Page 18 – <strong>Kerby</strong> News – August 2013Revisit<strong>in</strong>g the past:Story and photos by Tim JohnstonPage design and layoutby W<strong>in</strong>ifred Ribeirodown Alberta’s Highway 12 and homeDahl house on Highway 886.Once someth<strong>in</strong>g grand, Ch<strong>in</strong>ook.Country school along Highway 9.Prairie Stonehenge.It’s hard to expla<strong>in</strong> myattraction to locations wherepeople once dwelled. When Ivisit places where the populationis long gone or just hang<strong>in</strong>g on, Ihave an almost visceral reactionthat makes me wonder what lifewas like there <strong>in</strong> the halcyon days.That’s why I look for opportunitiesfor road trips that take me tosuch dest<strong>in</strong>ations.In May, I had some work <strong>in</strong>Red Deer. That provided reasonenough to head east on Highway12 afterward to explore a partof Central East Alberta that Ihadn’t seen <strong>in</strong> several years.Leav<strong>in</strong>g Red Deer late <strong>in</strong> theafternoon, I stopped <strong>in</strong> everylittle settlement along the way.By nightfall I was <strong>in</strong> Coronationas a guest of the CoronationMotel (breakfast <strong>in</strong>cluded!). Thenext day, I drove on to Monitor,New Brigden and Sedalia, thenwest to Highway 36. That tookme down to the Trans-CanadaHighway and a non-stop run toCalgary and home. Photographswere taken <strong>in</strong> villages and villageremnants as well as at isolatedpioneer schools and houses,some of which are now over100 years old.Flat bed, Monitor.So what did I see along theway? A wonderful front yard <strong>in</strong>Ersk<strong>in</strong>e; Alberta Prairie Railwaypassenger coaches <strong>in</strong> Stettler;and the enormous and abandonedEmporium <strong>in</strong> Botha. In GadsbyI photographed the curl<strong>in</strong>g r<strong>in</strong>k,where no one has curled for25 years, and the brick bankbuild<strong>in</strong>g. Old bank build<strong>in</strong>gs arestill quite common althoughseldom used any more by theirorig<strong>in</strong>al owners. This one is nowhome to the Gadsby HobbyClub. The village once had anInternational Harvester dealerand the build<strong>in</strong>g, with its ornatescreen door, still stands. A fa<strong>in</strong>ttrace of the IH logo can still beseen up on the po<strong>in</strong>ty part of thefacade. The school is perhapsthe most modern build<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> thehamlet although no longer usedfor its orig<strong>in</strong>al purpose. As if toemphasize, the "S" is miss<strong>in</strong>gfrom the school sign.Halkirk was rather nice,particularly with its restoredhotel. I asked about the rate($55 with the bathroom downthe hall) and maybe should havetaken a room. I would have saved$30 but wouldn't have got quiteas far down the road as I wantedto be. Halkirk boasts a tallwater tower with village nameemblazoned, the two-story SnackShop and Consignment Storeand Buck's Place for HandmadeCrafts. Castor and Federal werevisited but didn't merit anyphotographs. The light wasfad<strong>in</strong>g and I was gett<strong>in</strong>g tired.Or maybe I was entranced by theendless field of w<strong>in</strong>d turb<strong>in</strong>esnear Fleet, their synchronizedred lights popp<strong>in</strong>g across theprairie <strong>in</strong> the deepen<strong>in</strong>g dusk.Coronation was reachedafter dark and I settled <strong>in</strong> at theCoronation Motel. Photographswere downloaded to the MacBook and email messages sentto family. At 5:30 next morn<strong>in</strong>g,I awoke and couldn’t get backto sleep, which was good, as Igot a head start with the <strong>in</strong>credibledawn light. Coronation’ssignature billboard depict<strong>in</strong>g acrown outl<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> colored lightsshowed from my motel w<strong>in</strong>dowand became the first photographof a new day.As advertised, breakfast was<strong>in</strong>cluded. This meant Mrs. Motelfried eggs on an electric skilletwhile Mr. Motel cooked baconand sausages <strong>in</strong> some sort ofenormous oven, from the topof which issued all the fumesand cook<strong>in</strong>g odors of the food<strong>in</strong>side. It was a tasty breakfastbut I smelled of fried bacon allday long.Leav<strong>in</strong>g the motel, Idrove around town look<strong>in</strong>g for"likely suspects" and found themat a feed mill, Jack's Shoe Store,the office of the “CoronationReview,” and the once-upon-atimeAvalon Theatre.Eastbound aga<strong>in</strong>, I reachedmy turn<strong>in</strong>g po<strong>in</strong>t at Monitor.This t<strong>in</strong>y hamlet proved to bephotographically productive.The boarded-up post officebuild<strong>in</strong>g, still with its sign acrossthe front, seemed embraced <strong>in</strong>the arms of encroach<strong>in</strong>g trees.Across the road I visited anabandoned house with a backporch full of <strong>in</strong>tricate detail.Backed <strong>in</strong>to a nearby shed sata 1940's v<strong>in</strong>tage GMC flat decktruck.Leav<strong>in</strong>g Monitor, I travelledsouth toward New Brigden, thesite of one of the last watertowers built to service steamlocomotives of the Grand TrunkPacific Railroad.About 15 kilometers north ofNew Brigden, I noticed strangehigh bluffs west of the highway,perhaps ten kilometers distant.Visit<strong>in</strong>g these would be <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>gbut there didn’t seem to be aroad that led to them. But as Icont<strong>in</strong>ued down the highway ablue sign appeared, beckon<strong>in</strong>gme to turn west to see the “MudButtes, a Natural Attraction.”Advertisement on the Botha Emporium build<strong>in</strong>g.Follow<strong>in</strong>g a gravel road f<strong>in</strong>allygot me to the top of the bluffs.Had I gone any further, I couldhave ended up <strong>in</strong> a wreck at thebottom of the buttes, as an oldChrysler K Car already had! Thearea is both eerie and fasc<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g.The distance from the topsof the buttes to the bottom ofthe washouts is about 300 feet.The composition of the bluffs<strong>in</strong>cludes strange flaky dirt ontop that, when wet by ra<strong>in</strong>,slips away down the gullies <strong>in</strong>mud flows and erodes thebluffs.After an hour’s visit, I droveon to New Brigden. This is avery isolated part of the prov<strong>in</strong>ce,which accounts for the cont<strong>in</strong>u<strong>in</strong>gexistence of its little school.There is also a post office, clad<strong>in</strong> sh<strong>in</strong>y t<strong>in</strong> plates, the aforementionedwater tower, and StJohn's Anglican Church. Thechurch doors were unlockedand the lights turned on whenI flipped the switch. All theaccouterments of an active churchwere present, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g thecollection plate, because it is anactive church. A neighborhoodcat attended with me. Apart fromthese build<strong>in</strong>gs, there are perhapstwo or three homes be<strong>in</strong>glived <strong>in</strong> and about the samenumber of places folk have justleft beh<strong>in</strong>d.The hamlet of Sedaliaboasts two post offices. Theorig<strong>in</strong>al federally providedcookie-cutter build<strong>in</strong>g is abandonedand the "new" post officeis located <strong>in</strong> a private home.Besides gather<strong>in</strong>g one's mail,some libations are available forsale, movies can be rented andsnack food purchased. A babyshower gift hung from the w<strong>in</strong>dowcrank near the post boxes.While not officially "mail" itwould no doubt reach its <strong>in</strong>tendedrecipient.Head<strong>in</strong>g south from Sedalia,a solitary house sat near thehighway. The build<strong>in</strong>g is over100 years old and the story ofone of its denizens is told on asmall card attached to the sid<strong>in</strong>g.A little girl moved <strong>in</strong>to thehouse <strong>in</strong> 1909 when she wasthree years old. In 2000, shereturned and read the card.Reach<strong>in</strong>g Cereal, I encounteredone of the causes of thedecl<strong>in</strong>e of rural communities.The CNR l<strong>in</strong>e that once ran herehas long been abandoned. Now,however, the rails have beentorn up and the ties are be<strong>in</strong>gsalvaged as well. The MarshallWells store is boarded up but thevillage had a couple of <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>ghomes made out of formerbus<strong>in</strong>ess properties.From Cereal, I travelledwest to Ch<strong>in</strong>ook where I saw awonky old tumbledown build-Snack Shop and Consignment Store, Halkirk.W<strong>in</strong>d turb<strong>in</strong>es near Fleet.<strong>in</strong>g that was once a garage ofconsiderable stature. In comparison,the Ch<strong>in</strong>ook Hall is practicallyprist<strong>in</strong>e. At Youngstown,I turned south to Big Stone, andthen on to Pollockville, Cessford,Wardlow and Patricia.Photographs were taken alongthe way with the last be<strong>in</strong>g madeat Millicent where I encountereda barn repaired with license platesand a f<strong>in</strong>al abandoned housesituated among beautiful trees.The Emporium, Botha.Over the course of a lateafternoon, an even<strong>in</strong>g and along day, I travelled nearly 700kilometers. What I experienced,I felt, was a sense of whatpioneers of the region may havefelt when they arrived over100 years ago: enormous spaceand distances, and a sense ofpossibilities that might be.This was rather a lonelyroad trip, but one that I highlyrecommend.❑Tim Johnston retired to Calgary after a 30-year career with theAlberta Teachers’ Association <strong>in</strong> Edmonton.To see more of his stories and photographs, visit his website atwww.timothyallanjohnston.com.August 2013 – <strong>Kerby</strong> News – Page 19St John’s Anglican Church, New Brigden.Coronation’s Avalon Theatre Marquee.Sedalia Post Office, Movie Rentals and Liquor Sales.
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