Saskatchewan Ghost Towns

On Saturday Rob and I got up early, checked out of the hotel, and hit the road.  We headed west, the same direction we had taken the afternoon previously on our scouting trip.  This time we stuck to the Trans Canada Highway, and did not stray up to the north.  Our original plan had been to head to the Great Sand Hills to do some photography.  But it was overcast and VERY windy.  The idea of working with delicate optical equipment in the blowing sand of the active dunes was quickly put aside for Plan B.  Soon we were past Moose Jaw and into some new territory.  At Chaplin there was a mine site right beside the highway.  It was obviously related to the Potash and agricultural fertilizer industry.  There were large slag piles of an alkali-like material that looked like dirty snow.  Small streams were draining through it and down into a nearby lake.  A very strange looking landscape to say the least...

We continued westward and eventually ended up in a town called Ernfold.  This place was a goldmine with photographic subject matter everywhere.  There were a handful of residents still left in town, but a bunch of old abandoned buildings as well.  

An elderly couple was a little suspicious of us, particularly when Rob carried out a bag containing extension legs for the tripod, and a step ladder.  They owned a couple of buildings near the center of town, and had quite a collection of old cars and trucks on their property.  When we explained to them that we were photographers, documenting old historical stuff like this, they relaxed.  It helped a lot when we gave them an invitation to our Procession West show at the Art Gallery of Regina.  When they saw this, they realized that we really were just making photographs, and not trying to steal anything.  With the ice broken they told us about another old town a few miles to the southeast.  At the other end of town there was a wrecking yard full of a bunch more old vehicles and we explored over there for a while as well, before eventually hitting the road again.

We continued on to the south, but generally in a westerly direction.  When we stopped for fuel in Hodgeville the guy at the gas station told us about a couple more towns.  We spent the whole afternoon driving from place to place and explored Shamrock, Kelstern, Hallonquist and Neidpath.  Lots of photo opportunities in many of these places.  But, there were also a lot of ticks.  I had one on me the evening before after wandering around in the tall grass.  But today I ended up with four more, some of which I did not find until hours later.  Fortunately none of them had yet burrowed into my skin and started on a blood meal.  But, this made both of us very irritated and we spent most of the afternoon scratching at imaginary itches and continually checking for the disgusting things.  By late afternoon we made our way back onto the Trans Canada Highway at Swift Current, and then just blasted back into Alberta.  We ended up at Medicine Hat where we found ourselves some accommodations at a hotel, and went to a restaurant for dinner.  We settled down and watched the second game of the Stanley Cup Final between Boston and Chicago, before turning in relatively early.  We planned on getting up early again the next morning and continuing with more photography as we made our way home for Fathers Day.