Abandoned Alberta: Ghost Towns

[Rod1960]

Head down any secondary highway in southern Alberta and chances are you'll run into a ghost town.

While the province is best known today for it's booming energy industry, there was a time when much of western Canada relied on Alberta coal, not crude.

Coal was abundant in eastern parts of the province, as well as in the Canadian Rockies near Banff, and several small towns were founded in the early 1900s to accommodate mine workers, ranchers, homesteaders, and their families who decided to live their lives around the mines.

Dozens of mines were built across the province. But as railroads replaced steam coal locomotives with diesel, many mines were forced to close due to declining profits. As well, the discovery of Alberta's rich oil supply during the 1940s changed the way western Canadians heated their homes, shifting the reliance away from coal.

As a result, towns who relied on Alberta's mining industry emptied out. Residents closed up shops, schools and hospitals, leaving just the buildings themselves behind. Trains were no longer needed to shuttle coal and passengers, and their services were suspended to many areas.

Check out some of the ghost town that dot the Alberta prairie and mountain regions, and a bit of the history behind them, in our gallery below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/12/alberta-ghost-towns_n_5139152.html

Some pretty cool pics in the photo gallery. There's probably some interesting stories to be told about some of these places.

[densa44]

The reasons now are different, opportunity is at the top of the list.

Eastern Central Alberta has been emptied of people save for the Hutterite colonies, with out them there would not be very many of us left.

[brownbomber]

Everybody has to eat. Not every town is going to have industry, but it's just a matter of how far do you want to drive to work.

[Thinlizzy]

Cool pics!
Thanks for sharing.

[slimpickens77]

Grab a decent metal detector and a ghost town can be a very interesting place to spend the day

[bruceba]

Grab a decent metal detector and a ghost town can be a very interesting place to spend the day

Or a sleeping bag and spend a night...

[KinAlberta]

Edmonton photographer finds beauty in the derelict in Abandoned Alberta | Edmonton Journal

https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/local-arts/edmonton-photographer-finds-beauty-in-the-derelict-in-abandoned-alberta

[ehrgeiz]

I don't think I would qualify Cadomin and Nordegg as ghost towns though.

[darren32]

I don't think I would qualify Cadomin and Nordegg as ghost towns though.

Well the thread is 6 years old ... maybe they were back then?? LOL

There is a kinda cool show (I think its on cottage life) that is called mysteries of the abandoned. I usually find it fairly interesting. They go to abandoned places all over the world and explain what it was and what happened.

[Grizzly Adams]

Local boy's take.

https://www.amazon.ca/Ghost-Town-Stories-Alberta-Abandoned/dp/1894974727

Grizz

[ehrgeiz]

^
Haha thanks didn't realize this was a resurrection!

[bobtodrick]

I don't think I would qualify Cadomin and Nordegg as ghost towns though.

For a father/son project my son and I have spent the summer of Covid driving on weekends to ghost towns through the province and photographing them.
Did Cadomin about a month ago. At it's peak it had a population of nearly 2000. Now it's 40.
It's a ghost town alright.

[ehrgeiz]

^
Well, not during the Sheep opener it ain't!

Just ordered that book Grizz was looking for something new to read. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Skoaltender]

I was expecting to see photos of Nisku before I clicked on this thread.

[Dean2]

Cool thread. We started going to Cadomin back in the late 60s, had a cabin there for a few years. Ghost town then, hasn't changed much since. Been to most of the Ghost towns in the article, they are interesting and worth a visit.

[KinAlberta]

Would have been so cool to have a restaurant and viewing platform at the top of old elevators. These days I guess drones pretty much eliminate that opportunity.

Get your kids/grandkids to see them while they can!


HISTORIC GRAIN ELEVATORS ARE CRUMBLING ACROSS THE PRAIRIES - THE GLOBE AND MAIL
CALGARY
PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2020

“...

The elevators make for great photos, but not much else. Now, the family that owns the pair is appealing for help to save Lepine’s dilapidated Prairie staples. “Does anyone know a group who specialize in Canadian history?” Candice Bauer, who said her father and an uncle own the elevators, asked on Twitter in January.

This plea for preservation is familiar in the Prairies, where...”


“After consulting community members, Ms. Piwowar identified three purposes for a revived elevator in Indian Head: community space, perhaps for a bakery or coffee shop, a tourist information centre and guest suites. ...”



Meanwhile, old elevators lost a key champion last year. Jim Pearson, an Alberta man who researched and mapped these Prairie icons, died in 2019. Indeed, Saskatchewan does not have updated figures on the number of wooden elevators in the province because it relied on Mr. Pearson’s research.

Preserving history is expensive, which is why so many more wooden elevators will be lost. Nine wooden elevators once populated Nanton, Alta.'s elevator row, according to Diane Wilson, chair of the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre. (The organization is specific to Nanton.) Townsfolk raised thousands of dollars two decades ago to save the last three wooden elevators. Roughly 200 tourists visited the orange Pioneer facility that serves as a museum last year, she said.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-historic-grain-elevators-are-crumbling-across-the-prairies/





On the flat prairies I’d have thought local and travelling rock climbers would love to use the walls if fitted out.

Where there is a line of elevators swinging bridges between them would be cool.

Then of course a guy-wire ride to the ground would be fun. Maybe parachute drops.



.

[IL Bar]

Would have been so cool to have a restaurant and viewing platform at the top of old elevators. These days I guess drones pretty much eliminate that opportunity.

Get your kids/grandkids to see them while they can!





On the flat prairies I’d have thought local and travelling rock climbers would love to use the walls if fitted out.

Where there is a line of elevators swinging bridges between them would be cool.

Then of course a guy-wire ride to the ground would be fun. Maybe parachute drops.



.
That idea was tried in my hometown. Elevator was gutted and rock walls were installed. Then he couldn’t get insurance so it never did open.

[artie]

http://passherald.ca/archives/200923/index3.htm

good article on the Bankhead mine neat Banff

[KinAlberta]

That idea was tried in my hometown. Elevator was gutted and rock walls were installed. Then he couldn’t get insurance so it never did open.

Yet there’s climbing wall facilities all over the place. Maybe he was just too early in the trend. Google rock wall climbing insurance now and you’ll get all kinds of hits.

Also those aerial parks with the climbing structures are appearing in cities. (People wear harnesses.) imagine one going inside and outside an elevator. Could be a cool experience. Year round.


Why not use the rather massive walls as support for solar panels and/or passive solar air heating?

What are the typical dimensions of an old grain elevator?

Grain Elevators | The Canadian Encyclopedia

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/grain-elevators




Put a diving tank next to one to teach cliff-diving-on-the-prairies! :-)

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