A ghost town on the horizon
The Village of Abbey is not a ghost town.
Yet.
At the village bar, where I met Curtis Smith, there are histories hidden in every knick-knack and decoration on the wall. On one cross beam, the ranch brands of the local farms are burned into wooden planks. A moose someone shot is mounted on the wall and has quite the story attached to it though we never managed to get to it as the conversation bobbed and weaved across the village’s threads, picking through its founding all the way to the present day. Since at least 1981 the village of Abbey has been shrinking. It is not unique in this way. As Isaac and I biked down the quieter farm highways of Saskatchewan we came upon hamlets, villages, and towns that appeared largely derelict aside from a few still maintained houses here and there.
Yet none of these ghost towns started that way. Every single one of them at one point had been a community hub of bustling activity and Abbey was no different. It had a hospital, a bank, restaurants, stores, even the oldest GM dealership in Western Canada, which was opened in 1916.
The village was a thriving community of people who called the place home.
“You couldn’t find a parking spot on the weekends” Dallas Thompson said.
