TALKING TRAIL

On Christmas Day in 1894, Emmons County residents Sherman Suverly and Eleanor Clark were married. Sherman, who operated the local riverboat...

Here at the Logan County Historical Museum you will find a country school that looks just like it would have back in the 30’s and 40’s with maps and a...

Welcome to the Old St. Mary’s Cemetery which was founded here in 1884, on the grounds of the original St. Mary’s Catholic Church site. You will notice grave...

The building of the Wishek Civic Center was started in the year 1940, thanks to the benefits from the Works Progress Administration or WPA. President Franklin...

The year was 1883, and the original location of the Emmons County Courthouse was where else, but at the county seat of Emmons County...

Easily visible on the surrounding plains, the McIntosh County Courthouse showcases elegant architecture, including the ornate...

The city of Napoleon, Dakota Territory was founded in 1884, and named after Napoleon Goodsill, a pioneer store keeper and president...

The machines you see winding up the hill on Custer’s Ridge may look and seem as old as dinosaurs, but not so long ago they were an essential part...

Today, a one-stop flight from the United States to Russia can take as few as twelve hours. But in 1889, when Martin and Katharina Schwab emigrated...

Welcome to the community of Zeeland and to Zeeland Hall. We are grateful for our community’s forefathers, who came first from densely populated Germany...

The first settlement of Germans from Russia arrived in South Dakota in 1872, and twelve years later, in 1884, the first settlement of Germans from Russia...

Welcome to Prairie Bible Camp. The camp was founded in 1921 by the Bismarck District of the Evangelical Church. The purpose was to satisfy...

Take a journey through pioneer time on our cemetery Talking Trail.
The names on these cemetery markers read like the roster of the founding...

The majority of people of the Strasburg area descended from southern Germans who left Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries for the Black...

Braddock, North Dakota, settled in 1883, is the oldest town in Emmons County. And if you want to see firsthand how your ancestors printed the...

Imagine the journey of the families whose names can still be read here at the Lake Hoskins Historic Settlement Marker. The 17th and 18th centuries in Germany...

Pioneering in the late 1870’s and 1880’s in what is today North Dakota was pioneering indeed! Anyone who wanted to make a living on the prairie had to...

The McIntosh Heritage Center was established in 1978 and is located in the heart of North Dakota’s German Russian country. In fact, German names...

On a spring day in 1898, Wilhelmina Geiszler watched from her home as flames burned on the horizon. Wind blew smoke across the prairie where...

Welcome to Burnstad, North Dakota. While it is a ghost town today, it was once a flourishing town on the Soo Line Railroad. To uncover the story behind...

St Andrews, like so many rural churches of its day, has long provided the loving arms of support to a devoted congregation. The beautiful white of...

Herzlich Wilkommen at Welk Homestead, a German-Russian farm and the birthplace of bandleader and TV host Lawrence Welk...

This reconstruction of Ludwig Welk’s first blacksmith shop was built in 1990 using the original location and dimensions...

Welcome to the church of St. Mary's in Hague North Dakota. St. Mary's is the oldest continuous German-Russian Catholic Parish in the State of ND...

Life wasn’t easy when the Germans from Russia settlers arrived in North Dakota in 1884. During those first years, the people were extremely...

When the builders of this stone church arrived in Dakota Territory in 1884, leaving their beautiful, well established villages in South Russia...

This 283 acre park, on the shore of what is locally known as Red Lake, now Beaver Lake, has a colorful and historic history relating to the early settlers...

Welcome to the historic Ashley fire hall which was restored by a grant from the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and houses impressive artifacts...

What could be better on a Friday or Saturday afternoon during the old frontier days than going to a baseball game? Imagine if your dad played...

Welcome to the Elise Perras Museum, which served as the first post office, a millinery shop and home of Hazelton’s first postmaster, Elise Perras...

On March 10th, 1917 Valentine Keller took out an ad in the Aberdeen American News Newspaper that read, “I will open my new and strictly modern...

In 1898, the northern part of McIntosh County was a black strip of prairie with the occasional shack or rancher's home dotting the landscape. ...

The beginning of the Zion Lutheran Church seems to have been a slow process, as most beginnings are, and Zion is no exception. Around the year 1885...

Welcome to Beaver Lake State Park, still commonly known as Red Lake. When thinking back to the homesteaders and pioneers of North Dakota...

The founders of Friedens Lutheran Community began to meet in one another’s homes beginning in 1895. They were German emigrants from...

Welcome to the community of Ashley, North Dakota. We’re happy you made the trip here to Ashley, and we’re proud to share this beautiful mural depicting...

On July 11, 1976, the sun rose over the flat horizon surrounding Zeeland, North Dakota, illuminating the wide-open landscapes in green and gold, the birds...

The years between 1879 and 1886 brought a great settlement boom to northern Dakota Territory. Many were homesteaders, immigrants of...

Welcome to Stan’s Supermarket–home of the world famous Wishek Sausage. Located here in Wishek, North Dakota, It’s everything you would...

Before rails were laid and trails were dug in Dakota Territory, people in faraway lands heard of a country of great opportunity, where land was plentiful ...