History of Temple, North Dakota.

TEMPLE

Williams County, North Dakota

With a population of ZERO, Temple is a former Burlington Northern (former Great Northern RR) railroad station in Golden Valley Township (T157N, R96W). It sits on the south side of the railroad where 67^th Street NW (County Route 19) crosses the tracks, a half mile west of Haarstad*, about five miles west of Tioga and about 30 miles northeast of Williston at an elevation of 2349’. It sits at an elevation of 2346’. In 1908, it replaced Haarstad as a railroad station, and on March 12, 1908 the post office relocated here and the little town grew quickly. By 1920, 90 people lived here, but by 1960 that had dropped to 25. The post office closed April 30, 1965 (was ZIP 58851), all mail now coming from Tioga. In 1980 the population registered zero. Both the school and church are now abandoned, and old farm equipment still sits around the site. The cemetery is located on CR 19 just a little more than a quarter mile to the east.

“At present, the town consists of a church (I'm not sure of the denomination, but I would guess either Lutheran or Catholic), a school, an old store, a few old houses, and a couple of junked cars.” (JP)

*NOTE: Haarstad is listed in the GNIS database as an alternate name for Temple.

Aerial photos and the topo maps available on GNIS do not show any Haarstad. However, a 1914 map shows Haarstad on the railroad just east of the section line road (109^th Avenue NW) in the SW corner of Section 26. Douglas Wick’s book North Dakota Place Names verifies that location. Haarstad was a railroad station on the GNRR and its post office opened July 16, 1906. It relocated a half-mile to the west in 1908 as mentioned above. Ole Haarstad remained as the postmaster. On aerial photos, the site of Haarstad shows up as plowed fields.