Sims Lutheran Church
The Sims Lutheran Church is an Evangelical Lutheran church in the ghost town of Sims in Morton County in the US state of North Dakota . It is considered to be the oldest Protestant church west of the Missouri River .
history
Coal mines and a brick factory made Sims grow rapidly around 1880. Lutheran immigrants from Scandinavia founded a parish with an associated cemetery as Sims Scandinavian Lutheran Church in 1884 and held services initially on the upper floor of the newly built rectory. At the end of 1884 the community already had 50 members. From 1896 a separate church building with borrowings from neo-Gothic forms was built. In 1899 the church tower was built and the altar and pulpit were purchased. The decline of the local industry soon led to a sharp decline in population. At the end of the 1940s the last pastor left the rectory and the post office in Sims closed in 1947. The Northern Pacific Railway also gave up its route through the town in October 1947. However, the church building was never abandoned. Services are still held here, alternating with the Lutheran church in neighboring Almont. The parish belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America .
Preservation North Dakota and the Save America's Treasures Foundation, of which First Lady Laura Bush was Honorary Chair , funded the 2006 church and parsonage renovations. Laura Bush attended church after completing the work in March 2008.
literature
- A prairie heritage. Sims Lutheran Church , Sims 1984.
- Lauren Hardmeyer Donovan: Prairie Churches , Fargo 2012.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 46 ° 46 ′ 20.5 " N , 101 ° 29 ′ 57.1" W.