Albert Canyon, British Columbia, Canada...Ghost Town... Relived by the Schut family 1956

Brief History of Albert Canyon

Approximately half way between Rogers Pass and Revelstoke, was situated the town of Albert Canyon. Little is left of the town it once was. The remains of Albert Canyon are a ghost town situated a short distance south of the present day hot springs pool site.

The village of Albert Canyon, the gorge and the hot springs were all named after Albert Rogers, who undertook many exploration trips in the area, including the discovery of Rogers Pass. Throughout the years of steam locomotives, Albert Canyon was a “pusher station”, with a small roundhouse built in 1916. They built a railway station providing housing for operators, a section gang, and living quarters for the CPR agent upstairs in the station.

The mineral waters of Albert Canyon were allegedly discovered by CPR workmen at the turn of the century. The railway employees dug a pit at the hot springs and lined it with heavy timbers.

The open air "hot tub" was used by visitors and residents for many, many years. Today the Canyon Hot Springs are some distance away, with the water from the hot springs being piped to their pools.

In addition, Albert Canyon had a very active sawmill and logging operation, we can still remember the old WWII truck that used to haul logs to the mill. Nothing remains of the mill now, except our wonderful memories of the times we had there.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The old homestead

When we first arrived in Albert Canyon dad found us a very small, very run down cabin. Dad made is as comfortable as possible, with the resource he had, which were limited.


This was our first home in Albert Canyon; picture taken around 1964. It give you a size of home perspective, basically a cabin.

Shortly after, we moved into this log home... a big step up. I can still recall many fond memories of all the times we had... family times... Christmas, dinners, looking at the Simpson Sears Christmas catalog, smelling the paper, playing with our train set up in the attic, white gas lanterns, just to name a few times... REAL FAMILY TIMES!

The Schut Family, in front of their new home in Albert Canyon, photo taken in 1957

Mum, Hank and Will sitting on the back porch. After 50 years later, Dad's carpentry skills did not improve much :). But Mum and Dad made this our most memorable home... a family home.

Hank and Will playing in the front yard with mum looking on. We had chickens and rabbits back then; fresh eggs and meat.

One of the neighboring homes

Another neighbor's home

Mum and baby Wendy revisiting our old homestead... I believe this photo was taken around 1966?

Some pictures in winter....

There was a winter, that we could toboggan right down the roof, and we would have to tunnel out of the house.

Dad and Wendy, standing in front of the old "Cook House", with our old log home in the background (1964)

Remains of our neighbours house


This is where are old log house used to be

all that remains is the basement well and what appears to be the furnace.

a photograph showing our water supply about 200 ft from the house.

one of the last of the log cabins.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: well this is pretty cool stuff Hank; December 16, 2012 at 3:38 PM