Prairie Towns

I love the small towns that break up the stretching highways my beautiful home province of Alberta offers. One of my favourite things to do on a weekend is jump in my truck and roam Central Ab. Lately I can’t help but feel Im going from one museum to another. They are fading, many becoming obsolete. I get a melancholic feeling on these trips. Some are mining towns, like Big Valley. In their day they were hubs of economic activity. There is an old community centre and a picturesque church overlooks the town from atop a rolling hill. The drive to Big Valley from the west takes you through one of the many stunning Red Deer River crossings. If you have not been, go. Big Valley is my favourite town for a lot of reasons. My mother is buried nearby. I have memories of my mother and family I love from Big Valley. We lived there briefly.

Nanton may be next on my list. Nanton is historically a ranching town. It used to be called “Tap Town” because they gave out free water to travellers. You can still buy bottled water from Tap Town. Find a bottle and imagine yourself a thirsty traveller on a windswept prairie. That hospitality is still alive in Nanton. They have a few old hotels and a handful of other historic buildings that currently house some of the best antique shops I have ever seen. At the local air museum It has a fully restored Lancaster Bomber. These are very rare. I remember my grandfather telling me all about the Lancaster. He had been part of the RAFs British Commonwealth Air Training Plan that was hugely successful is stocking the Allied in World War torn Europe with well trained pilots. They trained in towns like Nanton, Penhold, Claresholm and many others. The skies of Alberta were filled with the brave for many years.

In almost every town is a church that served the community. The church was the community, the community was the church. Religion and politics aside it is obvious these communities were tight knit, cooperative, and needed each other to survive. Most of these towns were established in the the late 1890s and early 1900s. My favourite era. When men knew how to build sash windows and dormers.

If you want to go back in time, like I so often do, drive in any direction away from where you normally go. Turn your music off. Look outside. History is there in living color. A sagging hip roof barn in a cluster of trees, A homestead that the wind and rain have whipped to near death. An abandoned grain elevator that’s scheduled to be demolished. A community centre in the middle of nowhere thats shuttered off. A boarded up church on a hill. A local cemetery covered in weeds may remind you that like the past, we are all dying. Go see it before it is gone. Its fading fast. Too fast for me. I realize just now, I am more the past than the future.

If you read this far, thank you. Tris