For many people outside the state, North Dakota conjures visions of a remote, sparse, and seemingly inhospitable landscape, replete with ghost towns, scattered farmsteads, and settings reminiscent of the movie Fargo. Yet beyond this facile image lies a spectacular array of high-style, vernacular, ethnic, and modern buildings, a pragmatic architecture that reflects the setting and settlers of the Great Plains. A distinct "prairie mosaic" of houses, homesteads, and rural churches draws on the cultures of Germans from Russia, Norwegians, and Icelanders, and varied Native American groups such as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara. North Dakota's architectural heritage is complemented by more contemporary work dating from Progressive-era boom times and the New Deal to the present. This volume, with more than 400 entries illustrated by 250 photographs and 17 maps, provides the first comprehensive overview of the state, from Pembina and Walhalla to the Badlands. This richly diverse legacy includes earthlodges and Eastern Orthodox churches, powwow grounds and campmeeting grounds, and varied settings from the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site to the International Peace Garden. The cast of characters is equally compelling, among them Sakakawea, Lewis and Clark, the Marquis de Mores, Theodore Roosevelt, Lawrence Welk, Peggy Lee, and regional and international architects working in a range of styles and traditions, from Marcel Breuer to Surrounded-by-Enemy. A volume in the Buildings of the United States series of the Society of Architectural Historians

A curtain flutters in the window of an abandoned farmhouse. Textbooks from the 1940s lay scattered on the floor of a one-room schoolhouse. Receipts for a load of grain sit on the desk of a ghost town grain elevator. If you are a person who likes exploring these abandoned places with camera in hand, North Dakota is a target-rich environment. Drive down any gravel road, and soon you will come across a relic from the past. This is why author John Piepkorn loves North Dakota. John Piepkorn is a photographer who has had a lifelong interest in abandoned places. On multiple trips across North Dakota in the last twenty-five years, he has documented hundreds of places that were once filled with life. Today, those places stand empty. John has made an effort to document the churches, schools, and abandoned farms that dot the North Dakota landscape. Each place has a story to tell, and even in the decay, beauty can be found.

What compelled those who settled North Dakota's vast prairies? Summers are characterized by heatwaves, drought, and violent thunderstorms. Winter is harsh, with crippling temperatures and surprise blizzards. North Dakota is a land of extremes, creating a unique, raw, and dangerous beauty. As the railroad industry flourished in the late 1800s, the Northern Pacific Railway quickly built its way west across the northern Dakota Territory, birthing new towns as it went. A strong advertising campaign and the promise of land attracted flocks of workers and immigrants. Business was booming, and Dakota Territory was growing. By the mid-twentieth century, new technology rendered many of the once vibrant railroad towns useless. Residents trickled out as employment prospects dwindled and once lively communities were left to decay, alone in the elements. This book is a photographic journey that documents these remains. It showcases images that tell haunting tales of another time, reminding us how illusory human permanence truly is.

Ghosts of North Dakota, Volume 3 is a 110 page, hardbound, full-color coffee table book featuring some of the best photos from the Ghosts of North Dakota project- photos of ghost towns, near-ghost towns, and abandoned places across the state of North Dakota, plus comments from the photographers, historical tidbits, and more. Places in this book include Antler, Marmarth, Arena, Sanish, Haymarsh, and Bathgate. Volume 3 also includes a 19 page special section on the abandoned Fortuna Air Force Station, and a map which includes most of the places featured in Volumes 1 through 3.

The arrival of fracking technology in western North Dakota led to an industrial renaissance that transformed sleepy farm communities into crucial cogs in the global extractive economy. Fracking technology made the area a global destination for roughnecks, petroleum engineers, pipeline "cats," fishers (who "fish" for tools and other objects accidentally dropped down wells), truck drivers, carpenters, contractors, and electricians as well as journalists, adventure scientists, academic scholars, photographers, and filmmakers. The bustle of heavy industry and a landscape of dramatic contrasts present a magnetic attraction for the adventurous traveler. Pack your camera, your sulfur dioxide sensor, a pair of steel-toed boots, and your flame resistant Carhartt clothing as you get ready for a unique journey to a frontier landscape forged by industry.

This highly illustrated 1868 work on interior design gives a fascinating insight into the late Victorian taste for the medieval.

In the late 1800s, Norwegian immigrants began flooding into the Red River Valley. As they moved into the Grand Forks area, they brought their Old World folkways and religious practices. On the corner of Third and Walnut, Norwegian Lutherans built a small sanctuary to house their services. The building mirrored the simple worship of the Hauge Synod, the organization to which this congregation belonged. After merging with two other Norwegian churches in town, the old Trinity Lutheran structure passed into the hands of the Grand Forks Church of God, a congregation that echoed the revival fires of the Second Great Awakening. This is the story of a church building and the two assemblies that utilized it over a 100-year period.