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Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:54 am Post subject: Badlands

We spent this past weekend camping in the Badlands of Alberta. I haven't been anywhere near the area since University when we went on a field trip to study the geography of the Drumheller area. If you are not familiar with badlands, they are an arid terrain with unique erosion patterns and geologic features. Generally badlands look something like this:

We stayed in a little campground in Wayne, Alberta.

Wayne was once a coal mining boom town in the '30s. It is very nearly a ghost town today with a population of 30 people. It is located in a narrow valley in the heart of the badlands on the Rosedale River.

In the '30s there were ~2,500 residents mining in 18 different coal mines. The mines are gone. Not just abandoned, but gone. The local historical society has put up sign posts with mine descriptions on them, but there is nothing remaining of the mines or buildings at all. I was amazed at how little debris there was. The only business that remains in Wayne is the Rosedeer Hotel and Last Chance Saloon. The building was built in 1913 and has been in continous operation since then. We wandered in for a round on Saturday night.

We did a bunch of hiking around Wayne. There is an abandoned road that runs for 3 miles through the badlands directly east of our campground the we hiked on for a while. The road was built in the '30s as part of a depression work project. It was abandoned in the '50s, about when the remaining mines in the area closed down. I was amazed at the number of cacti in bloom in the area. I didn't even know we had cacti this far north.

Tiger Lilly's were also in full bloom

It was very hot by our standards (about 30°C), and the bassett hound had some difficulties with the terrain and the temperature. It was the first time I had seen him like this. He can normally go all day long, but in the long grass and soft soil, he really struggled.

It's spring flood time of year, so all the water in the area was brown and muddy, including the slough near our campground. The soil in the badlands is heavy in fine silt and clay which remains in suspension for a long time.

On Monday we went to the Atlas Coal Mine museum. This was one of the coolest museums I have been to in a long time. This is the last remaining wood tipple in Canada:

My picture of it sucks pretty bad due to a bit of bad lighting and lot of bad camera settings. Check out their website for better pictures.

The museum itself is composed of the Tipple, the Mine Office, the Wash house, the Lamp house, the Blacksmith shop the Supply Building, a Train Bridge, and a lot of various machinery. You will notice the most prominent thing missing from the list of features is the mine itself. This the site of the Atlas #3 mine, which was closed in 1938. The mine was blasted shut in 1952. The Atlas #4 mine was opened in 1938 7 km southeast of #3, and instead of building a new tipple, the coal was shipped to this tipple by train. The #3 tipple remained in operation as long as the #4 mine did, until 1979. They have plans to restore the Blacksmith shop and mine entrance in the near future, and long term plans of actually re-opening a small part of the mine to include in the tour.

The mine tour takes you for a ride in an electric mantrip that was actually used in the #3 mine, and then on a walking tour through the tipple. It is awe inspiring to see the conditions these men worked in, even in the '70s (and it was all men, there are no records that a women ever worked there). If you ever find yourself in the Drumheller region, I highly recommend you check out the Atlas Coal mine.

I'll close with my attempt at an artsy-fartsy type photo of the badlands. It didn't turn out at all like I thought it would, but not too bad:

[Edit]
I forgot my other artsy type photo. We had a hell of a storm on Sunday night. I wanted to try and get a shot of the clouds, and with the slow shutter speeds, the raindrops showed up quite clearly. Kind of neat:

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:53 pm Post subject:

Cool photos! I love that area of Alberta. I was there last Summer and hope to get there again in a few weeks.

I've never been to the coal mine museum, so I'll have to check it out. Do you think it's a good place for kids to visit? My 4 year-old son liked the Royal Tyrrell Museum, but I'm not sure if he'll be too keen on this.

Butt Sniffer Joined: 26 Aug 2004 Posts: 1617

Really like the last 2 photos

Toilet Drinker Joined: 22 May 2003 Posts: 296 Location: ND

Reminds me of home back on the edge of the badlands on the North Dakota/Montana border.

Now I live where it is flat and rather uninteresting.

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:10 pm Post subject:

Very nice, thanks for sharing these great photos. I like the wide angle view of the mountain, #3