Ghost Towns Beneath Flood Waters
When the Garrison Dam was completed in 1953, the waters of the Missouri River behind it began to rise. As Lake Sakakawea formed, hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land were submerged. It is the second-largest manmade lake by area and the third-largest by volume, and its creator—the Garrison Dam—is the nation’s fifth-largest earthen dam.
To build the dam and make room for Lake Sakakawea, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) required 156,000 acres of land that was part of the Fort Berthold Reservation. The USACE entered the reservation to begin constructing the Garrison Dam in 1946 without an agreement on land exchange with the Three Affiliated Tribes
(Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan). As the tribes’ people protested the construction, the army threatened to confiscate the land for the project by right of eminent domain. The Three Afiliated Tribes (TAT) took their protests to Washington, calling for a halt to the project until they received a suitable settlement. Their protest was based on the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, which said that tribal land could not be taken away without their consent and Congress’ consent. Congress did halt the project as the legal battle ensued. In the negotiations, the Tribal Council offered an alternative site for the dam on the reservation, the land for which they’d provide free of charge. The USACE refused because they held the reservoir wouldn’t be big enough. The army countered by offering to purchase an equal amount of land for the tribes in the Knife River Valley, replacing that which they’d lose to the Garrison Dam project, but the Tribal Council didn’t see that as a viable option. Options ran out as the action continued, and the TAT was forced to accept the $5.1 offered by Congress, a figure which was supposed to cover the cost of the land as well as the relocating and rebuilding of the towns the tribe would lose. That’s an average of about $33 per acre. The final piece of settlement legislation also denied the TAT’s the right to use the reservoir’s shoreline for grazing, hunting, fishing or other purposes, additionally rejecting requests for irrigation development and royalty rights on subsurface minerals in the reservoir area.
Though they suffered loss after loss, the TAT continued to push for adequate compensation even as construction commenced. After the tribe hired an appraiser who said they should be paid $22 million for their lands, they asked Congress to adjust the previous $5 million offer. After much back and forth, Congress agreed in 1949 to pay $7.5 million more, which was still $9 million short of the appraised cost.
When the dam was completed in 1953, more than 300 families (about 1,700 people) were forced to relocate, totaling almost 80% of the reservation’s population at that time. Businesses, homes, grain terminals, schools and hospitals were either moved or demolished before the water submerged their towns forever. The many farmers and ranchers on the reservation lost 94% of their agricultural lands.
One of the most important towns to the Fort Berthold Reservation was one of the towns that fell victim to Lake Sakakawea’s waters. Founded in 1891, Elbowoods served as the central town for the Three Tribes, containing the central business community and the local tribe headquarters. It was home to gas stations, stores, a post office and other businesses, as well as the reservation’s main school and only hospital. Near Elbowoods, the 1925 Four Bears Bridge used to cross the Missouri River near Elbowoods, connecting the northern and southern halves of the reservation. On its southern end, a memorial towered at the top of a hill, a tall stone monument honoring Chief Four Bears. The bridge, which would have been completely submerged by Lake Sakakawea, was dismantled, moved 40 miles upstream and then reconstructed atop higher piers.
The winter before Skakakawea’s waters were to inundate Elbowoods, various homes, churches and other buildings were relocated to nearby lands on higher ground. It was a slow and tedious evacuation, with some of the tasks more trying than others. One man, recalling the thoughts a former farmhand and friend (from Elbowoods) of his had about the relocation, described the cultural upheaval and pain it brought:
“He was most sad about the removal of native graves. He said no locals or natives would take this work, as there is nothing more evil than disturbing a burial site. He recalled how they had to use convicts and grave diggers from the south to do the work.” By 1954, relocation from the area was complete. New roads were constructed, schools and churches and hospitals either moved or rebuilt, the Indian Bureau housed in New Town. The water slowly rose, covering what was left of Elbowoods.
Another major town lost to Lake Sakakawea was “Old” Sanish which, like Elbowoods, was a center for commerce on the reservation. Its population peaked at 450, and the town had more than 50 businesses and had grown to be an important grain and livestock shipping center. Another bridge connected parts of the reservation over the Missouri near Sanish: the Verendrye Bridge. The metal truss was demolished in preparation for the flooding of the new reservoir.
A third town, Van Hook, was also home to a healthy business district and vibrant community. It had a popula- tion of over 400, several churches, and a goodsized school.
Some residents relocated to New Town or “New” Sanish, but many others moved to other areas of the state or left it altogether. Today, only a few buildings that were once in the now underwater ghost towns remain standing. In 2019, one of them was lost to a fire. The Elbowoods’ Susan Webb Hall Memorial Congregational Church was built in 1926 by a congregation that had been organized in 1899. In 1953, it was moved about 8 miles northeast of town to avoid death by drowning. An arsonist reportedly set the fire that destroyed this laststanding piece of Elbowoods’ rich history in 2019.
Now, the only visible remnants of the livelihoods and bustling communities once flourishing in towns underwater are crumbling foundations. They surface every once in a while, during years when Lake Sakakawea’s water level is low. At different times in years past, foundations of structures in Sanish and Van Hook, as well as the tip of Four Bears Monument near Elbowoods have peeked above the surface of the waves.
Old photos of these places are eerie. They make it feel as if it’s possible that all of those towns—with their shops, cars and homes—are frozen in time under the water, as if they could come back to life at any moment and go about business as usual.
Perhaps it’s a better visual than the reality of cold concrete being all that remains of so many lives and livelihoods.