Sanish

Overview

The City of Ambition

Sanish took its name from an Arikara word that Prairie Public translates as "real people" and the townsite marker as "real or friendly people." The MHA Nation writes the Arikara people's own name as Sahnish, and also as Sáhníš. The marker says early Indians called this stretch of the river "Old Crossing" for the great buffalo herds that crossed there. The town was laid out on the east bank of the Missouri, at the end of the Soo Line branch from Max, and it grew fast: a post office in January 1915, a newspaper that April, and 54 businesses within the year. It incorporated in 1917, became a shipping point for grain and livestock, ran a three-day July rodeo for seven years that once drew more than 10,000 spectators, and in 1927 got the Verendrye Bridge across the river. Prairie Public puts the population at 700 that year. The marker says over 450 at its height. New Town's history gives a figure of not quite 500 just before the dam, and a second marker, at Indian Hill near Garrison, cites 507 in the 1950 census.

Sanish sat on the Fort Berthold Reservation, in the valley that Garrison Dam would flood. Residents learned in 1948 and 1949 how big the lake would be, and in December 1949 Sanish property holders proposed a new townsite for the people of Sanish and Van Hook. Most families went to New Town, platted in 1950 a few miles east. A smaller group formed the New Sanish Townsite Company and bought 240 acres near Crow Flies High Butte. The old village was dissolved in April 1953 as the water began to rise, its buildings sold off or moved. New Sanish never grew much: 120 people in 1955, 25 in 1970, and its post office closed in 1980.

The old town lies under Sanish Bay, just north of the highway where it reaches the Four Bears Bridge. When the lake drops, the hills around it become islands and the foundations of the grain elevators break the surface. Remains of the town showed again in the summer of 2026, when the lake fell lower than the operator of the Van Hook resort had seen in 15 years.

Then and now

Sanish from the air, 1938 and 2023

On August 21, 1938, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey plane photographed Sanish from the air. The picture shows the whole town on the flat beside the Missouri: the business blocks along the main street, houses on the side streets, the Soo Line yard along the south edge, and the Verendrye Bridge of 1927 crossing the river at left. The second photograph is from the federal farm survey of August 1, 2023, seventy years after the village was dissolved as the Garrison Dam reservoir began to fill.

The streets are under Sanish Bay. Only the hills to the north and south are still dry land. Most buildings were sold off or moved before the water came, so what is left down there is foundations, the ones that show when Lake Sakakawea drops, as it did in 2005 and again in 2026.

Bridge site, under the lakeSanish Bay over the townsiteSouth shore of the bayLake Sakakawea2023

Verendrye Bridge, 1927Business districtSoo Line railroad yardMissouri River1938

Verendrye Bridge, 1927Business districtSoo Line railroad yardMissouri River1938

Bridge site, under the lakeSanish Bay over the townsiteSouth shore of the bayLake Sakakawea2023

1938: U.S. Department of Agriculture; 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 1.76 by 1.32 km and were lined up on 18 points on the surviving land around the bay (coulees, wooded draws and a section-line road), to within about 2 m. The town itself is under water, with no points on it, so the fit there may be off by a few metres more. Labels: the bridge from the Old Sanish marker, the Soo Line from Prairie Public and its yard from the Bureau of Indian Affairs plan, the rest from what the photographs show.

Timeline

From railhead to Sanish Bay

1. Oct 1914A newspaper reports the new town waiting on its townsite survey. The Old Sanish marker gives 1914 as the founding year.
2. 1915The Soo Line's branch from Max reaches its end here. The post office opens in January, the Sanish Sentinel starts in April, and the first Catholic mass is said in August.
3. 1915–1916By Prairie Public's account the town has 54 businesses within its first year and calls itself the City of Ambition. The General Land Office approves the surveyed plat on October 6, 1916.
4. Mar 20, 1917Sanish incorporates as a village.
5. 1927The Verendrye Bridge over the Missouri is completed. Prairie Public puts the population at its peak of 700 that year; the marker says over 450 lived here at the town's height.
6. Dec 1949Property holders propose a new townsite for Sanish and Van Hook residents, ahead of the Garrison Dam reservoir.
7. Sep 10, 1950Ground is broken for New Town, the combined townsite. Lot sales open on October 27.
8. Apr 1953Sanish is dissolved and officially abandoned as water begins to fill the reservoir. The marker gives April 29; New Town's history says the villages were dissolved as of April 30, with residents given until July 1 to move.
9. 1953–1955Government-owned buildings are sold by bid and moved by February 1954. New Sanish, on 240 acres of high ground near Crow Flies High Butte, gets the post office back that spring and has 120 people by 1955.
10. Oct 1955The new Four Bears Bridge opens, and the Verendrye Bridge at Sanish is taken down.
11. 1970sAn undated listing passes on stories of foundations exposed during droughts.
12. May 1980The New Sanish post office closes. The 1970 census had counted 25 people.
13. 2005With the lake low, Ghosts of North Dakota sees lake-eroded foundations from the overlook on Crow Flies High Butte and photographs them up close.
14. Jul 2026With Lake Sakakawea low, KFYR-TV reports remains of Sanish showing beside the Four Bears Bridge.

What's left

Foundations in the bay

Most of the time there is nothing to see but water. The Old Sanish marker at the Crow Flies High Butte Historic Site, on the bluff above the bay, says the foundations of the Sanish grain elevators can be seen in Sanish Bay during periods of low water, when the prominent hills emerge as islands. An undated listing passes on stories of foundations exposed during droughts in the 1970s. In 2005 Ghosts of North Dakota found the lake low enough to see the remains from the overlook on Crow Flies High Butte: lake-eroded foundations where the town had stood. One of them went down into the valley for close-ups, and they wrote in 2017 that only foundations were left, since most buildings were moved or torn down before the flood. Their photos follow in the photo walk below. On July 15, 2026, KFYR-TV reported pieces of Sanish emerging again, to the right of the Four Bears Bridge as you come from the east. Randy Desarly, whose family farmed about two miles west of the bridge, told the station he had watched it all happen in his lifetime.

The lake has kept falling since. Corps data put it at 1,824.97 feet on September 9, 2026, about 12.5 feet below its normal pool, and forecast about 5 more feet of drop by the end of February 2027. We have no report of what was showing after July.

The maps make the layout plain. The 1916 plat puts the townsite in sections 13 and 14 of township 152 north, range 93 west, with the Missouri on its west side and the Soo Line along its southern edge. The 1967 USGS sheet below prints the words SANISH BAY across those sections, with Crow Flies High Butte on the south shore and the New Town public use area on the north. Today's topo shows the bay between 40th Street NW and 39th Street NW, and present-day Sanish, the relocated village, sits on the hill south of the highway.

• Grain elevator foundations, at low water
• Street and building foundations, at low water
• Old Sanish marker, Crow Flies High Butte Historic Site
• Present-day Sanish, south of ND 23

Photo walk

Down to the foundations in 2005

In 2005, with Lake Sakakawea at what they called a record low, Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp of Ghosts of North Dakota went to Crow Flies High Butte, on the bluff above Sanish Bay. These are their photos, in the order of the visit.

The marker stands at the overlook. From there, the water had pulled back far enough to show lake-eroded foundations on the valley floor where the town had been.

Terry Hinnenkamp hiked down for a closer look. Most buildings had been moved or torn down before the flood, so what he found was concrete: footings and broken foundations in the grass below the bluffs, and a heap of weathered timbers on the slope.

Below the butte, the 1955 Four Bears Bridge still stood, and its replacement was going up beside it.

Across the lake, badlands line the far shore. The low water did not last: Ghosts of North Dakota wrote in 2013 that by the summer of 2012 the foundations were under water again.

Historic maps

Sanish on USGS maps, 1967–1982

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.

19671:24,00019821:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

New Town is three miles east. The routes below were computed from OpenStreetMap and end on the north shore of Sanish Bay, off 40th Street NW, about a quarter mile from the mapped townsite; we haven't checked the last stretch. The Four Bears Bridge on ND 23 is where KFYR described the view in July 2026. The bay and its shore are on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

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

Photos

Sanish in maps and photos

The Sanish townsite plat, approved by the General Land Office on October 6, 1916Lake Sakakawea from Crow Flies High, June 1994Bureau of Indian Affairs plan of the town of Sanish, undatedThe 1955 Four Bears Bridge from Crow Flies High, June 1994A boarded-up concrete-block building in present-day Sanish, October 2008The Van Hook Arm and the Missouri from the Mir space station, July 1996; north is to the right and the bridge at right carries ND 23Corps of Engineers map of Garrison project lands on Fort Berthold, with Sanish beside New Town, 2005Eroded foundations of Sanish showing at low water, seen from Crow Flies High Butte, 2005The 1955 Four Bears Bridge, with the new bridge under construction beside it, from Crow Flies High Butte, 2005

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 Sanish?

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.

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Nearby

Other sites near Sanish

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

• Van Hook8.7 mi E · Mountrail
• Belden13.9 mi NE · Mountrail
• Palermo28.0 mi NE · Mountrail
• Elbowoods32.5 mi SE · McLean
• Schafer32.9 mi SW · McKenzie
• T E Mple36.6 mi NW · Williams
• Tagus37.1 mi NE · Mountrail
• Wheelock39.3 mi NW · Williams

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Sanish": fact sheet fields (climate; remains, with stories of foundations exposed in the 1970s droughts).
2. Wikipedia, "Sanish, North Dakota", retrieved October 2026: the present community, its coordinates and 2,120 ft elevation (GNIS 1031354), the January 1915 post office, the April 29, 1953 abandonment.
3. Prairie Public, "The Two Sanishes", Cathy A. Langemo, May 18, 2022: the Max branch, the name, the 1914 survey report, the 1915 post office, newspaper and mass, 54 businesses, 1917 incorporation, 700 in 1927, the rodeo, the December 1949 proposal, the New Sanish Townsite Company, the 1953 dissolution, New Sanish's post office, population and 1980 closing, foundations at low water.
4. Historical Marker Database, "Old Sanish Townsite", marker erected by Crow Flies High State Recreation Area, entry of July 31, 2024: the 1914 founding, the name, Old Crossing, the 1927 Verendrye Bridge, over 450 people and 54 businesses, the April 29, 1953 abandonment, the move to New Town, elevator foundations in Sanish Bay at low water, the marker's location.
5. Historical Marker Database, "Contemporary Towns", marker erected by Indian Hill Resort, entry of September 22, 2025: Sanish's 507 residents in the 1950 census.
6. KFYR-TV, "Remnants of historic Sanish town uncovered from low Lake Sakakawea levels", Lindsey Miller, July 15, 2026: remains visible to the right of the Four Bears Bridge from the east; Randy Desarly.
7. New Town Area Chamber of Commerce, "About", history excerpted from James McMaster's New Town 1951–1976, read October 2026: not quite 500 people, the 1948–49 news of the lake, New Town's 1950 groundbreaking and lot sales, dissolution as of April 30, 1953, the July 1 deadline, the October 1955 bridge and the Verendrye Bridge's removal.
8. MHA Nation, "History", read October 2026: the Sahnish and Sáhníš spellings of the Arikara name.
9. Valley News Live, September 9, 2026: the lake at 1,824.97 feet, the 1,837.5-foot normal pool and the forecast drop, from Corps data.
10. North Dakota Monitor, Jeff Beach, August 3, 2026: the lake at 1,827.3 feet, ramps out of use, Corps ownership of the land around the lake.
11. Low-water photos: Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, Ghosts of North Dakota, "Sanish Rises from Beneath the Waves", January 5, 2017, of a 2005 visit to Crow Flies High Butte: record-low water, the lake low enough to see lake-eroded foundations from the overlook, close-ups from the valley floor, only foundations left because most buildings were moved or torn down before the flood, and the new Four Bears Bridge under construction beside the old one. Also their "Lost Beneath the Lake: Sanish, North Dakota", November 12, 2013: the foundations under water again by the summer of 2012. Photos public domain (CC0) by the authors' release of August 29, 2022.
12. Aerial photographs: USDA frame BAL-49R-56 of August 21, 1938, from the North Dakota Department of Water Resources aerial photo service, and USDA NAIP imagery of August 1, 2023, from USGS The National Map, aligned by us. Plats, plans and the other photos: Wikimedia Commons. Each image is credited below it. Legal description: the 1916 plat, with section centers from the BLM PLSS service. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The Sanish townsite plat, approved by the General Land Office on October 6, 1916: General Land Office, Department of the Interior (U.S. National Archives), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Lake Sakakawea from Crow Flies High, June 1994: Naawada2016, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Bureau of Indian Affairs plan of the town of Sanish, undated: Bureau of Indian Affairs (U.S. National Archives), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The 1955 Four Bears Bridge from Crow Flies High, June 1994: Naawada2016, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A boarded-up concrete-block building in present-day Sanish, October 2008: Andrew Filer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
• The Van Hook Arm and the Missouri from the Mir space station, July 1996; north is to the right and the bridge at right carries ND 23: NASA, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Corps of Engineers map of Garrison project lands on Fort Berthold, with Sanish beside New Town, 2005: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Eroded foundations of Sanish showing at low water, seen from Crow Flies High Butte, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The 1955 Four Bears Bridge, with the new bridge under construction beside it, from Crow Flies High Butte, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The Old Sanish Townsite marker at the Crow Flies High Butte overlook, 2005. It tells the town's story from its founding in 1914 to its abandonment in April 1953: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The exposed valley floor where Sanish stood, below the butte, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Broken concrete foundations on the exposed townsite, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A concrete foundation on the dry lake bed, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A circular concrete foundation in the grass, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Foundations in the grass below the bluffs, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A heap of weathered timbers on the slope, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The 1955 Four Bears Bridge from the water's edge, 2005, with the new bridge going up behind it at left; the arrow marks the overlook on the butte: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Lake Sakakawea and the badlands on the far shore, from Crow Flies High Butte, 2005: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• 1938 aerial photograph: U.S. Department of Agriculture; 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): Sanish 1967, 1:24,000; Parshall 1982, 1:100,000.