The Ghost Town of Griffin, North Dakota

Comments · 686

• DE

  @devonhestekin7551 · 2 years ago

  I live in Bowman and have driven by and stopped at Griffin 100's of times and am glad someone has stopped by and taken the time to explore and learn the history of a forgotten place like Griffin.

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• FU

  @fubarmodelyard1392 · 2 years ago

  History, no matter how seemingly insignificant, should not be forgotten

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• JE

  @jennieambrose · 2 years ago

  Tom, the RRB McIntosh is 2LT Robroy/Rob Roy Bruce McIntosh, service number O-744731.  It took a bit of digging, but I was able to find him thanks to one Air Force journal from July 1946 and a lot of searching military records/Ancestry. He was actually taken as a POW after baling from his plane near Nuremburg, Germany in March 1944 but escaped 14 months later. He died of cancer in September 1999 in Mississippi. Throughout all of this research I could not find a single tie to Griffin or North Dakota-  I have no idea why his bag would be in that trailer of all places.

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• SU

  @Suntan38 · 2 years ago

  It always makes me both sad and amazed at seeing abandoned homes. Thinking about all the life that happened within its walls and now it's empty and alone

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• MI

  @michaelimbesi2314 · 2 years ago

  This is just a wild guess, but those strange beams with the pegs might be the cross-pieces from old telegraph poles along the railroad. It’s not impossible that when they were no longer needed, somebody collected all of the wood to reuse it.

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• BL

  @BlairAir · 2 years ago

  R.R.B. Macintosh lives another day, fro we have spoken his name. Perhaps for the last time.

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• JO

  @Job43Gold · 2 years ago

  There is something deeply meaningful and melancholic about these videos. We are getting a small window into a world that not even most of our grandparents remember. A world before our time. It is incredible to me how these people lived their lives and how in just a few generation because of outside forces a place can be so nearly and totally forgotten. I was partially raised by my great grandparents and their parents and it takes me back to my youth when I see these ruins and ghost towns because of the stories they told me but I am also reminded how they all passed away from dementia. It feels like America is dying of dementia.

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• TA

  @talesfromanoldmanpatoneal6372 · 2 years ago

  I love these old Ghost Town adventures. Thanks for taking us along.

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• CD

  @cdd4248 · 2 years ago

  This is such a great community - every single comment I have read has contributed something interesting, thoughtful, and contemplative. Everyone is also respectful which is a reflection of the video and its creator.

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• LI

  @LindenTree18 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Fact checks from an original area resident:  1. The Atkinson schoolhouse was moved to Griffin in the early 1980's, when Stanley Soderstrom was trying to build a ghost town at Griffin to attract tourists.  2. The site of Griffin was private property of the Soderstrom family for at least the past century.  Godfrey Soderstrom (the G.W. Soderstrom in the image when talking about the post office), Ernie, Stanley, etc. During all this time, only one family at a time ever lived there; at certain times it was families other than the Soderstroms.  Ernie had a small cattle ranch there, around the 1950s.  At no point in the last century did multiple families live there - never six families.  3. The cellar with no building over it belonged to a dormitory-like building where railroad workers would stay.  4. Most of the buildings at the site were brought in by Stanley Soderstrom, again, to create a ghost town.  There was also a lot of other random "junk" brought in by Stanley over the years, so most of what you would find there would have absolutely nothing to do with the town.  In fact, Stanley's son Stanic (sp?) opened an antique store in Bowman with his wife Carrie in the mid-1980s; not sure if that was related to some of what Stanley brought in or if it was a separate endeavor. 5. The random poles were indeed previous telegraph poles but this was a pole barn that was started by Stanley Soderstrom and never finished.  6. The building south of Highway 12 was the Wilson schoolhouse that Stanley moved in from south of Bowman (I'm not sure the exact site but my dad attended dances in that schoolhouse before it was moved in). The Wilson schoolhouse was brought in sometime after the Atkinson schoolhouse was moved.  The wagon was also moved in by Stanley at some point.  7. The building you call a "henhouse" was also something brought in from outside, but was too large and well-built to have ever been an actual henhouse at its unknown original location.

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• SA

  @sarahcartier3393 · 2 years ago

  Loved the tale of the immigrant who helped those in need during the outbreak. I'm sure he earned his place in paradise. And the tale of the cunning and smart cowboy who fooled the residence into betting on his horse.

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• JO

  @jordanpeterson5140 · 2 years ago (edited)

  My dad agrees with a number of the posts here about the unknown structure being recycled timber. He grew up in rural ND, though moved away 15-20 years ago. I asked him to take a look and he replied:<br><br>&quot;Recycled high line poles and cross arms. &nbsp;Looks like it was started and not finished. &nbsp;We used a lot of old poles and cross arms when we built the one pole barn. &nbsp;The one at the west end of the sheep barn&quot;<br><br>He&apos;s in his early 70s now, so would have been growing up about the time Griffin was in hard decline. I suppose his guess is as good as any.

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