Abandoned Lutheran church near Appam, 1994Church interior, Christmas 1920
The town was founded in 1916 on the route of the Great Northern Railway, and Appam well water was considered exceptionally good for steam engines.[3][4] The meaning of the name "Appam," allegedly bestowed by a surveyor from Texas, is unknown.[5]
Appam was settled largely by Scandinavian immigrants, and at its height the town had a population of perhaps one hundred, as well as businesses appropriate for its time and place, including a bank, a hotel, a garage, a blacksmith shop, two general stores, two hardware stores, and a post office.[6] Most residents attended the town's Lutheran church.[7]
Short story writer Carrie Adhele "Peggy" Berg Young (1923–2017) wrote several books of fiction and the memoir Nothing to Do but Stay (1991) about life in the Appam area between the coming of the homesteaders and the end of the Great Depression.[9]
The frames and facades of some buildings survived into the 21st century, and a few people moved back into the area during the Bakken oil boom of the 2010s.[10]
↑Golden Jubilee of Alamo, Appam, Corinth, North Dakota, 1916-1966. privately published. 1966. p.158.
↑Eide, Marlene, coordinator (1975). The Wonders of Williams: A History of Williams County, North Dakota. Williams County Historical Society. pp.I: 331.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)"The Old West Charm of Appam, North Dakota."
United States
North Dakota
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