stubsadventures

I find ghost towns fascinating and terrifying all at the same time. There is something about a bunch of old, isolated houses that are abandoned, falling apart and being over grown that gets my attention. These towns at one time were all vibrant and full of life and now, they seem forgotten, left behind and oh so creepy.

Driving around, I half expect an old dude to come flying out one of the front doors that I’m taking a picture of with a gun pointed at me, yelling at me to get out of his town. This is Alberta, I believe that possible. Most of the towns I’ve gone to are actually considered semi-ghost towns, meaning there are still a few folks left hanging on, which almost adds to the creepy factor. It’s hard to believe these are entire houses that people just walked away from. Being a homeowner, I couldn’t imagine having to walk away from the house I worked so hard for but for a lot of these communities, that’s what happened when the railway was rerouted or stopped going to the town at all. So really, I believe anything possible when I’m going to check out a new one. I always seemed to be reminded of the movie The Hills Have Eyes when I enter one of these towns, especially when I’m alone. No one can for sure tell me there is human eating mutants waiting for me and that’s what I see happening on one of these expeditions.

I have a favorite ghost town story. So, in 2010, I drove all the way around NFLD. It was amazing. While spending some time on the Bonavista Peninsula there were a couple of coastal ghost towns that I had wanted to check out. I contacted a tour company, (one guy) a few months before leaving and asked him how much a private tour would cost because I wanted to take a lot of pictures and I ask about four million questions. He said that he didn’t do private tours because his morning and afternoon tours were always full and it wasn’t cost-effective. I asked him if he would consider doing an evening tour for me and made him an offer that would make it worth his time. He politely declined and I told him that I would see him in August.  When my time in NFLD came, I called and booked myself in on a group tour. When I showed up that afternoon, the captain apologized and told me that this never happens, that no one else had booked a tour for that afternoon. He asked me if I minded coming back in the morning because it wasn’t very cost-effective to take one person out. I smiled (he at this point has no idea who I am) and said that it wouldn’t be a problem. I stood on the dock and talked to him for about an hour, about what his life was like, what happened to the communities, about old NFLD politics. At the end of our conversation, he said that even if I was the only person again in the morning that we would go out for sure, he could tell it meant a lot to me. The next morning, I show up and I’m not kidding, I was the only one again. He scratched his head as we boarded the boat and told me that it was the strangest thing and that this never happens. As we were flying out of the harbour, I stood next to him at the wheel and asked him if he remembered getting an email from a girl who wanted to have a private tour. He looked me like I was a ghost and I couldn’t help but having a shit eating grin on my face. I smiled wide and told him that he should have named his price. The whole tour we spent together, he was bewildered by the whole thing and now matter how much I told him weird stuff like that happens to me all the time, it didn’t seem to matter. I’m pretty sure he thought I was some kind of witch.

My ghost town pics are from all over Canada from abandoned fishing villages in NFLD, to Dawson City in northern Yukon with some BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan thrown in there.

Stubs.