Abandoned Places

Are you, like me, fascinated by abandoned places? In this blog post I will talk about this interest and what I think are the key things about their attraction.

Perhaps you have heard it said that people who travel and investigate abandoned places are called “urban or rural explorers,” depending on their location. In preparation for writing this blog post I traveled to a nearby abandoned service station. I have driven by it numerous times over the years but never once stopped to have a closer look. That is, until this morning. On my way there I was talking to Denise on the phone and said that if I got my one phone call after being arrested for trespassing that I would call her and she could call our lawyer friend Ben to help me get bail. All kidding aside, I would make a terrible urban explorer because I am a big chicken, afraid of getting in trouble for being in places that I am not supposed to be. I am happy to report that I did not get busted for anything this morning, and even snapped a few pictures. The one below is the best of about 12.

Abandoned Service Station – Photo by Don Cheke

Speaking of trespassing and breaking and entering, which is often required in this activity, I once asked a fellow I followed on Instagram, who presented wonderful pictures of his explorations, how it was that he was able to get access to so many unique places. He confessed that he was always somewhat nervous because he did, indeed, enter many places without permission which could end him in a heap of trouble. He also said that he was nervous because so many places posed a danger to his safety. He confirmed that he was always careful not to leave his mark or to take any chances at getting hurt by doing something stupid. He did confirm that there were places where he could and did find permission to enter and take photos to his heart’s content. I can’t remember who the fellow was since I deleted my Instagram account quite a while ago and can’t go back to check.

Starting around 2008 or 2009, Denise and I began to make a point of taking short day trips to many of the towns that surround Saskatoon. We usually limited the distance to a maximum of about 3 hours one way. That was/is enough time to have an enjoyable country drive, a picnic at the desired location, and a relaxing trip home afterward, all the while in daylight hours. The towns or locations we chose/choose are the ones we would typically see signs for when travelling from one major location to another and never take the time to stop and see what those never-seen locations have to offer. It has proved time and again to be a great time and adventure.

Abandoned Town (1) – Photo by Don Cheke

The image above and the one below are from the abandoned town of Smutz, SK, just 40 minutes outside Saskatoon. We did take some interior shots, but they are not the greatest images due to the lightning. Talk about dangerous too, with the 2-story building above having floors and stairs that were rotted and full of holes.

Abandoned Town (2) – Photo by Don Cheke

When I visit an abandoned place, I typically have a range of feelings come over me.

First off, I can’t help but feel a great sadness at the loss the abandoned or derelict place speaks to. I feel that it likely represents the loss of someone’s dreams, the loss of family or family members, the loss of someone’s livelihood, if it a business-like structure such a factory or institute, of just a loss in general. This feeling is often strong enough for me to give a second thought to investigating an abandoned place. That said, there are other feelings that make me want to proceed, which I will also mention.

Abandoned Farmhouse – Photo by Don Cheke

One of the saddest looking towns Denise and I visited on our travels was called Dana. As we drove through, we noted very few houses and all of them were little more than shacks, the type you might see in the poorest communities. There appeared to be some people still living there, but they obviously had little in the way of money, certainly not enough to keep the places up. It was heartbreaking, and scary, to see such poverty. It was even worse than what Denise and I saw one year when we accidentally drove through Camden, New Jersey while near there for a work visit in a neighboring community. If you are not familiar, Camden, NJ has/had the reputation of being one of the poorest and rundown locations in the United States. At least, Dana, SK was a tiny speck compared to Camden.

Another aspect, or the draw to abandoned places, is curiosity. Seeing these places is not that much different than wanting to stay at an accident scene and watch things unfold. It is something very different from the ordinary, and who doesn’t want to see and understand such things. In the case of accidents, it might be more likely what some consider a morbid curiosity.

Near the town of Dana was a Royal Canadian Air Force radar station, of the same name. It was part of the NORAD system. When I was 22 years old and working on a nearby dairy farm, I went to a Dana Air Force Base open house. It was an interesting place to visit, including the radar towers that were on a nearby hill. It was certainly dated by then, but still a very much alive and happening place. The picture below shows the base at a time when it was in active use. Based on the number of trailers and buildings it obviously employed quite a few people.

RCAF Base Dana – Photo by Unknown, Year Unknown

Many years later, while Denise and I were at Dana, we drove into the former base, which was by then owned by a buffalo farmer. We barely got to the first deteriorated building when the farmer raced towards us and quickly told us to get off his land, as it was now private property and we were not welcome. Although he gave us a scare, he was not violent or anything like that, but we knew there was no way he would let us look even if we asked nicely. We left immediately and I felt cheated somehow. I thought how unfair it is that any joe with money can buy up these places when the government moves on and history is lost. I haven’t driven there since that time, so I don’t know if all the buildings are still there being lost to nature, or if he bulldozed it all. While writing this bit about Dana, I found a YouTube video tour from 2008 that someone got permission from the wife to do. It is well worth a look. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_fP7evUOZE (Copy and paste into browser if desired)

Here is one image from the video. It sure looks different than when I visited during the open house in 1982. Yep, quite sad. Just looking at the greenery growing on the floor and the significant deterioration, it’s not hard to imagine that old mother nature would eventually consume all man’s structures if left to her own devices after an apocalypse.

RCAF Dana Hall Interior – Photo by PrairiePast

A sense of adventure is certainly an alluring aspect of urban or rural exploration. It is fascinating to venture into the unknown and see many things that we don’t typically encounter in our day-to-day lives. Things don’t even need to be completely derelict to illicit that feeling. Sometimes even a look from a distance can tell a whole story.

Abandoned Farm & Equipment – Photo by Don Cheke

Here in Saskatchewan, there are many old farms that look like the one above. Almost like the folks just walked away one day and never looked back. There are other farms too, where you might see something similar and if you look to the next quarter, or even the next yard space, a newer home and newer equipment resides. The old one being left intact so that it can be looked upon and remembered for its part in their history. Maybe it was the parent’s homestead, no longer functional, but a treasured part of their history, as I said.

Attaining historical or cultural insights into the past is also a huge part of the type of exploration we are talking about here. Saskatchewan, unlike a place like England with its history measured in millennia, has a relatively short history in the sense of civilization. Sure, Saskatchewan has its first nation’s history, but even that is not much more than farming and simple living. As such, most of the abandoned places that are encountered here have to do with little else. Certainly not on the scale of European countries. No buried Roman civilizations here!

Abandoned Barn – Photo by Don Cheke

This reminds me of a time when I was looking at photos of Saskatoon from around 1910, or thereabouts. Although established in 1883, Saskatoon was still a no-nothing place by the early 1900’s. It looked like an old western town with little to offer. At that time, I compared Saskatoon to New York of 1910, and the difference was stunning. In some ways, New York of those times seemed almost European in stature and certainly huge and more modern by comparison to my beloved Saskatoon. It dawned on me just how late in the game settlers moved west from the eastern edges of the country.

I find an eerie, or haunting, beauty of sorts in the things I find while exploring the abandoned places I have come across or view online. They tend to present a contrast between life and death, which has a beauty of its own, as seen in the three examples below.

Abandoned Machinery – Photo by Don Cheke

Abandoned Vehicles – Photo by Don Cheke

Abandoned Plow – Photo by Don Cheke

There is also a sense of unpredictability when one goes exploring abandoned places. One just never knows what they will encounter. Note that the image below is the one used as the feature image for this blog post.

Abandoned Garage & Shed – Photo by Don Cheke

You would never guess from looking at the outside that there was this old beauty just inside the door. In modern parlance, this would be called a garage find! Sorry for the overexposed image exterior! I tried to tame it down with little luck.

Abandoned Garage & Shed with Old Car – Photo by Don Cheke

Old Car – Photo by Don Cheke

Sometimes, abandoned places are the cost of progress, and as sad it is to say goodbye to the old, the new is usually a much welcome advance, as it was for this old bridge near Outlook, SK. It is nice that the old bridge has remained intact, although inaccessible, for years, as it is a testament to the engineering beauty of yesteryear.

Derelict Bridge (1) – Photo by Don Cheke

Derelict Bridge (2) – Photo by Don Cheke

Old and New Bridge – Photo by Don Cheke

I am fond of taking images from my abandoned places travels and making art with them. I believe that this, besides giving me much pleasure, gives them a continued life of sorts. This is somewhat like the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren in the form of photo albums and the like. An afterlife of sorts, if you will. The tanker car is one such image that I modified with some photo editing to show its colorful industrial beauty. Note that the tanker car was rescued and now resides, as is, at a local history enthusiast railroad museum. It still sits outside, so will likely continue to deteriorate over time, but at least it has not been scrapped.

Tanker Car – Photo & Photo Editing by Don Cheke

I must say that I am thrilled that there are so many people that see the value in abandoned places and the history they remind of us. Museums are of particular interest to me since the items have been rescued and restored in many cases. A true testament to human ingenuity and spirit.

Below are a couple photos I took at the Moose Jaw and Calgary aviation museums.

Rescued & Refurbished Plane (1) – Photo by Don Cheke

Rescued & Refurbished Plane (2) – Photo by Don Cheke

It is kind of weird, but I get almost giddy when I am around airplanes. I want to crawl all over and inside them to try and feel their essence. I have rarely had the chance but did get the experience twice. Once was a trek through an old Lancaster bomber. I was blown away how small the operator areas were. I guess that is why they only allowed skinny teenagers to fly them. Seriously, it was tight spaces only, I guess to leave room for more bombs, which is not a very happy thought. The second time was while visiting the tiny aviation museum here in Saskatoon, where a DC-3 sits proudly on the runway apron and folks are allowed to climb in for a closer look. Although I like the experience it is never as exciting to do it as it is just pondering it beforehand. Does that make sense?

DC-3 – Photo by Don Cheke

DC-3 – Photo by Don Cheke

DC-3 – Photo by Don Cheke

In the fall of 2012, Denise and I took a trip to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, Ontario. It was the first time in my life that I had been east of Winnipeg in Canada. The whole trip was fantastic, but one place that we visited was unimaginable. It too, was an abandoned place that had been rescued and turned into a museum. I am talking about the Diefenbunker. That is, the cold war era underground bunker constructed as a place for government ministers, such as the Prime Minister and the like, to take shelter in the event of a nuclear attack. It was commissioned in 1959 by then prime minister John Diefenbaker. I don’t think that Diefenbaker ever had the need to take shelter there, but as I learned on the tour, had there been a need he would not have gone because he had been informed that his wife would not have been included in the list of shelterees. I thought that spoke volumes about what type of man he was. I would be the same, I would never leave my missus behind just to save myself. No way in the world!

A pretty innocent looking shed in the countryside.

Diefenbunker Entry – Photo by Don Cheke

Diefenbunker Tunnel into Facility – Photo by Don Cheke

Sadly, I don’t have any other pictures that show the wonders of the Diefenbunker. Since it has survived the wrecking ball and been turned into a museum, you can visit it yourself, or find images right online via a Google search.

Speaking of Google, I love to visit abandoned places that others have traveled to and have actually made walking tours available with Google street view technology. Check out Midway Island or Midway Atoll, for instance, or the abandoned town where the Chernobyl reactor went critical – now that is one sad and depressing place. But still, what a fantastic time to be alive in history and get a chance to see so much without leaving home.

Denise and I will continue to make our summer daytime treks around the countryside to see what other wonders we can find. Some of the towns we have travelled to have left a good lasting impression, so we have never been disappointed to have taken the time to stop and smell the roses along the way, as that saying goes.

Let me know in the comments if you have visited some abandoned places that have left a mark on your memory, or made you ponder life and its changing landscape.

Donald B. Cheke – July 29, 2024