We spent several days camping this week and as a result, I don’t have a Fashion Friday post ready for you today. Instead, I’ll share one of the highlights of our short time away from home. After a horrendous storm Monday night, we woke to sunshine on Tuesday morning, but the wind was still much too strong to go golfing or kayaking and we’d already hiked the 6.5 km nature trail around a nearby lake. We didn’t want to spend the day sitting in the trailer though, so what should we do?
Hubby suggested a road trip to Rowley. In its heyday, Rowley, Alberta was an agricultural town of approximately 500 people, but at last count the population was 9. Yes, that’s right, 9 people and perhaps a few stray cats! Apparently, some of the residents don’t really like their hometown being referred to as a ghost town though that’s what it’s usually called. They take pride in the place and have worked hard to preserve the few remaining buildings and to turn it into a tourist destination. Once a month, the community association, made up of residents and people from the surrounding area, host a well-attended pizza and pub night to raise funds to help with the cost of maintenance.
As the ROWLEYWOOD sign at the turnoff on nearby Highway 56 suggests, the movies Legends of the Fall, The Magic of Ordinary Days, and Bye Bye Blues were filmed in the hamlet.
So, come walk with me and I’ll show you around Rowley, Alberta.
The Lion’s Oil Garage, complete with its old style gas pump, is a reconstruction of the building that originally stood on this site.
Walking down Main Street past Sams Saloon and the Rowley Trading Post, it’s easy to imagine ourselves transported back in time to the wild west. I could easily picture a couple of horses hitched to the rails and women strolling the boardwalk in old fashioned dresses. Built in 1920, the trading post was where Rowley residents purchased their dry goods and groceries until 1973 when it was the last business in town to close its doors.
At the end of the street stands the beautifully preserved CNR train station. The station master and his family likely lived upstairs.
At one time, every little town on the Canadian prairie had its wooden grain elevators, but very few of these stately sentinels remain today.
The Prairie School Museum is typical of the one room schoolhouses that dotted the prairie in days gone by.
If you came to visit Rowley in the early days, you might have boarded your horse at H. Swallow’s livery barn. While some of the smaller structures around it are falling down, the barn still looks pretty sturdy.
Circling back to the upper end of Main Street, we find this stately old house, weathered by time but still beautiful. Hubby and I thought that perhaps it had once been the town’s hotel, but after doing a bit of research I discovered that it was originally used as a hospital.
Across the street, the old municipal building has obviously undergone some fairly recent renovation. Though I’m happy to live in the day of indoor plumbing, we thought the backyard biffy was cute.
The Rowley United Church remained active until 1969 and continues to be used for the occasional wedding.
Like at least one other building in Rowley, not shown here, the funeral home across the street from the church was constructed specifically for the filming of the movie, Bye Bye Blues. Afterwards, the residents decided to turn it into a pool hall for their own enjoyment, but kept the front and signage intact.
When we were there, we had Rowley almost entirely to ourselves and were content to peer through the windows at the artifacts housed inside the buildings, but should you wish to take a closer look, the Rowley community association hires local summer students to give free guided tours inside the buildings Thursday to Monday during July and August.
Whenever you travel to a foreign country, it’s a good idea to learn a bit about the culture and traditions before you go. It’s also wise to know what to pack so that you don’t get into trouble by wearing something inappropriate or possibly even illegal.
After reading Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, a 713 page novel about life in India in the 1970s and 80s, and then Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, I was looking for something light to read! Something frivolous and entertaining.
We are a wasteful society, but it hasn’t always been that way. There was a time when women especially were so much more resourceful than we are today. They had no choice. As a young widow in the latter years of the Great Depression, my grandmother raised two teenage daughters on a shoestring. She learned to reuse and repurpose out of necessity. Clothing that was outgrown or worn out didn’t go to waste. As a child, I remember hand braided rag rugs on the floors throughout her tiny house and I loved examining the multicoloured squares that made up the quilts on the beds in her spare room.
When we were visiting last weekend, our daughter had some things to drop off at a thrift store. Of course, that also meant stopping to shop! After all, she is her mother’s daughter and she knows the value and fun of second-hand shopping.
Following Augustine 