2012, the stove and cabinet still there under fallen boards, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A gutted room with lilac walls, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A yellow-painted hallway and an old refrigerator, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The porch front of 2012, the tree now bare, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Looking out through the porch windows to the prairie, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A house and garage in the middle of the townsite, behind a sagging wire fence, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A weathered garage with a sagging roof, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• An outbuilding glimpsed through a grove of bare trees, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The blue roof barely showing above the brush, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The same collapsing house at the north end, sinking further into its basement, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Inside it: a stove among broken boards, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The collapsed floor of the north-end house, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• An open hole in the grass, one of the many hidden basements and cisterns, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• An old hand pump in the brush, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• An old television set in the grass, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• An old appliance among fallen branches, April 15, 2017: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Devils Lake 1953, 1:250,000; Nanson 1971, 1:24,000; Rock Lake 1985, 1:100,000.