The Gray Lady of Sims

Sims was founded in 1883 on the original main line of the Northern Pacific Railway west of Bismarck, where the railroad detoured south for coal and water for its steam engines. Named for railroad official George Sims, it grew around coal mines and a brickyard into a busy prairie town – by some accounts once more than a thousand people, and briefly a contender for the Morton County seat. Scandinavian settlers organized a congregation almost at once, and in 1884 they built a combined parsonage and meeting house, holding services upstairs until a proper church was finished in 1900.

The town’s fortunes depended on the railroad. When the Northern Pacific straightened its main line in 1947, Sims was bypassed; the post office closed the same year and people moved away until only the church and parsonage were left on the empty prairie. Services were held in Norwegian until 1946, and the congregation still meets there on alternate Sundays. Members restored both buildings in the 2000s with a Save America’s Treasures grant, and former First Lady Laura Bush visited in 2008. The parsonage now houses the Sims Historical Society museum.

Local people call the ghost the Gray Lady. She is said to be the wife of a former pastor who died around 1916–1918, and to wander its rooms and play the organ when no one else is there. Her name is not given in published accounts, and the story is told quietly – as a piece of the community’s memory rather than an attraction.

A woman in gray moving through the rooms of the parsonage and organ music when the buildings are empty – reported by local residents and visitors over the years.

The 1884 parsonage, now a museum, and the neighbouring 1900 church with its organ.

Sims lies near the Old Red Old Ten Scenic Byway west of Mandan, and the Gray Lady is part of North Dakota’s ghost-town lore. The church and museum are cared for by the congregation and the Sims Historical Society.