Abandoned Gas - Total - Ramsey, MN

Here's a quick story of the long closed Total gas station, on Highway 10, at the Anoka/Ramsey border.

It's been revived into something completely different now, so I'm going to talk about what it was. That would be during its in-between phase. Purgatory between a failed gas station and it's next use, be it a demolition or remodel. I'm nowhere near finished with any of the other four stories I have going right now, so this works now.

September 21, 2015.

Driving west on Highway 10, entering Ramsey. Something catches my eye... Peeking out from behind the overgrown trees and shrubs is a cute little abandoned Total gas station! I haven't seen Total gas stations in years!

To give this story some backbone, I was required to put in a little work to find out the history of the Total gas station chain. But man, after 10 minutes, the idea of reading about 100 years of corporate mergers and acquisitions made me too bored to care. I'll sum up their 100 years with this:

What became the Total gas station chain, was founded in France, in 1924. Today the company has rebranded as TotalEnergies, but doesn't have any refining or retail presence in North America. Total established an American presence in 1971, buying a small refinery and smattering of Standard Oil stations in Michigan. In 1980, they bought Vickers Petroleum, expanding to 350 gas stations in 20 states. Total became a publicly traded company in 1991. Over the next 5 years, the French government sold off most of its stock. Going from a 30% stake to less than 1% in that time. As this was going on, Total continued to expand their retail presence, now running over 2,600 gas stations, under a variety of names. In 1993, Total started remodeling and rebranding all of their stations to become Total stores.

Not my Total Gas Station Logo Sign... I'd love one, but this is from a Googles search.

Then in 1997, Total decided to sell off their North American refining and retail stores to Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, in a deal for stock and assumed debt, worth over $800 million. So quickly after what had to have been an expensive process to unify the brand. Total stations started fading away from the American retail landscape in 1997. Some closed in the first few years given their proximity to existing Diamond Shamrock stations. Others were sold to smaller, private owners. Who either kept the Total name, or changed it to whatever they wanted. 

TotalEnergies still operates corporate owned gas station in Western Europe, but has no North American presence. They changed to this crappy logo at some point in the early 2000's. I can't remember and I don't care about looking it up either.

They left, so that's France's problem now.

******

November 5, 2017.

Laura and I were in town, visiting from Denver. Pretty much laying the groundwork for our move back in 8 months. Today was my day to hang out with Trav. He picked me up at my folk's house and I said: "Take me to something abandoned..."

"I know the place!"

We set out westbound on Highway 10, destination: Saxon Motors in Elk River!

But on the way, we had to pull over at the old Total gas station I'd remembered from my drive by the last time I was in town, two years earlier. The earliest Googlesmobile images are from 2008. A bunch of semi trucks are parked in front, so you can't see much of the building. But the corners that are revealed show the same weathered plywood covering the windows. I couldn't find anything else out about this specific Total station from basic Googling. Other than it was built in 1966, and was sold on July 20, 2017, for $500,000. 

Whatever the new owners intentions are, they've started work.

The trees and brush in front had recently been cut down, and there was a dumpster out front. 

We parked behind the gas station, and walk around the building.

Minor delays in looking at the trash out back.

The dumpster was jammed with crap. Unfortunately, nothing looked like it was particularly used for Gas Station-ry.

Just a bunch of crap...

Like what was on the ground around it.

And an old hat.

Up to this point, I was assuming this Total gas station was getting cleared out for demolition. I could see this piece of land having some value, with direct access from Highway 10. You could see the value in the property itself. Get rid of the old gas station and put something new here that might draw customers. There's too much nearby gas station competition for a station of this size to go up against the Kwik Trips, Holidays and Speedways, and have any success.

But seeing new work going on meant the building was likely being restored.

Which is pretty cool.

Walking around to the east facing wall to check out the art. 

Hmmm... You really should have some sort of idea what you're doing before you start...

This is just a mess.

A sheet of plywood is hiding the rest of the green bubbles, so I don't know what it says. 

Later in the day, Trav and I would be introduced with the works of Flar, Dert and 2 Canz$, up at Saxon.

Apparently the Ramsey Total was not their turf.

What's Trav looking at in the dumpster?

Old electrical and the frames from the old drop ceiling. 

Being a minimum of ten years since this was last a gas station, I'd assume the old gas station related signage and fixtures were long gone. 

A crack in the plywood reveals the interior of Total is being stripped down to bare bones for a fresh rebuild. It probably needed it. The windows were very dirty, and there wasn't much light to see inside. Looks like a Total red strip on the far back wall, and I'm pretty sure that's Total's tile on the floor.

I remember Total gas stations selling above average roller grill hot dogs. Something that translated to Diamond Shamrock stations around Denver. So I could enjoy a Total hot dog when filling my car at the Diamond Shamrock, a few blocks south of the Azzip Tuh. A gas station hot dog was often better than whatever mistake pizza's were left in the dough room.

Full tank of gas... Pack of smokes... Bottle of Coke and a gas station hot dog! 

Now I'm ready to give more rides to pizza!

I cannot figure out what "Ico" means. 

Wonder what Trav is reading?

"No parking at any time. Violators will be towed away."

You know, a good idea would be using a DARK ink of a white sheet of paper, if you want people to be able to read it. This definitely isn't legible unless you are very close to it. Never be made out from the windows of a vehicle. Maybe laminate it as well. Winter is coming, you think this deskjet printout is going to hold up to mere minutes of a Minnesota rain/snow storm, in November.

Hmmmm... I need the restroom. Hope I don't need a key, since there's no attendant. Or store entrance.

Oh good, it's unlocked!

Plastic lawn furniture instead of a toilet.

Good only for enjoying take-out while chain smoking Marlboro Reds, these days...

With a side of Burger King Chicken Fries.

On an unrelated side note of sadness, related to Burger King and Ramsey, MN, I lost about 2 and a half years of pictures of Ramsey, during the recent round of MacBook problems. I discovered that a corrupt file in the Ramsey folder was the likely culprit of everything that went wrong. Most important loss was the series of Ramsey Burger King photos. That entire story was wiped out, and I had some great photos for it as well...

DAMN YOU RAMSEY!!!

Wow, that is a strange looking light fixture.

Almost has to be original to the 1966 build. 

Completing our walk around, in the early afternoon of November 5, 2017.

The back wall of Total would look different the next time I stopped by...

******

A former co-worker in Denver, gave me this old Vickers Matchbook. He told me they were a chain of gas stations that used to be real big around Denver. The entire chain became Diamond Shamrock stations "about 20 years ago". This was in 2014, so his memory matches up with the Total/Vickers timeline.

"Maybe you can use it in a story sometime", he said. Partly in reference to the 99 Spillihp issue of Wasted Quarter, which he read and liked back in 2008. I thanked him as it was a really cool gift. If there was ever a way to tie this matchbook into a story, I absolutely would. But I didn't have a clue where it would fit.

Until now!

On a sad note, I recently discovered another missed photo opportunity.

The old Anoka Cement Factory was demolished earlier this year, and I never made the time to take more photos. I tried to snap a decent shot from westbound drives on Highway 10 (like this shot from September 2012), whenever possible. The factory had closed some years back, and I'd planned on parking on the streets north of it, to walk around for some pictures. 

One night I was driving the frontage road from F*cking Cub Foods to Kwik Trip, and noticed the large looming darkened structure was missing between the road and BNSF railroad tracks.

There goes another one...

******

May 18, 2019

Flying solo today.

I'm on my way to a baseball card show in St. Cloud, with a stop at Total, before leaving town. 

Before confirming the Total gas station mailing address, I wasn't sure if it was in Anoka or Ramsey. The Sign sits slightly west of the building, and an Anoka water tower sits behind. But it is official. Total was in Ramsey.

Parking behind the building again, I see a new dumpster house built against the back wall. 

The dumpster is chained and re-barred shut.

So someone just threw their crusty old appliances next to it.

And a new garage door (and a new human door next to it) was installed in the larger third of the former gas station.

First Draft hasn't come back to finish his tag.

Jello hasn't been back either. At least the plywood had been moved so I could read it.

Pull back to reveal the full canvas.

The plywood has been removed from the windows. 

Concrete pad where the pumps and canopy once stood. 

From the front.

Opposite side of the new doors on the back wall.

Furnace has been walled off.

More interior work going on.

From another angle.

Like what they've got going here.

Sliver of a view of Highway 10.

Guess there's no more chain smoking while eating take-out in the restroom anymore... Sure hope that guy got out before he was bricked in. Wonder if they saved that cool light fixture hanging from the ceiling?

Something was clearly going to reopen in the old Total gas station, meaning the near 60 year old structure would get a new life.

A different fate than the former Total gas station, South Pierce street, in Littleton, Colorado.

Photo from June 11, 2017. 

It had been long abandoned when I live a few blocks away, in 2005-06. With an already demolished car wash building, and a parking lot overgrown with weeds. The station itself, sat on the back end of the property. It had been boarded up and lightly tagged. A security fence wrapped the property, so getting decent photos would have meant parking somewhere and walking. Which didn't happen before the gas station had been torn down.

The Googlesmobile drove by in October 2007, with this being the best shot it took. By the time it came back around again (in 2011), it had already been demolished. According to the most recent drive by in 2023, nothing has been done. Same crumbling, weedy pavement,

******

August 14, 2022.

Highway 10, west of Anoka, was only in its first year of reconstruction when I was stuck in traffic.

Thankfully at the right moment to take a picture of...

Indigo Motors!

So that's what they did the place. 

Notice the Anoka water tower behind it.

******

March 2, 2024

Nice improvement to the awning. Looks better this time. Hope those cool lights at the bottom are operational. Something held over from its days as a Total gas station.

Which makes me happy!

******

I will wrap this up with another quick little game of "Happy/Sad"...

Made me really happy to see that Blaine has opened a Medical Marijuana dispensary. A sign of real progress. Green Goods is just a few doors down from where Shinders used to be, in Northcourt Commons. Now it's a State Farm Insurance agency.

Which makes me sad...

******

And if this sort of thing interests you, I have finally put together a page with links to all of my baseball stories.

So click this:

The Baseball Stories

Just as I did for my Minnesota and Colorado stories.

Now you can find everything baseball in one place!

Well, I think it's Booty... Booty... That's what it is...