Dogtooth, North Dakota
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Dogtooth is a
ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
in
Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States * Grant County, Arkansas * Grant County, Indiana * Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky Grant County is a county located in the northern pa ...
,
North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...
, United States. It was so named because the shape of the nearby
butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...
s resembled the
molars The molars or molar teeth are large, flat tooth, teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammal, mammals. They are used primarily to comminution, grind food during mastication, chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, '' ...
of a
dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...
's lower jaw. The town was located in Section 11 of
survey township A survey township, sometimes called a Congressional township or just township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System and by Canada's Dominion Land Survey is a nominally-square area of land that is nominally six survey miles (a ...
T133 North, Range 85 West.Dogtooth, ND Postal Application 1/29/1900


History

Dogtooth was first established in 1876 as a station along the Deadwood - Bismarck Trail. The station closed in 1880 when the
Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...
was completed, but settlers continued to
homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...
in the area. A post office was established and operated by Robert Pearce March 20, 1900. The November 26, 1909, edition of the Mandan Pioneer reported that Dogtooth had "a great out look for a thriving metropolis as the Milwaukee have surveyed a town near where Dogtooth now stands . . . this part of the country is settled with people who will do all in their power to make it a good town as they will certainly appreciate so near a town after having to haul their grain fifty and sixty miles to a railroad." The Pioneer on April 8, 1910, described the new town of
Raleigh Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...
, located just two miles to the east along the
Milwaukee Railroad The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experienced financi ...
with "a few buildings have already been built, including a store and blacksmith shop. The population is mixed, largely Scandinavian." In 1910 Charles Leonard, who operated a store in Dogtooth, moved his business to Raleigh and opened a post office that October. Dogtooth slowly died out as Raleigh grew. The
Carson Press Carson may refer to: People and fictional characters *Carson (surname), a list people and fictional characters with the surname * Carson (given name), a list of people with the given name Places United States *Carson, California, a city *Carson ...
reported on January 12, 1911, about Mr. Leonard's decision to move his store and establish a post office in Raleigh, suggesting that this move put "the finishing touches on Dogtooth."


Notes

Ghost towns in North Dakota Geography of Grant County, North Dakota Populated places established in 1876 1876 establishments in Dakota Territory {{US-ghost-town-stub