Early years , on the Durbin to Sidney rail line Everest began as a railroad station on the
St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway (also known as the Great Northern Railway). In August 1880, the Casselton Branch Railroad Company (CB) was incorporated by the
Northern Pacific Railway (NP). Construction began on a railroad line joining the Northern Pacific's railroad in Cass County with a station in
Traill County. with the town divided into twelve blocks. The east–west streets were named A, B, C, and D Streets, with the north–south streets being named Front, Second, Third, and Fourth Streets. Manvell Street ran diagonally along the line of the Great Northern Railroad. The community was built directly west and south of the rail line. By the late 1880s, Everest was considered a "small town in Cass County [...] some 20 miles from
Fargo." There is some controversy surrounding the naming of the community. Some sources report that the community was named after the editor of
The Lisbon Star, but his name was Charles Everitt. In October 1882, an agreement between the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern railroads transferred the Casselton Branch from the Northern Pacific to the Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern then began a project to connect the between its lines to the Casselton Branch terminus at Everest. The rail line connecting the two railroads was announced to be nearing completion in October 1882. After completion of the connection, Everest was at the junction of the Waupeton-Ripon railroad line (between
Durbin and
Sidney) and the Casselton-Larimore rail line (at the terminus of that line). By this time, Everest was the site of "two general stores, a butcher shop, a blacksmith shop, a lumber yard, and two hotels, one of which proudly advertised its fine horses. There was a post office and a one-room school."
William Langer, who later twice served as
governor of North Dakota, was born in Everest in 1886 (he served as governor from 1933 to 1934, and from 1937 to 1939). William Langer's father, Frank, co-owned Everest's first general store and had also helped establish the community of Everest, as he was an investor in new towns. In addition to the general store, Frank Langer also became the postmaster in 1884, and in 1889, he was elected to the 11th district in the lower house of the newly created North Dakota state legislature; he served one term, and then returned to farming. William and Frank Langer were not the only notable Langers in Everest: Frank's brother Joseph (born January 22, 1852) moved to Dakota Territory with him and helped establish the community. Joseph claimed a
tree farm in Everest Township in 1877, and also invested in a mercantile in
Hope. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge. He also served on the Everest Township board of supervisors for over a decade. Among the other prominent residents of the Everest area was Edward Meilicke, who farmed in Everest Township and who also operated a mercantile in the community. Meilicke settled in the area in 1882, and served for 15 years as the chairman of the Everest Township board of supervisors. Meilicke was later profiled in an early history of North Dakota. James D. Trammell was another prominent resident of Everest. Trammell was a transplant from
Fairfax County, Virginia who settled in Everest in 1883. Trammell served on the Everest Township board of supervisors, and was also a member of the area's
Masonic Hall and
Odd Fellows fraternal order. Other prominent men of Everest included Edward Redmon and William MacFadden. Edward Redmon was born in
Davenport, Iowa in 1856. He moved to the Everest area in 1877, when he went to North Dakota to claim land. He owned three sections of land, and also farmed in a fourth. He was a chairman of the Everest Township board of supervisors for many years. William McFadden was born in
Mount Vernon, Ohio in 1857. He emigrated to Everest in 1885, where he became a grain buyer and farmer, purchasing land there. He was appointed deputy county treasurer, and later the cashier of the Cass County State Bank of Casselton. He was elected as Cass County treasurer in 1894 and was re-elected in 1896. Circa 1888, Everest was the site of four
grain elevators: the Cargill Elevator Company, the St. Anthony Elevator Company, the Northwestern Elevator Company, and the Mt. Vernon Elevator Company. Everest was also the site of a branch of the Beidler and Robinson Lumber Company. The population of the community was estimated as 200 in 1890. The Everest School was built in 1881. It was originally located in a field west of the main structures, which was hazardous during blizzards. A rope was strung between the village and the school to prevent schoolchildren from becoming lost during snowstorms. Eventually, the school was moved into the village. The Everest school building, a
one-room schoolhouse, was just one of 182 schools in Cass County at that time. Two teachers were employed by the school during that era. The school building was also used as an official polling location. Two additional schools operated in the area: the Goshen School and the Langer School. These were small Everest Township schools. The fire made state headlines and destroyed Rodenberg and Langer's general store, two saloons, the hotel, McFadden and Siddell's hardware store, Wilson's boarding house, and the post office. The fire began in a vacant hotel room. The
Moravian Church operated in Everest during this era. William Stengel led the congregation, circa 1887. In 1888, severe frosts in the months of May, June, and August "knocked the wheat crop to the dogs" in the
Red River Valley. The eastern half of the state was badly affected, and the following year, there was a terrible drought "such as was never known in Dakota", which destroyed the next round of crops. Area farmers suffered, and many were close to starvation. Frank Langer, one of the county commissioners, advocated for a
poor farm to be located in nearby Casselton, but was outvoted by the other Cass County commissioners, and the poor farm was instead built north of
Fargo. Everest had been founded in Cass County, in the northern half of Dakota Territory. When North Dakota and South Dakota were split and became states, they were both admitted on November 2, 1889. When the new state of North Dakota's first territorial legislature met, the state was divided into 31 congressional districts. The 11th Congressional District was a portion of Cass County: the townships of "Webster, Rush River, Hunter, Arthur, Amenia, Everest, Maple River, Leonard, Dows, Erie, Empire, Wheatland, Gill, Walburg, Watson, Page, Rich, Ayr, Buffalo, Howes, Eldrid, Highland, Rochester, Lake, Cornell, Tower, Hill, Clifton and Pontiac"; the district was entitled to one state senator and three state representatives. The state representatives included Everest resident Frank J Langer. In March 1894, the business district of Everest was again wiped out by fire. The fire was estimated to have done $35,000 in damage (equivalent to $ in ). At the time of the fire, the
Hope (North Dakota) Pioneer saltily reported, "The town of Everest, Cass county, was nearly wiped out of existence by fire early Sunday morning. Jim Hill's depot didn't burn, much to the regret of all the travelers along the line who have been compelled to wait upon trains within its dirty walls." Around that time, in either 1895 or 1896, the westernmost of the two railroad lines was pulled up, as the Great Northern Railroad Company's plans for expansion had changed. This was done because the Great Northern Railway was operating two parallel branch rail lines; it was stated that "for the sake of greater efficiency and the economy attained through elimination of unneeded trackage", the line between Fleming and Everest was no longer needed. The removal of the rail line would, in retrospect, cause a decline for Everest.
Early twentieth century In 1900, a loading station on the Northern Pacific Railway was named Langers, after both Joseph and Frank Langer. This station was just northeast of Everest. The population of Everest was 213 in 1900. Circa 1906, Everest was the site of three grain elevators: those of the St. Anthony and Dakota Elevator Company, the Cargill Elevator Company, and the Northwestern Elevator Company. Everest received mail daily, had telephone service, and was the site of a harness maker and a blacksmith shop. Stagecoaches ran daily between Everest and Casselton. In 1903, Henry Albright succeeded James B. Coyle as the Everest postmaster. Paul Schiebold was the postmaster circa 1906. The Everest post office closed in 1908. Mail was subsequently routed through nearby Casselton. Another prominent resident was Herbert G Nilles, who was born in Everest in 1894. While in law school, he was a member of the
Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. He was admitted to the North Dakota Bar in 1917. In 1932, he was elected to membership in the North Dakota Chapter of the
Order of the Coif. He relocated to Fargo and was elected president of the State Bar Association of North Dakota in 1939. Another prominent resident was Morgan Ford, who was born on a farm near
Wheatland on September 8, 1911. Ford was the son of Morgan J Ford and Mary Langer Ford. After graduating from Casselton High School and the
University of North Dakota, Ford returned to Cass County and taught at the Everest School for one year (1934-1935). He became the Casselton city attorney in 1942, and was nominated by
President Harry S. Truman to be a judge of the
United States Customs Court in 1949. In 1920, the population of Everest was 64. In 1922, there was again a fire in Everest. This fire destroyed the Northwestern Elevator Company's building in Everest, and according to a news report in the
Jamestown Weekly Alert, "had the breeze prevailed toward the stores southeast of the elevator little would have been left of the town, as it was only hard work that saved the depot." According to that report, around 6,000 bushels of wheat were in the elevator at the time of the fire. The cause of the fire was unknown, with one theory being that the fire was caused by sparks from the nearby railroad, or due to friction. In 1923, the Everest School District covered . At that time, Cass County had 142 operating schools. The Everest School District had by this point been renumbered 90. In 1928, a basement was added below the Everest Schoolhouse. The population of Everest was estimated at 100 in 1940; the other communities along the former rail line were smaller, with
Durbin reporting 22 residents and Fleming reporting 10 residents. During that era, Everest still appeared on North Dakota state maps. The general store in Everest closed in 1942. In September 1949, enrollment at the Everest School was 17 students.
Late twentieth century In 1952, William Langer, by that point a
U.S. Senator, attempted to legally reclaim of land in the Everest area, which had been deeded to the county back in 1911 by his father, Frank Langer. Langer stated that the contract stipulated that the land would be improved, with a road and a bridge across a
coulee. He stated that no bridge or road had been constructed, and he thus requested that the land be returned to the Langers. Langer passed on November 8, 1959. In 1960,
Interstate 94 replaced State Highway 10 between Casselton and Everest, on the northern edge of Everest Township. That year, both the Everest School and the Goshen School closed, consolidated into the Casselton School District. By 1975, Agnes Geelan wrote that Everest was just "a memory, its chief claim to fame being that 'Bill Langer was born on a farm near Everest'." Today, Everest is in the Central Cass Public School District. Everest no longer appears on official county maps. The population of all of
Everest Township in 2020 was just 36 residents, with 8 households. ==Demographics==