20 Abandoned Towns to Add to Your Canadian Road Trip Itinerary – Nationwide

Did you know that Canada has many abandoned towns?

Canada started out as small settlements, many of which grew into large cities. But not all settlements are destined to grow forever. Several towns were built and often prospered for some time before the inhabitants gave up and went to seek property elsewhere. These eerie abandoned towns in Canada may not be as famous as their bustling metropolises, but they’re no less charming.

Bounty, Saskatchewan

If images of abandoned theaters, barns, and TV sets inspire you, you need to add a bounty to your bucket list. According to Abandoned Playground, Bounty lost his village status in 1997. It used to be a lively town with theaters, newspapers, and even a professional baseball team.

Butedale, British Columbia

Located on Princess Royal Island, Butedale Falls is one of Canada’s must-see waterfalls as it empties directly into the ocean. Next to the waterfall are the abandoned buildings of the once-thriving town, centered around a salmon cannery built in 1911.

Bankhead, Alberta

Founded as a mining town in 1903, Bankhead is located in what is now Banff National Park and has some of the best hiking trails in Canada. The mines here supplied coal to the Canadian Pacific Railway and the boilers of the Banff Springs Hotel. According to Atlas Obscura, mining operations closed in 1922 and residents were evicted.

Canuck, Saskatchewan

Of course, there’s a place in Canada called Kanak, but that’s definitely not representative of what this country is about. No one lives here anymore today. It is located just north of the US border, about 12.5 kilometers west of Climax.

Dorothy, Alberta

Technically, Dorothy is not a ghost town as it still has a small number of residents. However, it is filled with abandoned buildings that remind us of the town’s heyday. According to Ghost Towns of Alberta, the village saw a boom before he opened a post office in 1908, railroads opened in the 1920s, and residents began to disappear.

Robsart, Saskatchewan

Robsart was founded in 1910, according to Saskatchewan Ghost Towns. The arrival of the railroad boosted the economy, but the familiar story of the Great Depression decimated the town. Today there are only 20 inhabitants and many abandoned buildings.

Nemiscum, Alberta

Nemiscam was founded in 1915 when residents of nearby Bingham moved near a railroad that ran parallel to Highway 61 in southern Alberta. According to Ghost Towns of Alberta, the town’s decline began in his 1940s, with people moving to Foremost instead. Today in Nemisquam he has only two inhabitants.

Flowerdale, Alberta

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Flowerdale once boasted a post office, general store, and lawn houses, but soon faced the struggles of the Great Depression and hundreds of farmers moved out of the area. were allowed to regenerate, and most of the descendants of the original settlement were engaged in cattle grazing on the vast prairies.

Stanley, British Columbia

Stanley emerged in 1861 during the Caribou Gold Rush and was once more populous than nearby Barkerville, according to the Caribou Regional District. The only remaining building is the old Lightning Hotel.

embarrass, alberta

Embarras is named after a river rather than a verb. The town was founded in 1913 as a siding on the Alberta Coal Branch. Embalus declined in the 1960s as coal locomotives gave way to diesel engines.

Bender Hamlet, Manitoba

Bender Hamlet shows that diversity in Canada is nothing new. According to the Manitoba government, the village was founded in 1903 as the state’s first Jewish agricultural colony. It was later abandoned in 1927.

Exploit, Newfoundland and Labrador

Burnt Exploit was established in the late 18th century and had more than 600 residents in 1874, according to Memorial University of Newfoundland. The town was a center of commerce and a hub for fishing and seal hunting. People started migrating in his 1960s and now have only seasonal residents.

Tungsten, Northwest Territories

According to the Encyclopedia of Canada, tungsten was once home to, you guessed it, the largest tungsten-producing mine in the country. Slice said the mine was built in 1960 just outside the Nahanni National Park Reserve, one of Canada’s most beautiful sites. However, the town fell into disrepair in 1986.

Lemieux, Ontario

Founded in 1850, Lemieux, Ontario began as a mill town and farming community. According to Ontario Abandoned Places, the town was most recently abandoned between 1989 and 1991. The reason is that the soil on which the town was built became vulnerable to landslides.

40 miles

Dawson City is one of Canada’s hidden gems. It’s also the closest community to Forty Mile, the oldest town in the Yukon. According to the Yukon government, Forty Mile was founded in the 1880s after gold was discovered nearby. In the good times, Forty Mile had a reputation as wild as Dawson City. There were ten saloons and several distilleries here.

redwater, ontario

Redwater may look like just another ghost town, but it actually hides a horrific past. According to Ontario Abandoned Places, he was severely beaten to death in 1909 while a local telegraph operator was telegraphing for help. The town was abandoned in his 1950s after the Redwater Sawmill closed.

Valjarbert, Quebec

The Saguenay Fjords National Park is one of the best places to visit in July in Slyce. Make a stop by Val Jalbert while you’re in the area. Founded in 1901 and abandoned in 1927 when the local pulp mill closed, the town was preserved and now serves as a place of living history.

Altona, Ontario

According to Ontario Abandoned Places, Altona was founded when Mennonites migrated from Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. The Mennonite Church of Altona he built in 1852. Today there is still a church, a school, a general store, and a few homes, but most of the buildings are boarded up and abandoned.

Canyon City, Yukon

About 6 kilometers from the White House on the Yukon River, there are fascinating interactive ruins. According to the Encyclopedia of Canada, from 1897 to 1900, Canyon City was one of the Yukon Territory’s most important transportation hubs. It served as one end of the Canyon and White House Rapids Tramway, so most travelers to and from the Klondike gold fields may have passed through Canyon City at the time.

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New Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

Canada has plenty of campgrounds, but not so many on abandoned town sites. New Yarmouth Campground in Cape Signect Provincial Park was once a farming community with schoolhouses, but was abandoned in the 1950s.

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