We stopped for lunch in Ortonville during our trip to photograph some places in July of 2012, and we couldn’t pass up the chance to to shoot a few places in such a beautiful little town.

Ortonville is a small resort town of about two thousand nestled on the southern shore of Big Stone Lake, right on the South Dakota border.  Downtown Ortonville cascades down the side of a hill to the beautiful lakeshore, and is dotted with historic structures.  Most notable is the Columbian Hotel.  Although the Columbian looks to have gone through at least a partial restoration at some point, there was no visible activity on the Saturday afternoon we visited.  We’re not sure on the present operational status of the hotel, but it is on on the National Register of Historic Places.

See a lot more photos of Ortonville here.

Look at those rates!

This is the Ortonville Water Department building, dating to 1933.  It’s right along the shore of the lake.  There’s a public beach and waterfront dock just behind the trees on the right.

Photos by Troy and Rat, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC