Robinson, North Dakota · Founded 1936 · Building: 1936
A rural Robinson bar in a building reported to date to 1936, known for the tongue-in-cheek geographic-center dispute that briefly put its name on a trademark.
Hanson’s Bar is an operating bar in Robinson, North Dakota, in a building reported to date to 1936. It became nationally known after proprietor and Robinson mayor Bill Bender helped promote a playful claim that the Geographical Center of North America lay beneath the bar floor. The stunt briefly gave Hanson’s Bar a federal registration for the phrase before the trademark was returned to Rugby, North Dakota.
Regional and visitor sources date Hanson’s Bar or the building it occupies to 1936. The exact opening date, original founder, and early license history remain unverified.
Source: Grand Forks Herald, “A quibble about the exact middle,” July 31, 2015; Roadside America, “New Geographic Center of North America, Robinson, North Dakota”
Robinson mayor Bill Bender issued a local declaration locating the claimed geographical center of North America 7.6 feet south of Hanson’s Bar, and a floor decal marked the spot.
Source: Roadside America, “New Geographic Center of North America, Robinson, North Dakota”; Penry Family, “Geographical Center—Robinson, North Dakota”
Bill Bender registered Hanson’s Bar as owner of the phrase “Geographical Center of North America” after Rugby’s registration had lapsed.
Source: CBS News, “The debate over the Geographical Center of North America,” May 30, 2021; Wall Street Journal, “North Dakota Bar Owner Pulls Off a Monumental Coup,” Dec. 16, 2016; New York Times, Jan. 25, 2017
Reporting on the trademark dispute described competing methods of calculating a continental center and noted that the local claim was separate from authoritative geographical determination.
Source: New York Times, “North America’s Geographical Center May Be …,” Jan. 25, 2017; CBS News, “The debate over the Geographical Center of North America,” May 30, 2021
Bill Bender returned the disputed “Geographical Center of North America” trademark to Rugby after the dispute, while Hanson’s retained its floor decal and framed documentation.
Source: CBS News, “The debate over the Geographical Center of North America,” May 30, 2021; Roadside America, “New Geographic Center of North America, Robinson, North Dakota”
A 2016 visitor account says Hanson’s Bar closed after former owner Danny Hanson died, then later reopened when local people pooled money to buy the building and operate it jointly. The closure and reopening dates require primary-source confirmation.
Source: Dean and Mindy Walk Into a Bar, “We Walk into a Bar in North Dakota,” Oct. 29, 2016
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The Grand Forks Herald says Hanson’s opened in 1936, and Roadside America says the bar was built in 1936. This review did not locate a building permit, liquor license, deed, or contemporaneous newspaper announcement that fixes the precise opening date or founder.
The statewide title is not supported by a comparative review, and continuity is directly undermined by a reported closure after Danny Hanson’s death before the bar reopened under joint local ownership. The 1936 building/bar date cannot establish uninterrupted operation from 1936 to the present.
CBS News, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Roadside America describe Bill Bender’s 2016 registration of Hanson’s Bar as owner of the phrase after Rugby’s registration lapsed. The registration was later returned to Rugby.
Robinson’s claim was a local promotional stunt and trademark dispute, not an official geographical finding. Reporting notes that geographic-center calculations vary by method and quotes an alternative calculation locating the center near Center, North Dakota. Hanson’s Bar later returned the disputed trademark to Rugby.
Accounts of the Robinson promotional effort describe a floor decal installed inside Hanson’s Bar to mark the community’s claimed center point. The decal documents the local claim and its tourist appeal, not the scientific accuracy of the location.
A detailed 2016 visitor account says Danny Hanson owned the bar until his death, after which it closed and later reopened when local people pooled money to buy the building. This report is sufficiently material to reject any continuous-operation claim, but the exact dates and ownership records require primary-source verification.
Hanson's Bar has operated continuously as the same Hanson-family bar since 1936.
The 1936 date is associated with the building or bar’s early history, but a 2016 visitor account says the bar closed after former owner Danny Hanson died and later reopened under joint local ownership. The evidence reviewed does not establish a continuous Hanson-family ownership line or uninterrupted operation from 1936.
Source: Grand Forks Herald, “A quibble about the exact middle,” July 31, 2015; Dean and Mindy Walk Into a Bar, “We Walk into a Bar in North Dakota,” Oct. 29, 2016
Robinson became the official Geographical Center of North America when Hanson’s Bar obtained a trademark.
Bill Bender registered Hanson’s Bar as owner of the phrase after Rugby’s registration lapsed, but the trademark did not establish an official geographical determination. The trademark was later returned to Rugby, and reporting notes that different geographic-center calculations reach different locations.
Source: CBS News, “The debate over the Geographical Center of North America,” May 30, 2021; New York Times, Jan. 25, 2017; Roadside America, “New Geographic Center of North America, Robinson, North Dakota”
Hanson's Bar is located at 116 Main St. and uses (701) 392-8406.
Current public listings identify Hanson’s Bar at 123 Main St., Robinson, ND 58478, with telephone number (701) 390-9896.
Source: Roadside America, “New Geographic Center of North America, Robinson, North Dakota”; current Hanson’s Bar listing
Hanson’s endurance comes less from a provable uninterrupted business lineage than from its role as a social gathering spot and a stage for Robinson’s self-aware geographic-center story. The bar’s floor decal, framed paperwork, and local humor turned an obscure rural location into a destination for travelers interested in roadside Americana. Its history also shows why careful continuity language matters: reporting says the bar closed after a past owner died and later reopened under joint local ownership.
Hanson’s Bar occupies a Robinson building reported to date to 1936. Its exact founding and early ownership record have not been fully documented, and a 2016 account reports that the bar closed after former owner Danny Hanson died before later reopening under joint local ownership. The venue gained national attention in the mid-2010s when proprietor and mayor Bill Bender promoted the playful claim that the Geographical Center of North America lay beneath the bar floor.
No verified statewide oldest-bar title has been established for Hanson’s Bar. The building or bar is widely dated to 1936, but a reported closure after Danny Hanson’s death breaks the claim of continuous operation from that year. This review also did not locate a statewide comparison of older North Dakota bar businesses, so Hanson’s should not be called the state’s oldest continuously operating bar.
Hanson’s Bar was the center of a playful Robinson promotion, not an officially established continental center. In 2015, Robinson mayor Bill Bender declared the spot beneath the bar floor to be the center, and in 2016 he registered the phrase “Geographical Center of North America” to Hanson’s Bar after Rugby’s registration lapsed. He later returned the trademark to Rugby, and geographical-center calculations vary depending on the method used.
No. Hanson’s Bar temporarily held the trademark after Bill Bender registered the phrase in 2016, but later reporting says he returned it to Rugby, North Dakota, after the dispute. The bar reportedly retained its floor decal and framed trademark paperwork as part of Robinson’s local geographic-center story.
123 Main St, Robinson, ND 58478
(701) 390-9896
None on file
Hanson’s Bar has limited rural hours that vary by season and event. Current visitor listings commonly show Friday/Saturday service; call ahead before making a special trip to see the geographic-center floor decal.