Van Hook is a thriving resort community built on the shores of Lake Sakakawea. The town was disbanded in the 1950s with the flooding of Lake Sakakawea and for a very short period of time was classified as a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
in the
north central United States, located in
Van Hook Township in
Mountrail County,
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
. The original town site was mostly left not flooded when
Lake Sakakawea
Lake Sakakawea is a large reservoir in the north central United States, impounded in 1953 by Garrison Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam located in the Missouri River basin in central North Dakota. Named for the Shoshone-Hidatsa woman Saka ...
was formed in the 1950s behind
Garrison Dam
Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S.
Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The re ...
.
The US Government forced all Van Hook residents in the 1950s to give up their homes and move to
New Town
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
. The townsite for a short period of time was abandoned. However, since most of the old townsite was never actually flooded by Lake Sakakawea, the townsite and land nearby more recently has been turned into a thriving unincorporated resort community still called Van Hook and with both a summer-only and a year-around permanent populations.
[ Lake Sakakawea's Van Hook Arm gets its name from the town.
]
History
Van Hook was founded in 1914 as a station on the Soo Line Railroad
The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , one of seven U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sa ...
. It is named after Fred van Hook, who was one of the first to survey
Survey may refer to:
Statistics and human research
* Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population
* Survey (human research), including opinion polls
Spatial measurement
* Surveying, the techniq ...
the area in 1911. It was incorporated in 1915, and reported a population of 372 in 1930
Events
January
* January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...
.[ In fact, the town grew so fast that it earned the nickname "The City of Speed."][
When the Garrison Dam was built in the early 1950s, forming ]Lake Sakakawea
Lake Sakakawea is a large reservoir in the north central United States, impounded in 1953 by Garrison Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam located in the Missouri River basin in central North Dakota. Named for the Shoshone-Hidatsa woman Saka ...
, the town's original residents were relocated to New Town, which the government had built to house those displaced by the dam. Residents from Sanish, located in a place which is now usually completely underwater, also moved here. Another new unincorporated village called New Sanish has since reformed on higher dry land to the south of the original flooded Sanish townsite but still near Lake Sakakawea.
The original incorporated Van Hook town's last reported US Census population in 1950
Events January
* January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.
* January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...
was 380,[ prior to when everyone was forced to move out by the federal government.
The Van Hook arm of Lake Sakakawea has always been very popular for recreational fishing, boating, and camping. The rebuilt resort town began a building process the 1970s when it became obvious that most of the main townsite did not flood and would never be flooded by the waters of Lake Sakakawea, and some of the original townsite area was initially opened for camping trailers and other similar temporary summer living quarters. This begin a sequence of events in which year-round homes were eventually not only permitted but encouraged—leading eventually to the present town and the year-round Van Hook community. The present town continues to add residential areas to the north of the original townsite, and a secondary community of permanent homes a short distance to the north and west of the main townsite has also developed.
The precise current population of the unincorporated resort area/town or "new" Van Hook is not known, but in the summer with temporary residents might easily exceed the 1950 census number of 380. There are plans to get a population count of the current town(s) called Van Hook in the ]2020 US Census
The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...
.
Education
There was previously a school in Van Hook, of the New Town School District.[ ]
Clipping
from Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
.
References
External links
Ghosttowns.com entry for Van Hook, North Dakota
Be aware that most of the information on this site that labels Van Hook North Dakota as an uninhabited ghost town and underwater is inaccurate and completely outdated.
Shell highway map of North Dakota
– 1940s
{{Mountrail County, North Dakota
Former municipalities in North Dakota
Populated places established in 1914
Populated places disestablished in 1953
1914 establishments in North Dakota
1953 disestablishments in the United States
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
Populated places in Mountrail County, North Dakota