What is Wandermore Publishing?

Wandermore Publishing LLC is a one-man publishing company that creates books and posts content to encourage individuals to go out and explore their home states. Traveler and author Seth Varner works to document town history through his writings and photographs, learn more about local communities, and encourage the expansion of small town tourism. His books serves as a travel guide, history book, and living photo album all-in-one! He is the only person in history to have visited every incorporated community in five states.

THE HISTORY OF WANDERMORE:

The following is an excerpt from my most recent book, “Wandermore in North Dakota,” which was published in October 2024.

Who doesn’t love a good road trip? While in broader terms, we may typically think of them as a half-country haul to the Grand Canyon or a car ride to the sandy white beaches of Florida, we take our own miniature “road trips” every day. Whether it’s a morning cross-city commute, picking up a prescription from the local pharmacy, or driving down to grandma and grandpa’s house for the weekend, we’re constantly hitting the road to visit somewhere. There are infinite things to see and do across the country. Each of us has specific interests that led us to unique destinations throughout the United States--often intentionally, but sometimes unintentionally!

I’m a bit of a road-tripper myself, but I think it’s safe to say that I take the term to the extreme. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to every incorporated town in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and both of the Dakotas. By my count, that’s 2,768+ communities I’ve had the pleasure of exploring, despite the constantly changing number of new municipalities and disincorporation of old railroad and mining towns. Whenever an opportunity arises to hit the road with friends or family, I hit the road and seek out what makes whatever region of the country I’m in stand out in its own unique way. In 2024 alone, prior to the publication of this book, I wiped my schedule clean for trips to Denver, CO, Cincinnati, OH, and Memphis, TN with my friends, adventures with my fiancé Eliese to Minneapolis, MN, Pella, IA, and Colorado Springs, CO, and a pair of family-road trips to Branson, MO and Kansas City, KS. Between all those excursions, I took on my fifth Wandermore project, which involved visiting North Dakota’s 355+ incorporated towns.

I’ve got a constant travel bug. No matter the occasion, I’m constantly looking for another adventure. It’s a blast traveling from city to city to take in historical sites like the monuments of D.C. and the National Civil Rights Museum or to marvel at the beautiful National Parks of the western part of the country. Still, sometimes, I like to put my tourist hat and sunglasses away and travel for a different reason. Something more profound and more meaningful. After sixty-odd days of traveling to every nook and cranny of North Dakota, I was able to document every municipality through nearly 40,000 photographs, from the sprawling cityscapes of Fargo and Bismarck to the towns with a population in the single digits. I made an effort to explore the history, architecture, cuisine, and all the other quirky attractions that made every town stand out.

Many people are baffled by how I came up with the idea to visit every town in a state. You’d think it’s not exactly the idea that somebody comes up with without some backstory or long-winded explanation. And to that, my friend, you guess correctly! It all started with the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. We all know how that went. Life was good and normal, and within a week’s time, the world came crashing down. Workplaces ushered employees out the doors, as did schools and universities, and everyone was sent home as the world struggled to learn how to deal with a modern-day pandemic. At that time, I was a 19-year-old freshman in college at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I worked for the Omaha Athletics Department, taking stats for the basketball, hockey, and soccer teams, and I attended in-person classes and lived on campus. One day, I was sitting in class learning about volcanoes and watching the NBA on television, and the next, I was told I was being required to move back in with my parents in my hometown of Wahoo, Nebraska.

For a month or so, I worked at the local Dairy Queen and attended my classes on Zoom. I played basketball and video games with my high school buddy Austin, who had also been sent home from Concordia University in Seward because of pandemic mandates. We were fine for a while, playing games and cruising Main Street Wahoo, but quarantine began to take its toll on us. Boredom started creeping in as we realized there wasn’t much to do in a world where businesses were closed, and public gatherings of any degree weren’t allowed. In a time where travel was limited, everything was closed, and making connections was next to impossible, I had the urge to make a something-out-of-nothing summer and do something that (to my knowledge then) nobody had done before: “Hey Austin, want to visit every town in Nebraska this summer?”

The idea spurred from some core memories I had as a child. In 2009, when I was about nine years old, my father, Dave, began to work on a family tree project. In addition to your typical family tree information like birthdays, names, and the like, he wanted to expand his project to include photographs of the headstones of deceased relatives, the churches they had attended, and the homes they lived in. He recruited little ole’ me and his mother to accompany him on a series of road trips throughout Butler and Seward County, Nebraska, to take some up-to-date photos of the sites. While he photographed points of family interest, I had an agenda of my own. Equipped with my disposable Wal-Mart camera, I took photos of the things that caught my interest: population signs, water towers, and sites like the Baloney Shop of Malmo or the green Wal-Mart in York. Things that captured the attention of a third-grader, you know, the important stuff! Around the same time, my mother Leigh instilled a love for traveling in me by taking my brother and me on a trip to the Caribbean, where I first began to understand that there was an entire world to explore outside of my little bubble in Wahoo. We stopped our road trips as my dad finished the family tree project. I remember pouring over a map of Nebraska on our way home from one trip and asking Dad, “Can we visit every town in Nebraska?” To which I likely got a chuckle and a “Maybe someday, Seth” response.

The thought of visiting all of Nebraska’s communities must’ve stuck in the back of my mind, but my obsession with traveling, geography, and writing was more profound. In third grade, I started writing books about “Fluffy the Kitten,” the adventures of my favorite farm cat, who went on adventures and loved spending time with his friends. One such rendition of the fifteen-book series was “Fluffy the Kitten Travels the World,” in which Fluffy flew his plane to all corners of the globe to take in the world’s most famous points of interest. My classmates Eli and Marcela (now the owner of the small business Kookaburra Cookies in the Omaha area and a high school English teacher) drew the pictures for my books and helped me present them to my classmates. As I continued to see the world through our family vacations, I became more enthralled with geography and travel, and in the fifth grade, I launched my then-second website, “SVGeography.” I compiled articles, photos, and videos from around the web, and my teacher, Mrs. Julie Simons, would incorporate them in her lesson plans when applicable. By the time I was fifteen, I was in charge of planning our first true family road trip to Oklahoma City and Kansas City, a responsibility that I have maintained throughout the years as we’ve made our way to places like the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, the Wisconsin Dells, and the Grand Canyon and the American West. All things considered, I think it’s easy to see how my childhood interests have influenced my career choice of being a traveler and a writer and how a few little trips around my dad’s stomping grounds turned into the ambition to start the pioneer Wandermore project around Nebraska.

On April 22, 2020, Austin and I began our two-and-a-half-month trek across the Cornhusker State. We didn’t travel continuously, though. We’d go out for a day and visit a handful of towns but return to Wahoo to work at Dairy Queen for the next few. It became a weekly thing where every four to eight days or so, we’d hit the road for the day but come back home to sleep in our own beds. The project wasn't very serious for the first few weeks of traveling. We’d visit the towns, take our selfie with something that said the town name on it—typically the welcome sign—and continue to the next community. Sometimes, we’d stop for fast food or wander the town a bit, but we weren’t taking pictures, meeting with people (as we didn’t know much about COVID), or touring businesses, restaurants, or museums. The point of the trips then was solely for our own enjoyment of getting out of the house and to have a little fun at the welcome signs by making a funny pose with our Energizer bunny, a little pink plush rabbit that Austin’s mom thought should tag along as our “mascot.” At the end of our trip, we planned to hand over the photos to our mothers so they could make a scrapbook of our travels, and that would be that.

I didn’t tell my parents about the first few trips. I had a feeling they wouldn’t be too pleased with my idea to visit every town in the state amid an ongoing pandemic. However, as Austin and I kept disappearing with our friends for entire days, I eventually broke the news to them about fifty towns in the project. It took a little convincing, but after I insisted that we were playing things safe and mostly keeping to ourselves, they ended up being okay with it. My mom came up with the idea that I should begin sharing my photos on Facebook. I had started an Instagram page for our friends, but she thought we’d reach more people if we shared our travels on the larger platform. Part of me now thinks that she just wanted to keep tabs on what exactly her son was doing gallivanting around in the middle of a pandemic!

Her idea to start a Facebook page was ingenious! Within a couple of weeks of launching “Visit531Nebraska” on social media, we began receiving interview requests from television and radio stations, and every small-town newspaper out there. We couldn’t believe it. Within the first month, we gained over ten thousand followers, and the comments, likes, and messages poured in. At that moment, I recognized that the project could be much more than just a scrapbook adventure, so I embraced the attention and started to incorporate followers' suggestions into trips and start meeting people.

As the months progressed, we continued to hear stories from locals of their favorite memories of the town and what seeing our few photos (at this time, we only took a few since Instagram, my then-favorite platform, only allowed us to share ten in a single post) meant to them, a theme came to light. No matter how big or small the community, its past and present residents were eager to show their hometown pride and make it known to the world what their community was known for. Austin and I saw this theme unfold as we continued our trek around Nebraska: there’s something to do in every town, but you’ve got to go out and find it. A great example that brings this principle to light is our visit to Monowi, population one. It’s the smallest incorporated town in the United States, with Elsie being the sole resident, mayor, bartender, and librarian. Even in this community of one, we were able to keep ourselves busy. We ate at the bar and talked with Elsie about her life and her memories of the town that once was. She showed us Rudy’s Library, a collection of thousands of books owned by her late husband, and an old church in which she was one of the last people in attendance. What many would hardly consider a dot on the map was a several-hour adventure that took us through the life cycle of a small farming town. Even if a town had a population of 50 people, 500 people, or 5,000 people, we discovered that there was always something to learn, do, or explore.

We amassed a following of 21,000 individuals by the conclusion of our trip around Nebraska. We finished our journey in our hometown on July 17, 2020, with a small parade and a celebration. In attendance was Nebraska Stories, a public television series that showcased clips and photos from our adventure around Nebraska, two other news stations, and a couple of hundred people from the community. It was a wonderful sendoff for an incredible accomplishment. As I read through the Facebook comments on our final town post, I saw several people calling for our adventure to be documented in a coffee table book so people could relive the journey repeatedly. I gave it some thought and decided to give it a go. I worked day and night throughout the fall of my sophomore year of college to compile a book that featured photos and some brief information about every incorporated town in Nebraska. I detailed what my friends and I saw, heard, and tasted throughout our two-and- a-half-month escapade, shared historical facts and tidbits, and created a living photo album feature using QR codes. I knew the feature would come in handy down the road because as I traveled Nebraska, I could someday add more photos of community buildings or inside looks at museums and restaurants as I continued my travels. Since then, thousands of images have been added to the living albums, and those who purchased the books in 2020 can see where else I’ve visited in Nebraska since the conclusion of the Visit531Nebraska project. The book, a complete afterthought of a project that was supposed to be a way to avoid boredom during a global pandemic, has evolved in the subsequent years to hold information on restaurants, lodging, festivals, recreation parks and areas, museums, and more.

The book “Visit531Nebraska: Our Journey to Every Incorporated Town in the State,” was an incredible success. I’ll never forget the feeling of having to take loans from my family members and pouring my life savings into buying the inventory or the joy I felt when I held a copy of my published work for the very first time that November. After hundreds of hours of planning, writing, and traveling, I managed to self-publish a book and completed the project of a lifetime. As most of you readers already know, the adventure didn’t end there either. It was only just the beginning.

In March of 2021, I decided to conduct a similar project called “Visit939Iowa” across the Mighty Mo’ and visit every one of Iowa’s incorporated communities. Austin joined me on these escapades as well, but this time, I made it known to Iowans that I intended to create a book on Iowa at the conclusion of my travels. Much to my surprise, the people of Iowa rallied around the project, and we were met with equal hospitality and support. I took more photos, met more people, ate at more local eateries, and checked out more sites. Towards the end of the journey, I had taken on somewhat of a documentation mindset when I realized that people wanted to see everything left in a town. Instead of focusing solely on notable sites like restaurants, historical markers, and downtown areas, by the end of the project in September, I was trying to capture older buildings or even sites like repair shops and city parks. In September, our travels concluded, and I had the book ready to go by November. After another successful trip, the idea cemented in my mind that these projects could become a full-time career.

As I got deeper into my business classes in the Fall of 2021, I realized that I needed to make the business look more professional if I pursued it as a full-time endeavor. The company was then just called “Visit531Nebraska,” but people were confused why a business with that name had visited every town in Iowa and written a book about both states. I needed to change the name. I loved the term wanderlust but found it overused, and I kept working to think of a play on words that could showcase what I was trying to do. I wondered. And my thoughts wandered. And they wandered some more. Thirty minutes into my first brainstorming session in the shower, it came to me: Wandermore Publishing, a book-publishing company whose guides combine travel with history to encourage people to go out and explore their home states throughout the Midwest. I revamped the website, set up the company, and printed the business cards; thus, Wandermore Publishing was born.

The “Wandermore’s Visit310SouthDakota” project was put into action in February of 2022, and this time, I would be accompanied to every community by my college friend Jack. This state was the first project in which I embraced the documentation mindset and began to spend extra time on the road to capture more photos per town than I had in Nebraska or Iowa. I took several laps in the smaller towns to ensure I didn’t miss churches or other buildings on the outskirts. I focused on capturing as many “big ticket” buildings and attractions as possible in the larger communities. The project lasted about four months, and it was then that I came up with the idea to start the Wandermore Travel Fund to allow people to contribute funds in exchange for having the names of their friends, family, loved ones, pets, and businesses, placed in the back of a book. Still being in college at the time, the extra funds allowed Jack and I to spend more time on the road as I put together the photos and information for my third book. It was released in August of 2022.

”Wandermore in Kansas,” conducted between February and October 2023, was the most thorough and compressive Wandermore project of the four. After finishing Nebraska and traveling east to Iowa and north to South Dakota, it only made sense to look south and take on the Sunflower State. After 17,000+ miles on the road and over eight months of traveling, writing, and researching, I successfully visited every incorporated community in Kansas. I snapped 50,000+ photos—more than I’ve taken in any other state by a landslide. It was the first state in which I could focus nearly one hundred percent of my attention because until then, I had always had to work another job and be in school. I remained proactive in my studies from February through May of 2023, when I graduated with my degree in Business Administration, Marketing, and Management, and from thereon, I was able to devote the entirety of my attention to the project. The extra time and freedom allowed me to meet with hundreds of people from all trades: convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, restaurant owners, attorneys, doctors, and blue-collar and white- collar workers alike. I ate at nearly one hundred local establishments around Kansas and toured over sixty museums. Had it not been for the support I received from the previous three states and that of all those who followed along with the Kansas project and left their tips, history, anecdotes, memories, and kind words, the project would not have been able to reach the level of thoroughness that it did.

It's funny to look back and see how a person’s career can develop from their childhood interests in hobbies. For a kid who was writing books about his cat, loved traveling and taking photos at a young age, and always took an interest in geography and history, it seems like Wandermore Publishing would’ve come to fruition at one point or another. Maybe it’s easy to say that now that COVID is largely a thing of the past, but without that pandemic, who knows if I would have ever had the intention to “wander more” and learn more about Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, the Dakotas, and all the little farm towns of the Midwest.

All that leads us to 2024 and this book you now hold: “Wandermore in North Dakota.” Throughout the summer of 2024, I thoroughly explored the Peace Garden State and shared my travels with the world on my fifth Facebook page. Before April 2024, when I formally kicked off my project, I had only been to North Dakota once. That was back in 2022 during my South Dakota, when I got “lost” near Hankinson and snapped a selfie with the “Welcome to North Dakota: Be Legendary” welcome sign. After sharing that post on Facebook, I'll never forget what one gentleman asserted in the comments: “Welcome to the better Dakota.” I didn’t think much about it then, but having now toured more of North Dakota than most people on the planet...I think the man was onto something.

This was my first project where I didn’t have to worry about keeping up college grades or working another full-time job while conducting it, and I truly believe that the results showed. After 1,500+ hours of work between researching, writing, traveling, and maintaining the Facebook page, what’s come about is a collection of photos and history unlike any other ever compiled in the history of North Dakota. And I had SO much fun doing it. The extra time allowed me to shift all of my attention—well, at least most of it, since I got engaged to my best friend Eliese halfway through my travels—to experiencing all that your state had to offer.

My adventure to your communities has been delightful and educational. It’s been inspiring to see the sheer passion and the pride that each and every North Dakotan seems to take in their community, regardless of its population. I met with nearly 350 residents from all walks of life–and had brief interactions with hundreds more–-and was pleased to find that “North Dakota Nice” is just as prevalent as Nebraska’s own “Nebraska Nice.” So many of you were happy to open a museum for me to explore outside of regular hours or treat me to a fine bar meal or a classy restaurant of your choice. Everyone, whether young or old or of rural or urban residence, was kind, welcoming, and supportive of my mission. For those of you that I didn’t have the opportunity to meet, I thank the hundreds of thousands of you–yes, HUNDREDS “of,” according to my Facebook analytics–who have taken the time to like, comment, and share my posts with the world. Your enthusiasm and support have been the driving force behind the success of my project. THANK YOU for allowing me to “wander more,” promote small-town tourism, and preserve Midwest history.

North Dakota is most often the last state people visit in their quest to see all fifty. What folks don’t realize is that they’re missing out on one of the most stunning and diverse states in the Union. From the vast canola fields to the rugged buttes of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the lush greenery of Bottineau and Walhalla, down through the plains, wetlands, and the Red River Valley, I was continually amazed by the variety of the state’s topography. I’ve learned that none of our Midwest states are as flat as the rest of the country claims! I’ve shared the state's beauty and the existence of a National Park with my friends and family, and it's been amusing to hear their surprise, “There’s a National Park in North Dakota?” I didn’t know it either until researching this project! Despite all the wild animals I encountered–buffalo, elk, bighorn sheep, pheasants, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, coyotes, deer, and others–I sadly never encountered a wild moose. But, what I lacked in moose-spotting was made up for with a breathtaking display of Northern Lights outside of New Rockford this past May. Icelandic State Park in Cavalier, the hike to North Dakota’s highest point at White Butte near Amidon, the International Peace Garden north of Dunseith, and the trek to the Burbank Mineral Springs Waterfall–the only natural waterfall in the state–outside of Fort Ransom are all experiences that I highly recommend.

North Dakota’s natural beauty is only one aspect of its endless opportunities. Where do I even begin? With the Enchanted Highway and its quirky charm near Regent? Or what about the World’s Largest Buffalo, Catfish, Sandhill Crane, or Holstein Cow? You’re onto something with this huge animal thing, Jamestown, Wahpeton, Steele, and New Salem! Magical Medora and its musical and rootin’ tootin’ old-western history can’t be missed, but what’s a little western North Dakota without mentioning oil and its impact on the region? Williston, Dickinson, and Watford City have grown like weeds, each with unique attributes! Cold War history is hard to ignore when visiting the state's northern reaches. Cooperstown’s Minuteman Missile Site, Fortuna’s remnants, and Nekoma’s historic defense pyramid give an incredible glimpse into this scary past, which I was fascinated by. Decades before then, Lewis & Clark made their way up the Missouri River, leaving history and accounts of early Washburn, Mandan, and Stanton with them. Lake Sakakawea provides unique habitats, tourism, and recreational opportunities for those living in surrounding communities, and, on the opposite end of the state, Devils Lake rivals them for having the best lake in the state. Mighty cathedrals and churches of Russo-German and Scandinavian heritage dot the state throughout all its regions. In each little town, you’ll be “grilled” by local residents to see if you’ve experienced the “best burger, best walleye, best knoephla soup, or the best sausage” at the local cafe, eatery, or meat locker. The correct answer to that last one is Wishek. I mean Langdon. I mean Garrison...shoot, I really can’t decide! This book details many of my other experiences from the metropolises of Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot. It also covers even the smallest places like the nearly-ghost towns of Ruso, Hannah, Kief, Calio, and Perth and their great histories.

While traveling across North Dakota, I visited dozens of museums and historic sites. I dined at over eighty local eateries. I explored ancient (as can be in North Dakota!) monuments and cemeteries and marveled at state parks. I drove the backroads of the countryside as I watched the sunrise and sat on the shores of lakes and rivers as the sun set over the prairie. And, within the 13,320 miles I covered, I snapped a whopping 39,290 photos. About 110 pictures per town and nearly all their churches, schools, parks, businesses, storefronts, gas stations, etcetera. However, I’ll be the first person to admit that I didn’t see it all. I mean, who could in only a few short months? Despite my efforts and my newfound claim of being one of only a few people to have visited every incorporated municipality in North Dakota, I missed out on things, too. There are churches I didn’t admire and museums I never visited due to time constraints. I never got to try hundreds of little restaurants and their one-of-a-kind dishes. I skipped out on town celebrations because of my priorities back home and missed out on gorgeous wedding venues, historical markers, lakes, and many sites within North Dakota’s countless ghost towns and unincorporated communities. And you know what? It’s okay! I didn’t get to see and do it all, and I probably never could, even if I wanted to. North Dakota has SO much to see and do that it shouldn’t be possible for anybody to do it all in a lifetime, let alone a single year! I’ve had my fair share of experiences throughout North Dakota, and it is here and now that I call you to follow in my footsteps.

I want you to take on a “throw a dart at a map” mentality and explore your home state yourself. Plan a day trip with your closest friends and family to a museum that interests you—perhaps the Van Horn Auto Museum of Marmarth or the Pembina State Museum of the northeast. Drive one hundred miles to a small town, sit down at the bar, and ask the waitress to surprise you with their signature menu option. You might find the best burger of your life in a greenhouse in Mohall or have the tastiest Nutella, marshmallow, and peanut butter cup Whirl- A-Whip of your life in Stanley. Stay luxuriously in an old schoolhouse at the Nome Schoolhouse or be treated like royalty at the Enchanted Castle in Regent or Riverdale’s High Lodge. Take a road trip through the Turtle Mountains or take a scenic hike through any of the numerous trails you’ll find in any region. Support a local flower shop or a brewery, pop into a local library and see if they have your next favorite book, and talk to the locals to see what makes their town “tick” and different from all the others. Take this from the “Wandermore in North Dakota” project with you, if nothing else: Every community, no matter how big or small, has something to offer. You’ve just gotta go out and find it. Please “wander more” and explore as much of North Dakota as possible throughout your lifetime. Some of the best experiences in life can be found a short drive from home–you won’t know until you get there.

Thank you, North Dakota, from the bottom of my heart. This book serves as a testament to all the communities and the history that makes North Dakota so unique and as a guide to exploring all aspects of tourism in each town, no matter how big or small. I hope you find this guide useful in discovering all the Peace Garden State offers. While I’m sad that my project in North Dakota has ended, you've shown this small-town Nebraska boy that I’ll be welcomed back to the Peace Garden State anytime. I’ve already got some plans for future return visits to North Dakota! I already can’t wait! Until then, goodbye, for now, North Dakota. You have my heart. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all 173,000 people who follow my travels on Facebook for helping me to expand small-town tourism and generate interest in their storied histories.

My book on the Peace Garden State—a testament to all the people, places, towns, businesses, and things that make North Dakota a wonderful place to live, grow, and visit—became my best-selling book of all-time within only fifty days of its publication. Its sucess has convinced me to continue carrying out Wandermore projects in several other states. I hope to visit every incorporated community in at least ten states over the next several years!

In December 2024, I announced that I would commence traveling to my sixth state, Minnesota, starting in February 2025. Stay tuned!

Never stop wandering more! :)

Seth Varner

Be sure to keep up with all my travels and book updates by following the Wandermore network of Facebook pages (updated 1-2025):