Documentary Film - Prairie Ghost Towns - Day 4

I closed my shop back in Edmonton for Easter Monday.  This gave all the staff an extra day off, as well as permitted me to extend my weekend for the documentary film project.  

For the fourth day in a row we headed over to the local A&W restaurant for our morning coffee, after checking out of our motel rooms.  In addition to this being Easter Monday, it was also my birthday and Byron graciously bought breakfast, not only for me, but for the entire group.

On this day we had plans to explore the town of Loverna.  I have been to this town several times before.  Chris had arranged with Ray and his wife Sheila, two of the few remaining residents, for permission to explore in town.  I had met them on a previous visit and in fact sent them a print of the old Monarch Garage, following my last visit. They once owned this building which has since been demolished.  This used to be a thriving town that extended for several blocks in all directions.  It was historically the business center for much of this part of southwestern Saskatchewan and had stores and shops of all description.  Much of the town was lost to fires in the past and there is not a lot remaining.  Even since my last visit, in the fall of 2013, there has been a noticeable deterioration.  The town includes a handful of older houses, most abandoned but a few still occupied.  There is a local post office and Ray still operates a mechanical and welding shop.  There is an old Legion Hall, a couple old stores, two churches, a community hall and a war memorial.  The grain elevators, the rest of the businesses and the rail line are long gone.  The old curling rink still stands at the edge of town though it has not been used for 20 years.

We were hopeful that the weather would improve on this day, particularly in light of the nice [relatively speaking] weather of the previous afternoon.  But, that was not to be the case.  Like most of the rest of the weekend it remained cool, windy and overcast.  After finishing up our explorations and photography, we warmed up with a coffee and visited with Sheila and Ray for a while.  We all had a realively long drive back home so we wrapped things up a little earlier on this day.  Byron departed for Calgary at this point while Rueben, Chris and myself headed back over to Esther.  Despite the fact that the weather conditions were not ideal, it was significantly better than it had been when we first visited Esther on Good Friday.  We made a brief stop for a couple more photos and a little more video footage and then set off in different directions.

It was about 3:45 when I hit the road back to Edmonton.  I basically drove non-stop back to Edmonton and arrived home around 7:30PM.  Margarit and the girls were visiting with her Mom and her brother Shawn and his kids when I arrived.  They had just wrapped up their family Easter dinner, but I arrived too late to join in.  There was an opportunity to visit for a bit before they left after which I had to deal with unpacking all of my gear and putting it away.

I really enjoyed this trip and the opportunity to become friends with Rueben and Byron.  I look foward to seeing the finished product once Rueben has completed the editing and production work.  In the meantime, here is a link to Rueben's website for anyone that is interested in seeing his work.

www.thecacheproject.ca