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Next stops – Nacmine, East Coulee, and Dorothy. They are all supposed to be ghost towns, after suffering population decline when their mines or train stations shut down decades ago. There isn’t much at Nacmine, as it’s mostly redeveloped, and looks like a bedroom community for Drumheller. I don’t even have photos of these places to show. East Coulee is smaller but the same deal. There is a restored school house which has become a museum, but we were too late for admission. I did notice the separate entrances from boys and girls, though, which my parents confirmed as the way it used to be. I even found out that my dad grew up in a town small enough that his elementary still used separate entrances. The way things used to be…

Down the road from East Coulee is Atlas Coal Mine, which was the most interesting stop. These are all Atlas photos. When the coal mine shut down, everything was left as it was on the last day – train cars and coal scattered on the hill where they were thrown out of the mine and all. There’s a complete interpretive tour set up, and you can walk through all the old buildings – miner’s cabin, wash house, locker room, infirmery, parts store, and battery shed. You can even walk through the entire old tipple, but we were too late for that as well. We were the only ones there at 4:30 in the afternoon on a beautiful, sunny, fall day, and it was a perfect photo trip.

Dorothy was the last stop. The town never grew over 100 people. The main landmarks are two old churches and one grain elevator still standing. I spent some time with the elevator and tried a diffuser on it, which worked better than I expected. At the end of the day, we shared a mini cheesecake before heading back, exhausted. Birthdays aren’t always so bad, I guess. Thanks, Bdgr.