Tagus

Overview

A railroad town and its reputation

Tagus grew up in 1900 on the Great Northern's line across the northern plains, about forty miles west of Minot. It was called Wallace at first and renamed to avoid confusion with Wallace, Idaho. It incorporated in 1908 and never got big: 140 people at the 1940 peak, 14 by 1970. When the last business closed in 1976 the town gave up its charter, and its land became part of Egan Township. Wikipedia notes that Amtrak's Empire Builder passes through without stopping.

What Tagus is known for now has little to do with that history. For years, people from the surrounding area used the near-empty town as a place to party and break things; one resident remembered a Halloween in the 1980s when about 300 young people showed up to trash it, until the sheriff stepped in. In 2001 a fire destroyed the last church. The resident who talked to Ghosts of North Dakota was sure vandals set it, though the writers also note reports that it was electrical. A stone marker stands where it was.

Around the church grew stories of Satanic rituals, hellhounds and a stairway to hell. These are legends. Ghosts of North Dakota calls them rumors and urban legends, we found nothing to support them, and the people who still live in Tagus have borne the vandalism that came with them. Ghosts of North Dakota asked its readers to be respectful: the town, the writers said, had already sacrificed far too much.

Then and now

Tagus from the air, 1958 and 2023

Tagus never had more than 140 people, the count at the 1940 peak. On July 30, 1958, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey plane photographed it with buildings on both sides of Tagus Street, north and south of the Great Northern tracks. The second photograph comes from the federal farm survey of July 7, 2023.

The street, the railroad and the section roads are where they were. By 1970 the census counted 14 people, and the last business closed in 1976. Most of the lots have gone back to grass and trees, with a few farmsteads along the street.

Railroad: Great Northern, now BNSFTagus StreetA few farmsteads among treesGrass and trees, a few buildings2023

Railroad: Great Northern, now BNSFTagus StreetBuildings along the streetBuildings south of the tracks1958

Railroad: Great Northern, now BNSFTagus StreetBuildings along the streetBuildings south of the tracks1958

Railroad: Great Northern, now BNSFTagus StreetA few farmsteads among treesGrass and trees, a few buildings2023

1958: 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 1.6 by 1.2 km and were lined up on 16 road junctions, stretches of railroad and old highway, and a pond rim, to within about 2 m. Labels: the railroad from the 1954 USGS Minot sheet, Tagus Street from today's USGS topo, the rest from what the photographs show.

Timeline

From Wallace to Egan Township

1. 1900The town is founded beside the Great Northern's transcontinental line, about forty miles west of Minot. It is first called Wallace.
2. Early 1900sThe name is changed to Tagus to avoid confusion with Wallace, Idaho. Wikipedia ties it to the Tagus River of Spain and Portugal; the Ghosts of North Dakota writers say the origin is still disputed.
3. 1908Tagus incorporates.
4. 1940The population peaks at 140.
5. 1970The census counts 14 people.
6. 1976The last business closes and the town disincorporates. Its land becomes part of Egan Township.
7. 1980sOne Halloween about 300 young people descend on the town to wreck it, a resident later recalled; the Mountrail County sheriff, tipped off, stops them.
8. 2001Fire destroys the town's last church. The resident who spoke to Ghosts of North Dakota blamed vandals; the same writers note reports that the fire was electrical.
9. 2013An Air Force photographer from Minot finds a small marker where the church stood, in the cemetery on a hill.
10. 2016Ghosts of North Dakota posts its account of a handful of residents and many empty buildings. Reader comments on the post go back to 2009, so the visit may be older.
11. 2023–2025Two visit videos, posted in October 2023 and October 2025, show a few lived-in houses among empty ones and private property, no trespassing signs.

What's left

Houses, potholes and a marker

The May 2009 photograph on this page shows a weathered garage and house under a big cottonwood, with a smaller house behind. A Ghosts of North Dakota post dated 2016 (its comments go back to 2009) describes Tagus as primarily abandoned, with a handful of residents and numerous vacant structures, the same words Wikipedia uses. An Air Force photo from Minot in 2013 shows the cemetery gate between two pines at the top of a hill, and its caption says a small marker now stands where the church burned. An undated listing names the cemetery as the remains. In a video posted in October 2023, visitors found vehicles at several houses, said the town was less abandoned than they remembered, and passed a private property, no trespassing sign. A video posted in October 2025 drives the street past a few houses, at least one lived in, and the visitors say everything is posted. We don't know exactly which buildings still stand.

The 1954 USGS sheet puts Tagus on US 2 and the Great Northern just west of the Mountrail–Ward county line, with Hartland to the northeast on another line and Roach Siding to the east. The 1980 sheet prints the name Tagus just south of the railroad, with US 2 just to the north and National Waterfowl Production Areas on the wetlands to the west. Today's topo names Tagus Street running north from 64th Street NW, with prairie potholes all around, and the aerial view shows farmsteads and shelterbelts along that street, with fields and wetlands on every side.

• Houses and outbuildings, some lived in (videos, 2023 and 2025)
• Cemetery on a hill
• Marker at the site of the church that burned in 2001
• The railroad, where Amtrak passes without stopping

Photo walk

Tagus in photos posted in 2016

Ghosts of North Dakota posted these photographs in March 2016 from a summer visit; the post doesn't say which summer. The writers found a handful of residents and many empty buildings, after decades of vandalism.

Small frame houses stand in the grass, some with boarded windows and one with an old tractor in the yard.

Some of the houses were once substantial: one with a turret, one with a dormer and a bay of windows, a gambrel-roofed house with a fuel tank beside it, and a hip-roofed house with a porch on a rise.

Others are leaning or have fallen in.

Two buildings have false fronts and wide doors for vehicles.

St. Olaf Lutheran, the last church, burned in 2001. A brick frame set with a stone bearing its name and dates stands on a concrete slab.

Historic maps

Tagus on USGS maps, 1954–1980

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.

19541:250,00019801:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Stanley is the nearest town of any size, and Minot is 34 miles east. Both routes follow US 2 and end on the local road into Tagus. They were computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

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

Photos

Tagus in photos and maps

A garage and houses under a cottonwood in Tagus, May 2009A house nearly hidden by a huge cottonwood, photo posted 2016A stone reading "St. Olaf Lutheran 1908–2001", photo posted 2016A roofless concrete ruin and a windmill tower, photo posted 2016Tagus on the 1954 USGS Minot sheet

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 Tagus?

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.

Railroad and road

More railroad, road and fort ghost towns

The nearest in North Dakota.

Guide

Van Hook

47.95, -102.36

Mountrail County, North Dakota

A railroad village of about 400 people that Garrison Dam would have left on a small peninsula. It was dissolved in 1953 and its people moved to New…

Lake resortRailroad and road

Guide

Sanish

47.99, -102.54

Mountrail County, North Dakota

A Soo Line town of 1915 on the east bank of the Missouri, dissolved in 1953 as Garrison Dam's reservoir began to fill. Its foundations lie under…

Under Sanish BayRailroad and road

All 120 railroad, road and fort ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Tagus

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

• Hartland6.4 mi NE · Ward
• Palermo13.6 mi W · Mountrail
• Belden23.7 mi SW · Mountrail
• McKinney Cemetery29.4 mi N · Renville
• Van Hook33.8 mi SW · Mountrail
• Sanish37.1 mi SW · Mountrail
• T E Mple51.6 mi W · Williams
• Russell52.4 mi NE · Bottineau

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Tagus": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time, remains, the summer 2001 fire). It lists the county as Ward.
2. Wikipedia, "Tagus, North Dakota", retrieved October 2026: coordinates (GNIS 1032432), the 1900 founding, Wallace and the renaming, 1908 incorporation, 140 in 1940, 14 in 1970, the 1976 closing and Egan Township, the 2001 church fire, the Empire Builder and Stanley station.
3. Ghosts of North Dakota, "The Legends of Tagus, North Dakota", Troy Larson, dated March 22, 2016 (reader comments from December 2009 on), updated November 29, 2021: residents and vacant structures, vandalism, the 1980s Halloween, the fire and its disputed cause, the stone marker, the legends, and the author's 2010 note that some properties may be posted.
4. Minot Air Force Base, "Tales from Tagus", photo by Senior Airman Stephanie Sauberan, September 6, 2013: the cemetery gate, the church that burned in 2001 and the marker at its site.
5. Travels with Trigger, "Part 18: Following the Empire Builder: Tagus Ghost Town, Lonetree Church & a Nuclear Site!", YouTube, posted October 25, 2025: a drive through Tagus on the public road, a few houses, one with a dog, an empty house, the visitors' remark that everything is posted no trespassing, and a local who sent them on their way.
6. Mike's Mischief, "Ghost Towns of North Dakota Tagus, Hartland, Aurelia, Verendrye, Martin, Wing and Arena", YouTube, posted October 22, 2023: vehicles at lived-in houses and a private property, no trespassing sign.
7. Photos: Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, Ghosts of North Dakota, "The Legends of Tagus, North Dakota", dated March 22, 2016; the post does not say when they were taken. Public domain (CC0) by the authors' release of August 29, 2022.
8. Aerial photographs: U.S. Department of Agriculture frame BAL-5V-160, July 30, 1958, from the North Dakota Department of Water Resources aerial photo archive, and USDA NAIP imagery of July 7, 2023, via USGS The National Map; both public domain. Lined up by us on road junctions, the railroad and the old highway.
9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• A garage and houses under a cottonwood in Tagus, May 2009: afiler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
• A house nearly hidden by a huge cottonwood, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A stone reading "St. Olaf Lutheran 1908–2001", photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A roofless concrete ruin and a windmill tower, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Tagus on the 1954 USGS Minot sheet: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• The road into Tagus past a house and a big cottonwood, with a train on the main line beyond, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• Weathered houses and an old tractor in the grass, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A house with boarded windows and a second house beyond a gravel lot, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A house with a turret, half hidden by trees, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A white frame house with a dormer and a bay of windows, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A gambrel-roofed house with a boarded door and a fuel tank against its side, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A hip-roofed house with a sagging porch on a grassy rise, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A frame house leaning into the trees, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A collapsed frame house, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A false-front building with a garage door, in black and white, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• A long low house and a false-front building with a broken garage door under a cottonwood, in sepia, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• The St. Olaf Lutheran marker: a brick frame set with the "1908–2001" stone, on a concrete slab, photo posted 2016: Ghosts of North Dakota, source, CC0 1.0
• 1958 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): Minot 1954, 1:250,000; Minot 1980, 1:100,000.