North Dakota has quite an extensive history. Long before it was a state, some of the first European explorers and settlers were beginning to break into the relatively untouched prairies. One of the first European explorers to ever do that was Antoine Blanc Gingras, and remnants of his life are still around in the state today — and you can visit them.
Far up in the northeast corner of North Dakota is the spot where one of the first European explorers and settlers first came to what would eventually be this state. It is located just outside of the town of Walhalla.
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The two oldest structures still standing in North Dakota is right here at the Gingras Trading Post State Historic Site. They were built in the 1840s, decades before North Dakota was to become a state.
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The site you can visit today consists of the two buildings: a home and a store. Both have been carefully restored to be as accurate to their original appearance and are being kept carefully preserved today.
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While you’re there, you can learn about the man who settled here, Antoine Blanc Gingras — which is where the name comes from. He established the trade here and became incredibly wealthy. He was known as one of the richest men in the region thanks to his trade operations here.
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The historic site is open year round with free admission and the State Historical Society of North Dakota puts on events to really bring you back in time and give you the full experience.
Gingras Trading Post/Facebook
In the store, you can purchase authentic reproductions of things that might have been sold during the height of the trading operations here. The house holds more information about the history of this place and of the fur trade in ND.
Gingras Trading Post/Facebook
Places like these and the Kittson Warehouse, another incredibly old building in North Dakota shown below, are absolutely fascinating parts of the state’s long history and there are no older European-made settlements anywhere else in the entire state, making this a special destination.
Gingras Trading Post/Facebook
Address: 12899 105th Street NE, Walhalla, ND 58282
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Elcajonfarms/Wikimedia
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Gingras Trading Post/Facebook
For more information on this historical site, visit its official website or Facebook page.
Even though these may be the oldest European-built structures in North Dakota, there are reconstructed buildings you can visit elsewhere in the state that came long, long before. Check out this amazing Native American village to see what we’re talking about.
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