Bankhead, Alberta

Have you ever been to Bankhead, Alberta?

It is a small little ghost town just outside of Banff... and a place that for some reason became a very special place in my life.

I can't tell you when we began to go to Bankhead but I remember that we started driving out there a couple of times a month. I was about fifteen/sixteen when we began going out there and by the time me, Julie, and Patsy got our own cars it was not uncommon for us to drive out there more than once a week...

We would always head out when it was already getting late... it was a few months before I even saw the little ghost town in the light... we would decide to drive out to Banff and by the time we got out there everything was closed (and we couldn't get into any clubs) so we would drive up to Bankhead, park the car, and walk down into the tourist site... we would slide into and explore the foundations of the old buildings, crawl thru the foundation tunnels, and then have coal fights in the hills of coal... then we would crawl back up the hill to the car, pull the blankets from the trunk and head to sleep.

It was creepy some night when we were sleeping in the deserted parking lots. It was sometimes just me and Patsy, or Julie and sometimes on the weekends Jason, Doug, or Steve would tell their parents they were sleeping at each others houses and join us as well. Two creepy nights I distinctly remember are...

1. We were all just falling asleep but had the car running (to heat up the car, we would turn it on for a bit, turn it off so we wouldn't die, start to get cold and turn the car on again), I was in the drivers seat will the seat reclined backwards and my legs spread to the passenger side, Steve and Patsy in the back and I think Doug was in the passenger seat... all of a sudden the car is in drive (without anyone going neat the gear shift near the steering wheel) and we are heading towards the cliff at the end of the parking lot... I got my feet untangled and hit the brake before we fell off the cliff into the ghost town!

2. One night we drove out there on a night when it was snowing pretty heavy... we drove up the winding roadway to get to the ghost town and could see that ours were the only tire tracks that had headed up there in a while (there is only one road up the hill to Bankhead)... when we got up there we decided it was too cold so we just pulled out the blanket from the back seat and started to crash. After about ten minutes we started to hear rustling and "stuff outside" and decided it might be a bear or something so we got kind of nervous. Steve decided to be the big tough guy and headed out to investigate... there were footprints near and around the car that went about ten feet away and then disappeared... but still only OUR tire tracks coming into the parking lot... we jumped in the car and drove to Banff... our tracks were the only ones on the road all the way back to the main road... we drove to Banff and decided to sleep in the parking lot by the CIBC building.

I still love Bankhead, and thru the years I am sure that we found special tunnels and places that have been lost for a long time... everytime I am in the Banff area I have a strong urge to go and visit my ghost town!