Honey, I Finished The Internet

Brings back memories from long ago. *Sniff*

Thanks, sent the link to the ones from Kincaid to my Dad.

I built powerline for a number of years and have worked at many of these towns.

Look up Ardill under ghost towns. It was named-legend has it-that because "it was a dam hard hill for a team to climb" Also, the country side surrounding it had signage to Ardill that would rival Saskatoon or Regina. We never got lost as we had a referance point.

Very good site for someone with small town roots.

I think he needs to tighten up his Ghost Town standards a bit. Botha for example has quite a few residents and is probably more populace than Halkirk.

I know some residents of those ghost towns , should I tell them or let sleeping souls lie.

Have a look at the pics of the Gravelbourg elevators. There is an awesome pic of a mural. Must see!

I wouldn't be too hardnosed about what constitutes a Ghost Town. These paraire sentinels dotted the West in the early part of the 20th century, every 8 miles, and the towns grew up around them and the railway...

My grandfather told me that 8 miles was because the horse drawn grain wagons, with a good hitch, could normally do sixteen miles per day to take their load to elevator and return to the farm.

Commerce of course grew up around this, but with the railways ripping out their lines, improved transport by road (even though the Grid roads were not intended to carry these huge grain haulers), the towns themselves begain to die.

Many of these towns today host the retired farmers or even the current farmers who now commute to the land; and probably survive only because of this.

Many beautiful towns, when I was a kid, like Canora, Kamsack have fallen into degraded status with boarded up businesses and lack of commerce... Yorkton is just too close!

Others like Melville and Watrous and Biggar just barely survive because of their positions on the CNR and also, being on the railway, still for the most part have grain terminals if not those beautiful elevators.

Sorry, I do hate to see these towns shrivel up...

How sad. I went to Provost about six years ago, maybe more, and was so happy to see the line of elevators - at least four. It's the first town that I went to on that site - and the message - "no more elevators standing". Sigh.

I've been up around Estevan, so a lot of the pics were pretty nostalgic for me -- very reminiscent of my own neck of the woods (a bit more treeless and even less populated, but the vacant buildings and old stores is highly reminiscent -- the entire county where I grew up is almost in this state, only the county seat has much population to speak of).

And of course, I love photographing places like that; there's just something about them. Thanks for the links -- I'm going to love going through the pics.

Hm. I'll have to upload some images to these sites. I disagree with their idea of a ghost town, however. For example, Loverna SK still has quite a few residents. In fact, I managed to capture a reflection of a resident mowing the lawn next door in the window of the abandoned Monarch Garage:

http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=1298

Same goes for Esther, Alberta. There are still people living there as well. One even called the police after my spending half an hour photographing the elevator at 2 in the morning made them suspicious.

"I went to Provost about six years ago, maybe more, and was so happy to see the line of elevators"

It's still a great place to buy drugs, I'm told.

A pretty low-tech site, but the images are so sad and evocative. I've lived in a city all my life, so the country and small towns have always had a lonely vibe that I notice first of all, and this site does a lot to reinforce that. The prairies certainly seem to host more ghost towns than Ontario, to a power of tens.

I'd love to see what Sean's shot in these places - he has a much more expansive vision of these landscapes; whenever I try to shoot places like this, they end up looking like crime scenes.

Loved both these sites! As someone who grew up in Alberta, and married a girl from Saskatchewan, lots of memories here. Anyone have any pictures of Main Centre (was not far from Swift Current)?

I miss the old $1 bill...

Thanks for posting those links Kate. I submitted some pictures of the metropolis I reside in. Got a nice email back from them and they are already posted there.

Rick,

Here are my elevator shots from the Neutral Hills area, just a bit south to Oyen, and sneaking across the border into Sask:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=elevator&w=26813028%40N05

Here are my shots from Altario, AB:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=6&w=26813028%40N05&q=altario&m=text

Esther, AB:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=6&w=26813028%40N05&q=esther&m=text

Compeer, AB:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=6&w=26813028%40N05&q=compeer&m=text

Monitor, AB:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=6&w=26813028%40N05&q=monitor&m=text

Loverna, SK:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=6&w=26813028%40N05&q=Loverna&m=text

BTW, I wouldn't call any of these towns ghost towns as they all have people still living, working, and running businesses in them.

I had a bit of a hoot last month when I saw one guy posting photos on Flickr from the "abandoned ghost town of Kirriemuir". He was POed when I pointed out that "Dude, it's run down, but it's not a ghost town. I live there." I may have spoiled his mystique.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a ghost town is one that has ceased to be an official town or village in the legal sense. No mayor or local govm't services. I know plenty of places that after the elevators went down the town just gave control back to the municipality as they had no real tax base anymore. People still live in or around the place but you can't get a coffee or mail a letter there.

As far as grain elevators goes, I have photographed over a hundred in Alberta, mostly around the turn of the century (I love saying that). Some fellow photographers got information on the elevators scheduled for demolition and drove around the province trying to record them for posterity. Kind of sad to see them go as they are a part of our history, much the same as the loss of lighthouses of our waters.

As a pilot I always loved the old elevators as a navigation aid. Before the days of GPS you could always confirm the town you were about to land at by buzzing the elevators and reading the name.

Great site!!! Now I must start one on our covered bridges in Canada(mostly East Coast). My hometown has the only two covered bridges in the world that can taken with a camera and have both in the shot.NB has lost over a hundred in the last 20 years,all due to Hallowe'en prank burnings.And the one's they do replace just don't seem to have the "same" feel or look.

Opppppssss...that woud be the same "feel and look".Proof,proof,proof.

Delisle, Saskatchewan...That's a name I'd completely forgotten about for the past sixty years or so. I'm a 71 year-old Torontonian and now remember Delisle as the birthplace of former NHL greats Max and Doug Bentley. They originally played for Chicago Black Hawks. In 1947, Max Bentley was traded to Toronto Maple Leafs(along with unknown Cy Thomas) for Gaye Stewart, Bud Poile, Gus Bodnar,(their line was known as the Flying Forts), as well as Ernie Dickens and Bob Goldham.
Bentley was instrumental in the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup three out of the next four years.
Foster Hewitt described Max Bentley as the "dipsy-doodler" because of his unique skating and stick-handling style.
Thanks for the memories.

Yup Martin. I believe I own their mother's house.

Hey glad y'all enjoy the sites.

I pretty much consider anything a ghost town that has lots of abandoned buildings and which I estimate has less then half the residents it used too.

It started as just ghost towns, but expanded as I started to love grain elevators, old gas stations, false front buildings, pioneer schools, train stations and more.

Damn Kate, you are full of surprises. Kind of puts meaning into the "it's a small world" line doesn't it.

Good link Kate, and thanks Chris for the elevator pics.
Looked up Dufresne Manitoba elevator.

My parents farmed two miles south of Dufresne on the Old Dawson Road.
I started school in St. Anne, yes five miles south from our farm.
The Molnar family moved to Aylmer, Ontario in 1945.
Team of horses, new 6 ft. John Deer combine,60 Cockshutt tractor.
Lock stock and barrel you might say, on CPR.
True story.

Couldn't help my self, nostalgia brought on by an old elevator photo, who would have thunk it!

I remember driving to Saskatchewan to visit relatives as a small child. I remember seeing trees, prairie and grain elevators. For a grade five Canadian social studies project, I chose to do a report on farmers and grain elevators. I even made one out of cardboard and Popsicle sticks (the grain elevator) I think I received a "B" grade. Brings back lots of memories. Last time I was in Saskatchewan, I was sorry to see the grain elevators gone. Now they will be a Canadian history projects instead of Canadian social studies projects. I predict paintings, sculptures, photo's etc with grain elevators depicted will be in demand.

Texax Canuck; I understand what you're saying about giving control over to the Municipality but Fort McMurray and Sherwood Park are both hamlets. They are run by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo & County of Strathcona respectively.

http://www.grainelevators.ca/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/8002

ahh, a few inches to the left and you could see my house!!

I have what I guess you would call a "coffee table" book, of coloured and black and white Photos of barns. It is titled "Barns of Western Canada" an illustrated century, by Bob Hainstock, ISBN 0-919749-05-4, it was compiled in 1985.

Thanks to Kate for this item - I own my own little Manitoba ghost town (really), so I'm planning put up a gallery of it asap.