Bankhead Ghost Town

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Today we visited a deserted coal mining town near Banff called Bankhead.

The town was born supply coal for the locomotives of the Canadian Pacific Railway and at one point had over 1500 residents, that's hard to believe when you see it today. Apparently Bankhead was geographically split between the massive mine site and the residential area, it included a hotel, school facilities, pool hall, a restaurant, stores, several saloons, about 100 residential homes, a boarding house for single men and a church.

After the closure of the mine many of the buidlings were removed or demolished but the remnants of quite a few still remain. One noticable thing is the presence of rhubarb, its' everywhere, it was planted by the workers and still thrives there, it even appears to grow staright out of the coal.

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Photos

Bankhead Locomotive.
One of the original Bankhead locomotives.