Day Trip with Arturo 1

On April 15th I headed out on a day trip with my friend and fellow Monochrome Guild member, Arturo.  Due to ongoing restrictions related to the Covid Pandemic we were unable to travel together in the same vehicle.  We met on Thursday morning out at Elk Island National Park.  We didn't bother to venture into the park itself, just used the parking area as a convenient meeting spot.  From there we continued northeast into Lamont County.

Not long after setting out we came across an abandoned farm yard.  The roof of the house had collapsed and the outbuildings were not in much better shape.  We found an old car in the bush and photographed this.  It had an emblem on the trunk that said "Envoy".  I did a little checking on line and in the late 1960's, General Motors made several versions of this vehicle, which is much different from their current Envoy model.  Most were sold in Canada under the Vauxhall brand.

There was a large dead dog laying in the grass behind the house.  It was fresh and the body had not yet been scavenged.  The dog was wearing a collar but there were no tags.  There was no evidence of trauma or injury so we weren't certain what caused its death.  Kind of sad, and rather a startling find.

Some time later we came across another old farm yard.  We stopped and photographed here for quite some time.  It was a beautiful day with very mild temperatures, clear blue skies, and no wind.  I photographed here with both my 4x5 and my 8x10 view cameras.  While we were stopped here two different vehicles stopped and checked out what we were doing.  The first was a couple of older gentlemen one of whom lived just down the road to the south.  He explained to us that the old house had once been a Post Office and a store.  A short time later a second gentleman stopped.  He lived just to east, and it turns out that he was related to one of the two guys that had stopped previously.  He told us that there had once been a Post Office on the site, but it had been in a separate building.  He reminisced that he often visited with friends at the house to play music, and to play cards.  In fact we found the Queen of Spades on the ground just outside the house.

He also explained to us that the South Victoria Trail had once passed right by this location.  The main Victoria Trail is historically very well known and followed the north bank of the North Saskatchewan River.  But, he insisted that there was a south leg of the trail that passed this location, some distance away from the river.  He told us that the trail was still visible in a nearby pasture, and we went and checked it out before we left the area.  He was indeed correct, but it has been partially disturbed by a new lease road to a nearby wellsite.

Once we finished up photographing at this interesting and beautiful location, we continued on to the south, beginning a big loop around for our eventual journey back towards the city.