ghost towns or even single abandoned buildings are absolutely unthinkable here in switzerland, everything gets cleaned, renovated, or demolished and removed here. i wish we had places like these in our country, absolute magic!
@@Ivv93 sure, yeah, but even when you cross the border to italy you instantly see abandoned buildings. my brother lives in the cantone wallis and we went to domossola by train and as soon as we left the tunnel, we were greeted by an abandoned train station, abandoned mining facilities and so on. same in germany but to a lesser extend. switzerland is just sterile.
They are magic, quiet and peaceful places. But they are way out on the prairies. Driving in these areas feels like you are crossing a vast sea. Small towns on the Canadian prairies are shrinking because of the increased mechanization of agriculture. Now to be competitive you need to farm thousands of hectares and have massive machines. Family farms are disappearing. Many of the large farms are owned by corporations (sometimes foreign backed) or Hutterite Colonies. Canada is growing in the cities but these small towns are shrinking. The economies and services are not good enough to convince young people to stay.
Oh I really enjoyed this video. My mother and father bother grew up in the 30's. Meyronne Saskatchewan. Grandpa Hunter was the Telegraph operator and also the Train Station operator. My Dad his brother and sister lived their til after the Second World War. When my Dad and Uncle returned from fighting in Europe. My mom's dad had the Big Farm Machinery, plus Truck and Car dealership in town. My grandparents bother tried to give work to the thousands of men and families who would be starving, broke and either driving through or riding the rails to find work. My mother's Mom was a gem and excellent cook and baker. So after the drifters had done a days work for one or the other Grandparents they would be sent up to Grandma and she would feed them and pack a lunch for them. There was a Mark outside mom's house for drifters to know they would help and feed you! I went back with mom and the only brother or man of all the family when Saskatchewan had their Centennial Year. Mom bought the old Pipe Organ from the United Church because it was being decommissioned. The top floors of the hotel had blown off a few years back. Unfortunately after Grandpa Hunter picked up and moved to Vancouver when my Dad and his brother came back from the War which my Mom's folks had also done. The Train Station was closed down and the trains didn't stop anymore. So the elevators stopped being used and fell apart. The Hockey arena was still working well. But I've seen other videos that are of Meyronne that sadly break my heart to watch because so much is gone or overgrown. Like in these videos of yours. I remember all the sad and heroic stories my mom and others have told about those Great Depression years. All the desperation and struggles they Endured. The sacrifices they all made and how so many didn't make it. Then the War. Anyway I was hopeful that you might be going through Meyronne, Kincaid and Woodrow Saskatchewan if there is anything left. I personally want to make it out and do some digging around in the libraries in Moose Jaw and Regina to look for more information about my Grandparents and their involvement with Running Whiskey and Rye across the border for Al Capone using Grandpa's Trains! I remember them telling stories about how one Grandpa could pull a full box car from a dead stand still. While the other one could get under a Draught Heavy Horse and Stand up with the Horse on his Shoulders as he walked away with the horse on his back. Bwahahaha! Anyway now my children are all grown up I'd like to come back to where my Grandparents and parents spent those Dirty 30s and do some research and poking around myself! Thanks for this video. I'll be honest it had me tearing up as I watched. Imaging how much different it would have all looked during the Dust Bowl. Peace and Love be with you on your travels and journey 🕊💞🌅🐎🐂🏇🏼🚜🙏🏼
@@attrell It was interesting to see this Video;I've had Two books by Ron Brown who did Ghost Towns/Villages of Ontario,taking into consideration Ontario was settled before Saskatchewan. What is now called Cottage country, The Government at that time,was hoping to open up good faring country,which didn't work out very well.
I grew up around Hoosier and visited Loverna quite frequently. The Hoosier Coop has always been there, it’s just had a facelift. Thank you for this trip down memory lane.
This was really entertaining. I had no idea that there were so many of these towns in the prairies. Seems, from what you’re saying, that the absence of trains killed many small towns. I will be looking for your books now!
Much enjoyed this video, perhaps in another video, you can feature another 2 Western Saskatchewan Ghost Towns, Simmie and Vesper which are located along the former CP Rail Dunelm subdivision.
Really enjoy these videos Chris, I live in one of the Ghost towns you feature, and find it really sad that there are so many just fading away into history, all the stories to be forgotten.
Saskatchewan is an interesting place. It always amazes me that people invested millions of dollars into infrastructure such as railroads and grain elevators only to have the rail lines abandoned and the elevators left to bear silent witness to the past. Alberta and Manitoba share a similar story.
Thanks so much for another awesome tour video of Canada. Really enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Been awhile now since your last video. Hope the next one is sooner.
I love all of the content you provide! I moved to the Prairies from the east coast of Canada back in 1998 and immediately fell in love with the landscape. I’ve always been very intrigued by ghost towns and the abandoned buildings. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.!
I really enjoy your videos and find them so relaxing and peaceful. It is very interesting when you are able to give years of when things closed. I try to visualize what the places would look like decades ago when they were active communities.
Lawson was my dad’s first job as a Sask Wheat Pool agent back in 1972. Then he went over to Darmody, another ghost town south east of Central Butte. My dad was raised in Riverhurst and I still have relatives between central Butte and Riverhurst.
I lived in Abbey from 1985-1989 and yes that was the old school. It was no longer in use in 1985. My father was the agent in that grain elevator while we lived there.
Hi Chris. I love watching videos about the old buildings. If they could tell their stories, what amazing stories they would be. I have your book about the Grain Elevators. Will your book about Saskatchewan be in book stores? Have a Wonderful Summer and Stay Safe on your Adventures.
Have you ever been to Blumenhof SK? That's another really cute one with an old store. You could see the old till in the window, the last time I was there.
Alsask had the DEW LINE radar towers . I helped demo the 85 foot tower in 1984. I slept in the dilapidated old dorms in the military barracks in Alsask . There is still one tower on the site .
Great video Chris. Really enjoy watching you tour ghost towns of Saskatchewan and other parts of Western Canada. Learn alot of what life was like. History is great to enjoy. Keep putting out the videos. 😊😊
What a great video this is. Very interesting to see little towns like this. I love ghost towns and other abandoned places and you did a excellent job capturing these locations on video. I especially enjoyed watching the old railway lines and depots. That CN caboose/van was cool. All these abandoned structures are magnificent and I would like to visit these places. Little or no people around just the ghost towns, wildlife and the howling wind. Awesome video, well done 👍🏻
I believe Stranraer once had a CBC TV/radio transmitting tower, some 760' tall. I was never there, but when CBC did its daily radio ID callout and TV sign-off, they always mentioned the frequency numbers at Stranraer. I recall hearing this in the 1970s when I was a kid in Saskatoon.
The brown elevators are really old. My dad worked in one back in 1973 and it was one of the last ones open. The old grain elevators like that often didn’t run on power but used a diesel generator to power the leg (lift for grain) and lights and had wood or oil stoves in the offices.
Driven through some and close by others of these towns. Drove grain truck in the 90s while going to university. Very well shot and think I need to go on a road trip soon.
Funny!! In your book i was just spinning through it and you have shot some of the farm houses I also shot. Very interesting how we shot the one farm house different. Your cover pic and page 83, along with your frobisher pictures.
Watching from the Cariboo in British Columbia. Great video Chris! We hope to someday take a camping trip to drive around these areas and look at the buildings. Our dream is to someday buy one to retire in but we're not sure if that's a pipe dream or not:-)
Just thought I would let you know how to pronounce 2 of the communities you featured. Mantario ... beginning of it is pronounced as you would expect (gender) and the ending you had correctly. I grew up in that area ... on a farm between there and Flaxcombe. I remember going with Dad to the UGG elevator, Hammerlindl's garage. There used to be a General store, communuty hall, curling rink on Main Street. Attended Sunday school and was confirmed at the United Church. I attended High School in Eatonia and still have family there. Netherhill ("Nether" rhymes with weather). Have you found anything in Flaxcombe? I know the original Elementary school has been torn down ..... has/had a cairn or plaque in its place
Wow thank you so much. I think the Church is still there but now private residence. Flaxcombe is great, the elevator is still in town and I think people are moving back to this pretty place.
This was really enjoyable. A lot of these towns were based on how farming went. I can imagine what life was like back in the 1950s, in these prairie towns in North America. A different kind of pace. One of the the things that I'd like to do is a tour of the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and go into Montana, North Dakota, and even Minnesota, to see these rural areas. I'm originally from a very large farm in Alberta, and there is something fascinating about these rural areas and their history. Cheers! 👍🏻👍🏻✌️🇨🇦
Hi Chris, BEUTIFUL and another Amazing video of SK, I love your walk arounds' We don't have any great old closed buildings here in the uk' I'm really jealous of what you have there' anyway you are also a very lucky man indeed...il just have to stick with what I have here... Really enjoyed this video... Love These vids...im thinking of buying your book anway..
The concrete pads in Feudal were possibly of the former Co-op store which was the last business to close sometime in the 1990's. At that time I think the elevator had just closed and the only resident in town may have been the elevator agent or the Co-op manager. When the location closed it still had a thriving bulk fuel distribution business so the Co-op relocated to nearby Perdue and built a new Convenience store/Gas station on the highway. It remains to this date a viable business.
the town with the old sky hill was called ( stran-rare ) well that is how we pronounced it, Stranraer also had the CBC free to air TV tower in the 70s - 80s
My father worked in those elevators and I spent a lot of time there as a child in the 70’s and 80’s. I can tell you they have huge pits under them for the grain to be dumped and then a mechanized leg took the grain up and into bins. If the floor in there is at all bad you could be very hurt or die. Please do not enter old grain elevators. The pits are full of metal that will be rusted and sharp. Stornoway SK by Wroxton, has an amazing old school and buildings and on HWY 8 east of there is a cool old church with a stone arch.
Thanks for watching! Good advice. I was going to add Stornoway to this video, but someone added no trepassing signs to everything, so I figured they probably didn't want the attention. Neat town, school is great.
Another great video tour Chris! Did you happen to catch the name of the Mayor in Hodgeville? Lol! Going to have to add a visit to some of these places to my bucket list. Always so interesting to picture what these towns once looked like.
Find a yard with outdoor toilet a friend use to look for one picture she took was a Rambler car front left door open parked in front of a outdoor toilet that would be a good picture
We lost our tracks from North Battleford to Turtleford about 15 years ago, they came to regret that decision to take our tracks less than a decade later with the arrival of the SAGD projects, now all of the oil that there isn’t room for through the pipelines has to get trucked down south of the river. Lol! Fortunately we have the oilfield up here, otherwise we’d have lots of ghost towns here as well.
Great video Chris. Your book on abandoned towns is "currently unavailable " on this link here in the UK, I would really like to get my hands on one! Just seen it comes out in July !!
Once the trains leave the towns die. My Dad was a depot agent in CO and saved the grain trains from being removed to another location on this section of the Union Pacific. He was the last Depot agent. Now it is a major Wheat distribution center. He is 93 years old. The depot is gone as computers took over many jobs in the past 30 years. New highways and city jobs took people off their land all planned by the government for more control of the population. Very sad days are ahead of us if we can't grow our own food they also are taking control of by new regulations over water uses.
