Some friends, Mark and Julie, told us about a school project they helped one of the kids with involving North Dakota's "Ghost Towns."  It sounded intriguing.  I called Firemann to see if he would accompany me on a tour of some lesser-known haunts in central North Dakota.  He was game.

We started by driving north of Bismarck 25 miles to Wilton.  Not a "Ghost Town" by any stretch, Wilton, population 807, recently added this Centennial Park to the city landscape.

Another 30 miles north of Wilton is Brush Lake, just on the north side of Mercer, ND, population 86.  Brush Lake is a misnomer as there are several small lakes in one area.  From the age of some of the cabins, we estimated that the resort has been in existence for 100 years or so.

Our next stop was beautiful, downtown Kief, population 13.  Wikipedia is a font of knowledge and informed me the median income in Kief is $6,875.

This church in Kief no longer is in use.  From Kief we headed further north in McHenry County.

Want to buy a church? Check out this model in Balfour, population 20.

The Community Hall probably hosted many a dance in its day.

Across the street from the Community Hall is the once-stately Bank of Balfour.

The locals still worship at this Lutheran Church.

The local school was purchased by a contractor and used for storage, thus the "new" garage entrance in the lower right hand corner of the building.  Even that use has been abandoned now.

From Balfour, we drove east to Drake.