MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1870s

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

2nd Liberty Memr'l Bridge

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MissValley Grocery Warehs

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

Whispering Giant Statue

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

ND Memorial Bridge

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Red Trail / State Route 3

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkin-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Elfriede Trinkler Kuhn

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

Tilden Selmes Jr

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

InterOcean Hotel - 401 West Main St
Fredrick and Robert Hager from St. Paul MN opened the InterOcean Hotel across Main Street from the new Northern Pacific (NP) Railroad Depot.  The Hager Brothers had prospered as a result of the real estate speculation and the lumber business. Viewing the impacts of the March 1881 flood with binoaculars from a bluff on the eastern bluffs of the Missouri River, Fredrick saw an opportunity.  He hurried to take a train back to St. Paul to visit NP Railway Land Office and purchased half of the lots in the western part of the city.  Fredrick returned with railcars of lumber and brothers Robert and Joseph to join the elder Hager in the lumber business at a new site on Mandan's west Main Street. Purchasing properties for just over $60 a lot, they would resell them within two years for between $500 and $1500 each after the NP Railway located their new passenger depot.  

Their new hotel, located at the northwest corner of Dilworth Avenue (today's 3rd Avenue NW) and Main Street, was built and furnished at the cost of $86,000 (equivalent to $4.9 million in 2024) and was the first three story building in the city and opened in April 1882.  Art Kredler was its first manager, a position he would retain until forced to resign in February 1926 due to failing health. 

The InterOcean Hotel was among a number of hotels that were established in that area of town.
  The hotel was a magnificent three-story brick structure, located immediately opposite the new $12,000 Northern Pacific Railway passenger depot.   The opening closely coincided with the completion of the NP railroad bridge across the Missouri River.

The Hager Brothers would invite other notable capitalists of the day to also invest in the booming city of Mandan.  Marion A. Vinton of New York, Tilden R. Selmes of St. Paul and several others were all eventual investors and spearhead building several brick stores in the western portion of the town.

"The hotel is fitted up throughout in most exquisite taste and is absolutely perfect and complete in all its details.  The management which has revolved upon Mr. John Hager has been fully in keeping with the house vis. superlatively first class and the happy combination has made the "The InterOcean" the most powerful advertising medium of Mandan."

Ad from Daily Pioneer "Immigrant Edition No. 2" 1883
Among the many exclusive features of this hotel, one of the most noteworthy was its indoor plumbing system which was a very modern feature for Dakota hotels of the time.  The building also boasted a central steam heating system utilizing an Osborne's patented steam heating apparatus, placed in this building at a cost of $12,000 (390,000 2024$). Each room was furnished with radiator which can be regulated to suit by each individual guest. 

The furniture throughout the hotel was elegant, comparable to the finest hotels in New York.  And took pride that the dining room was staffed with "colored" waiters.  The local newspaper claimed in 1883 the citizens of Mandan were entitled to "great pride ... at this superb carevansary and its great elegance is best understood when it is stated that such distinguished parties as Henry Villard, Rufus Hatch, Sir John Rose and others who enjoyed the hospitalities of this hotel during the past summer unhestatingly and frankly pronounce it the best and most complete hotel west of Chicago."  Sitting Bull would attend a musical play there.

1908 InterOcean Hotel and NP Park
In 1896, the dining facilities were relocated into a modern facility on the second floor in the previous east parlor. The kitchen and pantries remained on the first floor.  Meals were lifted to the second floor by a new dumb waiter system.

The property would be purchased in 1916 by R.B. Hanna and renamed the Lewis and Clark Hotel.  The building was torn down the following year and a new hotel built on the site which opened in January 1918, which remains in place today.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 05/17
/25    ©  2006-2025  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved