August 15, 2017
Day Two, almost
If you drive around Wainwright long enough you will find Anna’s Restaurant. It’s actually very easy, it’s just not obvious. Anna’s is attached to a gas station. It has a big sign that says, “Anna’s”. Well, maybe it’s more obvious than I let on. Eat breakfast there. First, it’s the only place you can actually get breakfast in Wainwright. Second, it’s pretty damn good breakfast.
The land around Wainwright does reveal some very interesting features: we know, we wandered a lot of backroads. One particular lake, nestled in a hidden valley at the end of a few miles of ‘road’ (4wd access recommended), was very photogenic. The adventure, quite frankly, was better. The area is riddled with roads that are sketchy at best, and frequently only passable to determined idiots like me. I like those kind of places. We did get to see a train cross the Battle River Trestle within a few moments of our arrival; my wife and I hit it a few times recently and were denied. I took it as a sign that the photographic deities were perhaps looking favourably on our journey. After all, we’d already done our time in the desert.
But eventually, after stalking some birds near the Wainwright Wildlife Observation Tower we were southbound to exciting places like Amisk, The Neutral Hills, Consort (home of k.d. lang), Kirriemuir, Altario, Compeer, Loverna, Esther, and Oyen. Remember Oyen. We’ll be talking more about Oyen.
It’s a drive through history. If you take some time you can check off a few destinations on the list of Alberta Ghost Towns. So we took some time. Picking our way along side roads we found the old Altario grain elevator first, followed by Esther.
I particularly like the one at Esther, something about all that orange lichen on the boardwalk.
Loverna was our first real ghost town, though the term cannot truly apply as there are residents among the ruins. We met one. Nice guy. Nothing ghostly about him. We also learned a little about the area from him, including the fact that the grain elevator was now somewhere else, on a private farm.
Loverna offers up some very photogenic old buildings. On the outskirts the less tended are slowly eroding in the earth.
Inside the townsite things are in much better shape, including the Grace United Church. We came, we saw, we exposed.
Back on the road meandering our way towards a yet unspecified hotel, we stumbled upon the grain elevator from Loverna. While admiring it from the driveway the owner came out to greet us. We gave the standard, ‘we’re photographers, we come on peace’ and we were in like Flynn (Wtf is Flyyn anyway?).
The grain elevator was moved in the 1980s, and they still use it today. The highlight for me was getting inside. All you farm people are probably giggling but that’s new ground for an old city boy. Plenty of relics surround the elevator, including some nice old iron. Should you stumble upon it yourselves, be sure to respect the landowner–this is a working elevator.
Mud Buttes
When you’re driving a 4wd through the backcountry and you see a sign that says, Mud Buttes, there really are no options but to check it out. We did. Cool place. A winding path leads you to a mesa, or a butte–a big hill. The land around you disappears, revealing a big, brown canyon. Layers of ancient history are revealed as sedimentary bands in the formations. It may not be as dramatic as what lies ahead in our journey, but it was a clear signal that the land was changing; we weren’t in Kansas anymore.
Oyen was somewhere ahead, after a few distractions to photograph hawks (I think they’re hawks), and despite my best efforts to miss it completely, we indeed found it. Apparently Oyen is a thing. Yelp listed a bunch of restaurants. But staying in Oyen would prove more difficult than anticipated. A big hotel beckoned from the main highway. It was shiny and grey (a hotel can be both) and had expensive neon signs. My Dad went in. I like it when he does that because he usually brings his VISA and that makes any hotel I stay in much nicer. He came back out.
“Let’s check the motel in town” he said. I knew this was code for, ‘Those bastards are trying to rob me and I’m having none of it!’ In town the prospects were slim to none. The Antelope Motel lurched into view, the car was suddenly quiet as we crept past like rookie gangsters sent to cruise a rival clubhouse. Further on, a vacancy sign invited us to call, wait 20 minutes, and learn that they had forget to reset their vacancy sign. Back on the highway we luckily got the last room at the big shiny inn. Thankfully the clerk didn’t smirk too much when the old man handed over his plastic. She did, however, introduce us indirectly to Helen. Helen the life changing lady from Oyen. And for that I am truly thankful.
Who the hell is Helen? I’ll let you know in the next post.
(Hint: It’s all about the chow mein)