The Most To Ghost

Old Wives, Saskatchewan

Posted on May 3, 2015 by craigbaird

From the early 1900s, Old Wives was a small hamlet with a unique name. The name itself came from a Cree legend in which a Cree camp was attacked by Blackfoot warriors and the older women of the camp were unable to escape. While trying to swim away, they drowned in the lake of the same name. Interestingly, Old Wives Lake is the largest natural lake in the entire province.

The name Old Wives was used as early as the early-1900s, but it was not until 1929 that it was the official name of the community.

The first mail service to the area was started in 1911, with Tom Lundrigan hauling the mail from Mortlach.

The first store in the area was owned by Bill Sheldon, who started a store out of his home. A new store would be built at the townsite in the 1930s and it would operate for nearly 40 years, before closing up shop in 1968. The post office would close one year later on Oct. 10, 1969.

Everything got moving for the community in 1930, when steel came through from Moose Jaw and the trains began to arrive.

While the town briefly prospered, The Great Depression and severe droughts in 1937, 1951 and 1959 spelled the end for the community. Today, very little remains of Old Wives.

Govenlock

Posted on April 5, 2015 by craigbaird

images Once a community of 151 people, it was located in the far southwest corner of Saskatchewan. Coming along thanks to the railroad, the community got its name from a Moose Jaw resident named Wiliam Govenlock. William came to the area in 1910 with his family, and would be one of the first pioneer families in that corner of Saskatchewan. In 1913, he negotiated a land deal with the CPR and the new town was named for him as a result. William would establish the post office that same year, with his wife serving as the postmaster.

The first hotel in the community was built in 1914, standing two-storeys high and with ten rooms. In 1917, James Gaff came to the community and stopped at the hotel for a rest. When he found out there were no rooms available at the hotel, he purchased the entire building for $4,500.

During its heyday, the community had a large CPR station, a section house, two elevators, two general stores, a livery barn, a pool room, a service station that sold MOdel Ts and much more.

In 1919, Montana outlawed liquor, and as a result, Americans began to come to Govenlock by train to get liquor. It was not long before the small community had four liquor warehouses that served liquor to the booming population. During those early days, Govenlock was certainly a party town, with Americans arriving in their Fords and Studebakers, filled with sandbags when they got to the community. When they would head back home to Montana, they would take out the sandbags, and replace it with liquor. This was a highly lucrative business, with Canadian beer costing 12 cents per barrel. Each barrel would have three burlap sacks, with 24-four-quart bottles wrapped in straw in each sack. The barrel was wholesaled for $24, and then sold for $140 in the United States. One car, with 14 barrels and five cases of liquor could get a profit of $2,500.

The good days ended in 1922 when stricter laws came into place from the Saskatchewan government. They ruled that liquor export houses could only be in communities with 10,000 people or more. This slowly caused Govenlock to fade away. By 1962, only one elevator was left and this was demolished. In 1990, the last remaining buildings in Govenlock were bulldozed by the RM, including the historic Govenlock Hotel. Today, the only building left is the community hall, built in 1948.

Yonker

Posted on March 8, 2015 by craigbaird

It all began when W.O. Winters supervised the laying down of steel for the Grand Trunk Railway in 1908. It was this man, who gave the name Yonker to the future community. He chose the name in honour of his mother, whose maiden name was Yonker. Located near Manitou Beach, it had a short but interesting history.

The first train would roll through in 1908 and a station was converted out of a box car on the north side of the tracks. A water tank was also installed but it was found that water in the area had alkali in it and was unsuitable for for steam engines. As such, the water tank was moved to the town of Winter.

Yonker would have an immigration hall built in 1908, which was used for only a few years. In 1911, a Yonker station was built and was large enough to have living quarters inside. A store also opened, owned by Thomas Holmes, who had also operated the post office since 1909.

The community quickly grew and an elevator was event built, owned by the Security Grain Company. The first elevator agent for the community was Tom Keith.

The community enjoyed good daily service from the trains, one from Edmonton and one from Saskatoon, coming an hour a part.

Unfortunately, the community began to fade in the 1940s and by 1947 with so many gone from the community, the post office shut down and the grocery business officially closed. For a time, the old store and post office still stood, complete with cubby holes for the mail.

Today, only a few crumbling buildings still remain.

Loverna, Saskatchewan

Posted on February 23, 2015 by craigbaird

There was once a town called Loverna, which thrived to the point of having 500 people living in it. Like so many other communities, it came into being thanks to the railway coming through. Located near the Alberta border, in southwest Saskatchewan, the community was named for Loverna McFarland, who was a railway official’s daughter.

The railway came through the community that would one day be Loverna in 1913 and it did not take long for the community to spring up. Businesses were popping up in the community very quickly. The community was known for its Sports Days, which were very popular and featured competitions in baseball between the various communities. In 1915, the rink was built and hockey, curling and rodeo competitions became popular among the towns people.

Throughout the early part of the 20th century, the community thrived as more and more settlers came to the community to take advantage of the abundance of ranching and farming opportunities. By the early part of the 1920s, the community had 500 people in it and many businesses including a hotel, two doctors, four lumberyards, two grain elevators, two pool rooms, a newspaper and even a hospital.

The future was looking bright for the community but times were about to change. The Great Depression began to suck the life from the community, as it did to many others, and with the droughts the settlers began to leave. Many moved to areas of Saskatchewan that were closer to larger centres.

By the 1960s, the community was in a serious decline and the destruction of the hotel in a fire did not help manners.

The closure of the branch lines from Dodsland in the 1980s continued the sharp decline. By the 21st century, only five people still lived in the community.

The community provides a chance to see many old buildings that were once thriving spots in a thriving community.

Despite the decline, the community is still home to a few people and in 2013, the community held celebrations for its 100th anniversary.

You can see several current photos of Loverna at this Flickr Site

Thank you to Ghost Town Pix (http://www.ghosttownpix.com/sask/) for information for this post.