Best "ghost town" in Southern Alberta?

[Kloubek]

So, the wife and I were looking at camping this weekend, and instead of sitting around doing nothing all day, we figured maybe we should check out one of the many ghost towns around here.

There is a great site online which has a list of them, but it is difficult to really know how good they are, and how accessible they might be.

So... does anybody know of one where:
1) Hopefully you can go in the old structures
2) Close (somewhat, at least) to a camp site
3) Still has standing buildings as opposed to scattered artifacts and foundations
4) Is accessible by 2WD

[HungryJack]

Leitch Collieries down in Crowsnest Pass near Coleman and Blairmore isn't a Ghost Town per se, but it is walk-throughable with all sorts of inerpretive stuf fand I found it pretty cool. Not to mention you get all the other cool stuff down there like Frank slide, etc.

[Melinda]

Dorothy is a partial ghost town. You cant really walk through anything, but they have two abandoned church type things and a run down grain elevator. There's a whopping 5 houses there and although it looks like they're lived in, we didnt see a single person the entire time we visited. It's about half an hour from drumheller. Easy to get to with any car, but a lot of gravel roads.

[SKR]

I can't think of any off the top of my head that are close to Calgary and have buildings. There's a few ghost towns that I know of but they're not much more than faint depressions in the ground. I still find them interesting because there used to be something there, but you need to have an imagination because there's not much tangible there.

If you do find somethng, a couple tips:
- Old buildings aren't kept up, and nobody checks on them. If you go through a floor, or if something falls on you, you're going to be there for a while. If you do go inside, have someone else stay back a bit so they don't go down with you.
- Old shit isn't nobody's shit; it still has an owner. Going inside is trespassing. Most owners are cool at least with you observing from the outside, but if people make it a problem then the owner might decide they don't want any attention at all. Fun example: there's a "ghost town" with one occupant that I went to once. I didn't leave the public road, and I didn't make an effort to upset the guy. I don't plan on going back, but if I do it will be with some sort of weapon for protection, and if I get out of my truck I'll leave it running with the door open. Most places are okay, but some aren't because people abused it. Don't be one of those people.

Sorry I can't give you a destination.

[corsvette]

You could go to the Nordegg/Rocky Mountain house area,Brazeau is a ghost town (basicly in Nordegg)you can walk around whats left of the mining town or take a guided tour of the Brazeau collieries.

There is also a place north of Nordegg/Rocky called Em-Tee Town,we went there last year and enjoyed the visit,it has lots of authentic buildings full of ancient furniture and artifacts you can just walk through,a pub/eatery,and a general store.There is a few kms of maintained gravel road to get there.

[AndyL]

I really liked nordegg last time I was up there; getting a bit commercial in that they run the tours etc - but it's a pretty cool place - especially when you read up on the history of the site.

Oh and it's a really good excuse to make the tear down 93 from the columbia ice fields to #1 :D I love that drive...

[Kloubek]

So far, Nordegg looks like a front runner. There's a decent writeup here, if anyone is interested:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/nordegg.html

One of the reasons for going, besides something different, is to take pictures. And it appears there is plenty here we can take shots of...

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by Melinda
Dorothy is a partial ghost town. You cant really walk through anything, but they have two abandoned church type things and a run down grain elevator. There's a whopping 5 houses there and although it looks like they're lived in, we didnt see a single person the entire time we visited. It's about half an hour from drumheller. Easy to get to with any car, but a lot of gravel roads.
I was going to say this.
Also on route to Crowsnest pass, right around that area is this big abandoned mining town. People are forbidden to go into it, but it was really cool to see. Its on the main highway out to it. I forget the exact place and name though, as I was driving for 20 hours straight at that point. :thumbsdow

Also is this abandoned mine/hamlet near Carbon. Basically you head straight east of the eastern most portion of the town and you have to walk to get to it. It was closed in the 60's. Definitely cool to see, as no one knows about it and its perfectly preserved. You can walk on what used to be its dirt access road, now completely grown over. Its about a 15 minute walk outside of town. I should see if I can pinpoint it using google earth. I dont have the time though, I have to be up in 6 more hours. DOH!

[idioteque]

+2 for Nordegg. Make sure to hit up the Miner's Cafe!

[derpderp]

I've been to Dorothy Alberta before, I can post some pictures of it later. There is peopl who live there still though, it has a small B&B in town.

[Supa Dexta]

I heard a rumor once about a western town built somewhere between bragg creek and canmore (if I remember right) out in the indian land somewhere... that was used for a Brad Pitt movie.. Legends of the fall maybe?

Anyways, not sure if its true, or where it is exactly.. Anyone ever hear the same?

[R-Audi]

^ Its by Lac Des Arc... I think it has only been a 'ghost town' for 10-20 years though... there is an arena and few other buildings covered in graffiti.
(All second hand knowledge.. a friend works on power stations, and he was telling me about it.)

[sputnik]

What was the town that an oil company was selling a few years ago?

[derran.m]

I'm with Graham and Jack on this one ... Crowsnest is a good place if you're looking to shoot pics of scenery and/or abandoned buildings. Coleman is a ghost town and 90% of downtown is boarded up, as well as a good chunk of the homes.
Go for a wander arond the slide for some pics, wander up a mountain in Bellevue to get some shots of the town and of Turtle Mountain (the one that caused the frank slide) ... Crowsnest is one of my favorite places to be, despite it's abandoned-ness.

[AndyL]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
I heard a rumor once about a western town built somewhere between bragg creek and canmore (if I remember right) out in the indian land somewhere... that was used for a Brad Pitt movie.. Legends of the fall maybe?

Anyways, not sure if its true, or where it is exactly.. Anyone ever hear the same?
Believe you're refering to seebee - started life off as a stop for a steam trains to refill the water tanks; bit of mining eventually - was turned into a japanese interment camp during ww2. Largely abandoned since.

However - it's been on the radar lately as a perpetually affordable housing project for those who work in the bow valley. Haven't heard much on the development - last time I was there it wasn't much to look at...

[speedog]

This supposed "built" western town is probably Bow River Ranch (http://www.bowriverranch.com/).

[85regal]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
I heard a rumor once about a western town built somewhere between bragg creek and canmore (if I remember right) out in the indian land somewhere... that was used for a Brad Pitt movie.. Legends of the fall maybe?

Anyways, not sure if its true, or where it is exactly.. Anyone ever hear the same?

think you are talking about the set of north of 60 the tv show. a town was built around bragg creek for this show. it is still there and still being used for films and tv shows.. do a search on google..lots of info and pictures..

[Cos]

I think I am going to head down to Blairmore and Frank Slide this weekend

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
I heard a rumor once about a western town built somewhere between bragg creek and canmore (if I remember right) out in the indian land somewhere... that was used for a Brad Pitt movie.. Legends of the fall maybe?

Anyways, not sure if its true, or where it is exactly.. Anyone ever hear the same?

Im pretty sure You're thinking of the movie "The assassination of Jesse James" and no it was right off of Dunbow road, directly east of the Chaparral area, about 10 minutes out of town. It wasn't a town (even though I asked since it looked VERY real) but merely a set built entirely for the movie. After it was dismantled and that was that.

(Perhaps these are two totally different movies & sets though).
If you do have the time to check out Dorothy, be sure to check out East Coulee and the Atlas Coal mine.
The Atlas coal mine was really cool, it was shut down in 1976, despite it still produced very usable and good coal.
Around there is the town of Wayne. Not really a ghost town, but still cool to visit. Be sure to have a few beers in their 100 year old hotel/bar. One of the few places I've been to that serves "Black Label" :facepalm: :rofl: :rofl:


EDIT: If you want to visit the most amazing abandoned city in Alberta, fly up to Uranium city. Its in the FAR NE corner of the province almost touching Sask. Basically it used to be a mecca for Uranium until the late 50's, when the technologies of Nuclear fusion changed and the entire Uranium deposits the city of 40,000 thrived on were made redundant. Quite honestly the whole cities population got up and left, including law enforcement. From the late 50's onto the early 60's what very few inhabitants were left were forced to fend for themselves. It was quite honestly a hooligans paradise for the next decade or so. Finally by the mid to late 60's Uranium city was a ghost town with a few residents that refused to leave. You can take a guided tour through the ruins of the city. Smaller prop-style planes still fly up there, surprisingly regularly.
The Uranium mining was done in years before safety standards were established to safe guard personnel from the harmful effects of radiation. To this day a *day* trip into the mining area(s) will give you enough radiation poisoning as deemed by todays standards as the maximum yearly dose of radiation allowed. Its local Beaver Lake was used for the Uranium mining process, and to this day its a completely dead lake. Absolutely nothing grows there due to its remarkable amount of radioactive waste thats contained in it. There are countless mining shafts and other areas people are STRICTLY forbidden to enter due to the amount of radioactive poisoning.
My old room-mate went up there and showed me some *amazing* photos of it. To this day I've been meaning to check it out for myself. You can only go during the summer as the winters are brutal over there, and you cant venture anywhere really.

[idioteque]

seebe was shut down a few years ago. not sure if they tore everything down, or left it standing, but that would be pretty eerie if it was still there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=seebe+alberta&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Seebe,+AB,+Canada&ei=Bf5QTP_1NorCsAOR5qmBDg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ8gEwAA

[jsn]

Sounds like a cool idea for a daytrip. Is there any closer than nordegg? Looked up Dorothy and it looks like there's only a few scattered buildings here and there.

[Graham_A_M]

^ There are a LOT in the area. With visiting Drumheller its easily a day trip within itself.

[AndyL]

Originally posted by idioteque
seebe was shut down a few years ago. not sure if they tore everything down, or left it standing, but that would be pretty eerie if it was still there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=seebe+alberta&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Seebe,+AB,+Canada&ei=Bf5QTP_1NorCsAOR5qmBDg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ8gEwAA

Couple years back when we were spending too much time in banff - the topic of seebe was in the local papers - municipality of bighorn wanted to revive it and make it affordable housing for the residents of the bow valley (ie banff/canmore). Believe they still intend to - catch the odd mention of it; believe most of the buildings are still standing (though in bad disrepair)

[SKR]

Originally posted by Graham_A_M


Im pretty sure You're thinking of the movie "The assassination of Jesse James" and no it was right off of Dunbow road, directly east of the Chaparral area, about 10 minutes out of town. It wasn't a town (even though I asked since it looked VERY real) but merely a set built entirely for the movie. After it was dismantled and that was that.

(Perhaps these are two totally different movies & sets though).
If you do have the time to check out Dorothy, be sure to check out East Coulee and the Atlas Coal mine.
The Atlas coal mine was really cool, it was shut down in 1976, despite it still produced very usable and good coal.
Around there is the town of Wayne. Not really a ghost town, but still cool to visit. Be sure to have a few beers in their 100 year old hotel/bar. One of the few places I've been to that serves "Black Label" :facepalm: :rofl: :rofl:

EDIT: If you want to visit the most amazing abandoned city in Alberta, fly up to Uranium city. Its in the FAR NE corner of the province almost touching Sask. Basically it used to be a mecca for Uranium until the late 50's, when the technologies of Nuclear fusion changed and the entire Uranium deposits the city of 40,000 thrived on were made redundant. Quite honestly the whole cities population got up and left, including law enforcement. From the late 50's onto the early 60's what very few inhabitants were left were forced to fend for themselves. It was quite honestly a hooligans paradise for the next decade or so. Finally by the mid to late 60's Uranium city was a ghost town with a few residents that refused to leave. You can take a guided tour through the ruins of the city. Smaller prop-style planes still fly up there, surprisingly regularly.
The Uranium mining was done in years before safety standards were established to safe guard personnel from the harmful effects of radiation. To this day a *day* trip into the mining area(s) will give you enough radiation poisoning as deemed by todays standards as the maximum yearly dose of radiation allowed. Its local Beaver Lake was used for the Uranium mining process, and to this day its a completely dead lake. Absolutely nothing grows there due to its remarkable amount of radioactive waste thats contained in it. There are countless mining shafts and other areas people are STRICTLY forbidden to enter due to the amount of radioactive poisoning.
My old room-mate went up there and showed me some *amazing* photos of it. To this day I've been meaning to check it out for myself. You can only go during the summer as the winters are brutal over there, and you cant venture anywhere really.

I didn't consider Drumheller to be southern Alberta because I'm an idiot. As has been said several times, the area around Drumheller has lots to see.

I really want to go up to Uranium City.

[Tezzating]

Wife & I were planning a Banff trip this weekend, but I think this threads just changed our plans :D

[Jay911]

Originally posted by 85regal


think you are talking about the set of north of 60 the tv show. a town was built around bragg creek for this show. it is still there and still being used for films and tv shows.. do a search on google..lots of info and pictures..

The North of 60 site is in Kananaskis Country about 5km south of Bragg. There is another movie set in/near/past a gravel pit on the Copithorne lands, north of Redwood Meadows a few kilometers.

The site near the gravel pit has been popular with western movie directors/producers for years now. It's off Township Road 242 past the Volker Stevin compound, but there is security on site if I recall correctly.

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by Tezzating
Wife & I were planning a Banff trip this weekend, but I think this threads just changed our plans :D
Stay in Banff, its an incredible place. I was just there yesterday on my Triumph. I love that place, stay at the Banff springs, as the history there is incredible. So many good restaurants and things to do, (eat at Fusion!).
Its at least worth a weekend to explore. Lake Minnewanka was some amazing hiking/biking trails worth checking out.

[Supa Dexta]

Not in AB, but next month I'm heading to Harbour Deep NFLD... The govt bought out the town in 2002, because it was too remote to afford..

http://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/nf/greatharbourdeep,nfld.html

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2002/08/04/ghd020804.html

Theres only a hunting lodge there now operating.

[thrasher22]

Originally posted by Graham_A_M

EDIT: If you want to visit the most amazing abandoned city in Alberta, fly up to Uranium city. Its in the FAR NE corner of the province almost touching Sask. Basically it used to be a mecca for Uranium until the late 50's, when the technologies of Nuclear fusion changed and the entire Uranium deposits the city of 40,000 thrived on were made redundant. Quite honestly the whole cities population got up and left, including law enforcement. From the late 50's onto the early 60's what very few inhabitants were left were forced to fend for themselves. It was quite honestly a hooligans paradise for the next decade or so. Finally by the mid to late 60's Uranium city was a ghost town with a few residents that refused to leave. You can take a guided tour through the ruins of the city. Smaller prop-style planes still fly up there, surprisingly regularly.
The Uranium mining was done in years before safety standards were established to safe guard personnel from the harmful effects of radiation. To this day a *day* trip into the mining area(s) will give you enough radiation poisoning as deemed by todays standards as the maximum yearly dose of radiation allowed. Its local Beaver Lake was used for the Uranium mining process, and to this day its a completely dead lake. Absolutely nothing grows there due to its remarkable amount of radioactive waste thats contained in it. There are countless mining shafts and other areas people are STRICTLY forbidden to enter due to the amount of radioactive poisoning.
My old room-mate went up there and showed me some *amazing* photos of it. To this day I've been meaning to check it out for myself. You can only go during the summer as the winters are brutal over there, and you cant venture anywhere really.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_City,_Saskatchewan

[Supa Dexta]

Its gotta be really weird to grow up in one of these places, that aren't accessible by road.

Really has to limit the dating pool.. :rofl:

[chrispl]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
I heard a rumor once about a western town built somewhere between bragg creek and canmore (if I remember right) out in the indian land somewhere... that was used for a Brad Pitt movie.. Legends of the fall maybe?

Anyways, not sure if its true, or where it is exactly.. Anyone ever hear the same?

Yeah that would be Seebe. I've been there a few times, alot of buildings still around which you can explore, it's pretty cool. There's a neighborhood, a school, garages, parks and even a indoor curling rink, it's pretty rad but creepy.

[big A]

An interesting ghost town that I go camping at is Rowley. Its pretty much in between Drumhellar and Stettler.
They have a pizza night on the last saturday of every month where the saloon opens and serves drinks and Pizza.
Its a popular spot for photographers and allot of times guys with old cars bring them out for pics in front of the old service station.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/rowley.html

[Cos]

.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by Cos
Does anyone actually know how to get into seebe? We're planning to check it out tomorrow and we went in there today and you are confronted with a huge barbed wire fence and the transalta generating control building. Do you go past that and then into the town? Any easier ways to go in?

hwy 1>1x> park in lot on the right before you go over the water>walk up road :dunno:

i've heard that sometimes the gate is even unlocked and you can drive right into town, but i would cause you might get locked in :rofl:

**this info is at least 2 years old

[Cos]

.

[ercchry]

yeah you do, goes right into town. its called horseshoe drive i believe.

[Darell_n]

I drove though Dorothy a few times this spring and the first thought I had was 'shit, they must have filmed The Hills Have Eyes, here'.

[Maybelater]

I was told Seebe is gone?

That gate might be unlocked at times, but I wouldn't drive through, they might lock it again and you'll be stuck on the other side!

[THE GOVERNATOR]

East Coulee/Atlas Mine is a great place to visit. the girlfriend an myself went on the atlas mine tour last halloween.

10 mins east of Drumheller AB.


http://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/eastcoulee.html

[colinderksen]

We got to SeeBee by driving over that bridge and past the Transalta shacks. As of a few years ago it was there as we started salvaging out a bit of the power line in there.
Not much to see as we wandering all around the curling rink, school, main camp house. Not that interesting. Mostly destroyed by Morley Indians partying there.

[5000Audi]

seebee has one building left as of last summer.. its an old power or sweage building.. reason people go out there is for the cliff diving not the town..best way to get there is walking.. drive over the bridge, take a right hand turn onto a small road and follow it across the train tracks.. drive up the hill on the gravel road, very thin road so might scratch your cars with the trees around it.. once you get to the top of the hill there is a open space for parking.. there is a goat trail that will lead you to either seebee or the cliffs.. if you have a 4x4 truck with decent clearance you can drive over the train tracks in the clearing and 3/4 of the way to the cliffs but could probably drive right into seebee, that land is owned by the power company there( trans alta) so i dont suggest driving into the town could cause problems..
the cliff diving is awesome as the water is glacial flow, can dive from 10 feet up to like 40 or 50 i think.. very busy place amoung people from 18-30 now days... last summer someone was actually air lifted out due to hitting rocks while jumping.. still awesome tho!!


***edit*** if you park your car up in the clearing make sure to take all valuables out as theres alot of native folk around there... not say they will break in but i wouldnt count it out!

[Graham_A_M]

FAR from Calgary, or Canada. But check out this abandoned city near Nagasaki

http://www.cafeterra.info/2009/01/hashima.html

^ It holds the world record for the highest pop. desity in the world at 139k/ square km.

[ucmagic]

Come to Drumheller. It is becoming more and more well known as THE Most Haunted Town In Southern Alberta. From a guided ghost walk tour, to a seance - almost every building in the downtown and surrounding area has an ACTIVE ghost story attached to it.

Come and see for yourself.