Town of the Week

Sanborn, North Dakota
October 2, 1999

When you're first named "Sixth Siding", there must be a good reason. At it's beginning, this small town was located 6 railroad sidings west of Fargo, North Dakota. Then, in 1879, the town was re-named for the treasurer of the Northern Pacific Railway, George Sanborn. In the early days, one of the largest landowners in the Sanborn area was P.T. Barnum's brother, Izzy of Brooklyn, NY. Izzy, like his Dakota neighbors, owned land in the middle of the vast, rolling prairie, producing wheat by the ton. Another character on the scene at the time, was an Englishman named J. Gwynne Vaughn. He called himself the "Duke of Sanborn", selling non-existent lots on a ficticious Pipestem River. He was finally arrested by detectives from Scotland Yard for crimes committed overseas.

Sanborn never did get much bigger than it's 200 or so residents, too few to support its schools. In 1971, students began being bussed to nearby Barnes, and the school building was demolished. Volunteers staff the town's fire department, and still run a fire truck which was new in 1904. The truck has seen lots of service, because every building downtown has burned at one time or another during its history. The department is housed in the Sanborn City Hall, which doubles as the community center. You'll find it 25 miles east of Jamestown, and it's our Town of the Week, Sanborn, North Dakota.

Take a trip to Sanborn, North Dakota; just listen in.

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