Abandoned Manitoba Ghost Towns – travel blog.
First – I absolutely need to recommend Gordon Goldsborough’s two excellent books on Manitoban history. He has done so much in preserving, documenting and highlighting Manitoba’s rich history. He is a Manitoban legend.
Second – Please be aware that most of the towns below are NOT ghost towns. They are small towns with a few historic and crumbling buildings surrounding them. People live there. Do NOT wander around without permission.
Ste. Elizabeth
Probably the closest to an actual ghost town as it gets.
Ste. Elizabeth, Manitoba was founded in the late 1800’s by French settlers. Russian and Hutterite immigrants followed a few decades later.
There was a failed attempt to get the railway to stop nearby and 2 wells which had poor quality ground water which that most likely contributed to its demise.
Just a few abandoned houses remain.
The Roman Catholic Church is in beautiful shape, well maintained and still hosts an annual pic-a-nic every summer.
Grain Elevators
Small Manitoban towns were usually made up of a grain elevator, a school, a church and a few small houses.
Quite frequently, these massive structures are all that’s left behind.
The railway that once served them moves on and so does the town.
Due to modern grain production, small farms are integrated into larger ones. Farming communities slowly become single farms spread out over the vast prairies.
But they are all beautiful reminders of Canadian prairie history.
Manitoba Ghost Towns – Schools
Along with grain elevators, schools frequently mark the locations of abandoned Manitoba ghost towns. These markers are usually the only evidence that remains behind.
Tilston
Tilston it NOT an abandoned town – it is definitely populated. I’m including it because there were some lovely buildings there. And the sky was cooperating.
Buildings and Homes
The towns of Elva, Snowflake and Lauder are considered abandoned Manitoba ghost towns due to a few crumbling buildings in the area, even though much of the area is still occupied.
The famous “Lyons House” near Carberry has been abandoned since 1964.
It was built to last in 1895 by Robert Fern Lyons a member of the Manitoba Legislature. After all of these years you can still imagine what a grand mansion this would have been.
Manitoba Ghost Towns – The Rest
This famous abandoned church is familiar to anyone travelling south towards the United States due to it’s position between a divided highway. The sky always looks enormous around here.
The United Church and Cemetery is all that remains of Union Point and is a peaceful place for anyone who needs a rest while driving.
The concrete skeleton of the Kilkenny General Store was built to last in the abandoned ghost town town of Broomhill. In 1976 a storm washed out a nearby railway bridge and was never repaired, forever sealing Broomhill’s fate.
Want more Manitoba?
Check out my travel blog “Giants of the North – The Giant Statues of Manitoba!”
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