Slope County, North Dakota has just two towns, but this sparse part of the prairie once had more. DeSart was one of them. Ora and Anna DeSart homesteaded in the area southeast of Amidon in 1905. They had nine children. Two died as babies. The DeSarts had come from Iowa, from a Civil War family. Ora DeSart had tried to join the Union Army at age 12, but was rejected. He had nine brothers and half-brothers who served in the war.