Squirrel in Stop Motion

The squirrels in Montreal are much too friendly.  But that makes it easy to capture them on film.

The Abandoned Miller House, Part Two

I previously profiled the Miller house, located in Perdue, Saskatchewan. Since then, I've done quite a bit of research on the history of this family and the community in which they lived.  I will be posting soon about a house I refer to as "gunshot house", owned by a family named Beckett, a few range roads south of the Miller house.   Until then, here are some additional photos of the Miller house and homestead:

The master bedroom

Some things never change

Recordings of classical music

It's really quite rare to find such beautiful windows, still intact. 

Late 1940's tractor

An old Ford, in the garage

Love Old Prairie Towns? Then You'll Love This Site

I heard about Prairie Towns on CBC radio this morning.  It's a work-in-progress type of site, and the author welcomes input and photo contributions from readers.

Very well-organized, Prairie Towns features photographs of original mainstreets, schools, churches, residential buildings, rail stations and practically everything else.  As a photographer of ghost towns, I find the pics on this site fascinating.  Go ahead and check it out.

One of my favorite hamlets, Tuxford, Saskatchewan.  From the website Prairie Towns

I photographed the building on the far right in the summer of 2014.  Quite neat to see it in its original condition.

A Trip to the Dust Homestead

One of the things I love most about photographing abandoned properties is the mystery each house holds.  The first question always concerns who owned the house and whether or not that person or family is still in the area.  When a family moves houses, or an older couple moves to the city, it's quite easy to see this from the lack of possessions the family left behind.

I've been in quite a few abandoned houses, however, containing belongings that show a family hastily left, or was forced to leave because of age, financial reasons, and from time to time, potential foul play.

I find it especially heart-wrenching when I find a house that was abandoned - most likely when an older couple had to move because of their advanced age and need for daily assistance - is still full of that couple's most precious belongings.  Photographs, scrapbooks, fine clothes and jewelry, love notes, and university diplomas, laid to rest in the deteriorating house.

Did these couples or families lack others to care for their belongings, or to hold dear their memories?  Was the job of cleaning out the house just too overwhelming for loved ones to face?

I found this house, once belonging to a family named Dust, while out looking for a cemetery I read was nearby.  The homestead lay at the very edge of town, across from a badly flooded abandoned hog operation.  The entire homestead consisted of a large house, a gorgeous barn, and many wooden storage sheds.   The windows of the house were missing and the back door was wide open.  The house had not been ransacked but appears to have been left out of necessity and the job of cleaning out the house may have overwhelmed relatives nearby.  In any case, the house was a truly beautiful and haunting piece of Saskatchewan history and contained many stories of the family who once called the place home.

Below are scans of negatives I found on the property, as well as my own photos of the homestead today.  The house appears to have been occupied as late at 2008 and as early as 1930.

The homestead then...

The homestead 

The Dust Family

Dust father and son

And now...

The Dust House, September 2014

The barn, 2014

The back of the house

These sheds were full of chairs, tools, car parts, and cookware.

Boxes upon boxes, full of everything imaginable, filled many rooms of the house.

First Winter Snow at the Petryshyn House

My first photo trip of the "real" Saskatchewan winter season led me to this homestead.  A 1948 University of Saskatchewan diploma belonging to Georgium Petryshyn was the only clue we found in the one-room house to the identity of the house's former owner. The house contained few belongings, just a gutted couch, a bed with a half-eaten mattress, a few tires, an empty suitcase, a small chest of drawers and a single fork.

The homestead

A stack of newspapers from 1960 was well-preserved despite the snow that covered it.

The house was insulated with mud and concrete.  With no fireplace or stove, this home must have been rather chilly in the winter.

The Abandoned Miller House: Then and Now

I came across this abandoned house in the RM of Perdue, Saskatchewan. I learned that it had belonged to a family named the Millers and appears to have been occupied until the 1970's.  Inside were hundreds of photos of the house and family in the 1940's and 50's.  Below are a sample of those photos followed by my own photos of the house today.

circa 1949

Early 1950's.  

The Miller house was almost fully furnished and despite a collapsed living room floor, was almost livable.

Mr. Miller's home office, 2014

The Miller house, 2014

I will be posting more photos from the Miller homestead soon.  Old photos showed the Millers with their new car in the 1950's, a car still on the property today.  The homestead included numerous sheds, a barn with 2 cars still inside, and early 1950's farm equipment.  Why go to a museum when museums are everywhere in the Saskatchewan countryside?

A Prairie Couple's First Home

My photog buddy Joe and I came across an abandoned hotel in a small town in southern Saskatchewan, and decided that it was the perfect setting for our "Prairie Couple" shoot.  We bought our outfits at the Salvation Army before our little road trip and as always, Joe was an incredibly good sport.  

Things Left Behind Photo Series: Part One

Things left behind in an abandoned property often tell a story more interesting than would the story told by the things that were taken with the occupants.  From the prairies of Saskatchewan...

In an abandoned train station in a town north of Regina.  Built in 1898, this piano still had its original ivory keys.

In the general store in Bents, Saskatchewan

In a baby buggy in a house in Bents, Saskatchewan

In an abandoned gas station near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

The post office in Bents, Saskatchewan was closed on Wednesday.  It was located inside the general store.

In the Bents, Saskatchewan post office.

Left in the Bents, Saskatchewan general store.

There is nothing left behind more often than tools.  

So much history in this writing on the wall of the Bents post office.  

A rusted bed frame in a house in the Saskatchewan countryside.  

A crib in a one room house in a Doukhobor settlement.  From other materials found inside, I estimate that the house was last occupied in the 1970's.

A record player in a one room house in a Doukhobor settlement in rural Saskatchewan.