610 - The Oldest Building in Bismarck

Beginning in the 1860s, the U.S. Army established infantry posts to protect work crews who were constructing the Northern Pacific Railway, a railroad that stretched from Minnesota to Washington, stirring financial and territorial controversy while promising economic growth and new developments and beckoning adventurers west. You stand at the site of one such infantry post, Camp Hancock, originally called Camp Greeley, home to the oldest building in Bismarck, ND.

The yellow building to your (right, left, etc.) began as a log structure designated as the living quarters for Dr. Benjamin Slaughter, the post’s surgeon, and his wife, Linda Slaughter, a feminist, political activist, and author. On Saturday evenings, Linda invited people to the house to read Shakespeare’s plays out loud while snacking on cold roast venison and buttered bread. You can still catch a glimpse of the logs that were the framework for the Slaughter’s home in a glass window to the left of the entryway.

In 1877, when the last remaining troops withdrew from Camp Hancock, the building was decommissioned. Technical specialists remained at the site transmitting military messages and recording weather patterns. As a result, the building was later repurposed, painted yellow with white trim, and employed as a U.S. Weather Bureau Station from 1894-1940. According to the State Historical Society of North Dakota, the data collected was “used in forecasting weather patterns that affect decisions about everything from crop choices to airplane travel routes to water levels in reservoirs.”

The United States Soil Conservation Service occupied the building from 1940-1949, when a fire caused great damage to its structure. It was repaired and reopened as a museum that included a Northern Pacific steam engine, and later joined by the oldest church in Bismarck, Bread of Life, which was moved to the site in 1965.