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7 Spooky Abandoned Towns in Canada You Shouldn’t Miss on Summer Trips 2023

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Bankhead
Bankhead

It’s time for road trips! You may escape the city’s noise and bustle for a peaceful, leisurely day excursion to one of Canada’s abandoned villages.

The nation is replete of historic mill and mining towns that were once booming but have now been all but abandoned, leaving only dilapidated homes and deserted structures standing.

While some cities have been carefully kept and still provide a glimpse into the past, others are slowly being taken over by nature.

Even while travelling through a deserted town can be unsettling, some of them are also home to a few ghosts.

Here are seven ghost towns in Canada that you should see on your next road trip since they are both stunning and eerie.

1. Wayne

Wayne
Wayne

Not merely because of its declining population, Wayne is a creepy “all but abandoned” town.

Wayne, a former booming coal mine town in Alberta’s Badlands, today has just a small population. Wayne is close to Drumheller.

The Rosedeer Hotel and Last Chance Saloon, which is rumoured to be haunted, are the town’s principal draws.

The 11 bridges of Wayne, a collection of single-lane bridges that travellers must traverse to reach the ghost town, are also visible in the region.

Visitors will pass through numerous historical remnants of the coal mining industry along the journey, including abandoned buildings and equipment.

2. Sandon

Sandon
Sandon

The historic community of Sandon may be found in the West Kootenays of British Columbia, in the Slocan Valley.

With around 5,000 residents, 85 brothels, 29 hotels, 28 saloons, banks, three breweries, two railways, and dozens of shops and companies, Sandon prospered as Canada’s richest silver mining settlement in the 1890s.

The village finally died due to a string of labour issues, a fire in the centre of town, and the exhaustion of many significant mines.

Visit the creepy ghost town today to view the well-known “ghost buses,” a general store that has been kept, the city hall, and some of the town’s historic structures.

3. Val-Jalbert

Val-Jalbert
Val-Jalbert

The historic community of Val-Jalbert can be found in Quebec on the banks of the Ouiatchouan River.

The community was formed in 1901 as a result of the construction of a pulp and paper mill, but it was abandoned in 1927 after the mill’s operations were put on indefinite hold.

The ghost town was revived in the 1960s and is now a famous tourist destination. About 40 original structures from that era still stand in the community, including a Catholic school, a local store, and a pulp mill.

4. Bankhead

Bankhead
Bankhead

Bankhead, a village in Banff National Park, was once a vibrant community of around 1,000 people, situated next to an active anthracite coal mine.

According to Atlas Obscura, after a 1922 labour struggle forced the closing of the mine, the settlement, known as a “20-year town,” saw its people leave.

Today, you can take a leisurely 1-kilometre stroll through the defunct coal mining village of Bankhead while admiring the crumbling remnants of the town amid the park’s highlands.

5. Indiana

Indiana
Indiana

In the past, roughly 300 people lived in the former village of Indiana, which is situated in Haldimand County in Ontario.

David Thompson, a supporter of the Grand River Navigation Company, who turned the Grand River into a navigable river for business use in the 1830s, laid out the community.

As a result of the company’s operations, Indiana prospered. But today, all that’s left of the historic community is its cemetery, some pasture and orchard land, and the Hill dwelling, the last surviving dwelling.

Thompson also created Ruthven Park, a mid-19th-century country estate with a Greek Revival mansion that served as the area’s focal point and was constructed in 1847.

The region is now a public tourist destination and a national historic site. The house has a reputation for being haunted as well.

6. Parkhurst

Parkhurst
Parkhurst

Parkhurst, an abandoned logging community hidden in the forest above Whistler, British Columbia, offers an insight into how the ski town grew to be what it is today.

The village of the mills was founded in 1926. Despite the mill closing in 1956, the neighbourhood’s residences and structures later evolved into a “sanctuary for ski bums.”

The area is now deserted, and what structures are still standing are being gradually taken over by nature. Buildings, cars, and, weirdly, a house with a graffitied depiction of a face keeping watch over the neighbourhood are all in disrepair.

7. Balaclava

Balaclava
Balaclava

Visit Balaclava, which has been dubbed Ontario’s “most famous ghost town,” for sure.

Balaclava, which is in Renfrew County, originally had 200 residents and was a successful lumber town. According to Reader’s Digest, the sawmill, a well-known location that is now fully dilapidated, was constructed in 1855.

Due to a scarcity of lumber in the area, it was forced to close sometime in the middle of the 1950s. What is now left are ageing, decaying structures that are slowly being absorbed by nature and offer an intriguing glimpse into the area’s past.

Remember that the abandoned structures are private property. They are best admired from a distance because of this as well as their state.

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