Vanished Compass

interior lighting

2012-02-07T10:46:00.000-06:00

On my last trip out, I was lucky enough to be able to photograph some interiors of churches. This does not happen often because most are locked up and those that aren't are usually empty. Here are some of my favorites from the trip.

Please view full size to view best detail.

a slight detour from our route

2012-01-31T10:36:00.000-06:00

My first official large explore of 2012!

I decided to head up to my cabin spur of the moment via the long route. I had originally wanted to visit friends and explore nearby but quickly changed my mind deciding to take the extra long route to the cabin I wanted to try out my new camera and photograph places I had not yet seen. I found a few schools, lots of farmyards and of course churches. I got to revisit places I had not seen in years and photograph them with a new perspective. The snow was deep but the grids weren't bad. I had to hike out to a couple locations but I cant complain because I got to take some amazing photographs.

Overall the trip was a success considering it was spur of the moment, no planning and hardly any maps. I did get to photograph lots I have not seen and plan to return to some places I did not have time to visit. As a bonus i get to check off more Ukrainian Churches off my list!

near year new camera

2012-01-04T13:27:00.000-06:00

I cant believe another year has past and another has begun.

I definately did not get to visit all the places I wanted to see last year and became quite disorganized with my trips. I plan to stay on top of trips this year and visit some new places. I am also planning some return trips to old places, if they are still around.

Some Goals:

Visit Montana again this year
Return to some locations I have not seen for years
Finish up photographing Ukrainian Churches in the province - Im close!
Visit some smaller locations that I have been meaning to visit for years now
Participate in the Great Race
Visit some military bases in the states
Explore some stuff in Alberta

I plan to make longer more efficient trips as their is nothing around the place I live that I have not already seen multiple times. It has also come to my attention that each year I have 20 less posts than the year before and I plan to change that. I am going to stay on top of this blog and continue to post after each time I go out to photograph.

With a new camera I can take even better and more creative photographs!

- arilem

merry christmas!

2011-12-27T09:51:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas from Vanished Compass and SaskUrbex!

Our annual Christmas trip to a town hall full of Christmas decorations for our group picture.

churches of size

2011-12-14T09:57:00.000-06:00

I had heard about a small Ukrainian church that I had missed photographing in an area I am very interested in. I spent a couple days planning a possible route and when the opportunity came up SaskUrbex and I went out to check things out. Because the light fades fast we had to start picking and choosing what we wanted to photograph as the sun was fading and the amount of churches and schools in the area had become overwhelming. We stopped to visit what we thought would be the most interesting. It was a very productive day and here are some of my favorite photos!

Highlights:

- finding so many churches
- accessing a large church, abandoned but completely intact
- finding the largest bible I have ever seen in my life
- photographing a very large furnace with coal bucket beside it
- ringing the bell in a bell tour
- shooting some video of these locations
- getting out of the house and hitting the grids!

hill billy ghost town

2011-12-07T09:40:00.000-06:00

I went up to my cabin and decided to do some exploring in the area. The area north of my cabin is what people like to call "hill billy country". It's full of small, mostly abandoned towns where people will live in virtually any type of housing and most run on wood stoves. This area is also full of hunters during the right season as it is quite forested. I spent a few hours driving through some of the towns and came across this one, a small quaint town full of abandoned houses and buses convereted into homes.. thats right - a bus house.

driving the rail line

2011-12-03T09:29:00.000-06:00

Went up to my cabin, took a few hours to drive the old rail line and came across a few interesting ghost towns, abandoned churches, hall, school, etc. There was only so far we could go until we reached a place where they removed a bridge. We enjoyed the time we had searching for long abandoned locations.

sask's own ski tunnel

2011-11-09T13:25:00.000-06:00

Who would have thought a "flat" province would have so many abandoned ski hills?

My third ski hill in the past few years, this was is the least exciting but still has its perks. At one time it could brag about "Saskatchewan's only ski tunnel" - this long abandoned ski hill has been turned into biking trails. The chalet remains boarded up, its history locked inside. The lifts still going up the hill and cables laying on the ground.

I also found an abandoned church on my way home from this hill so I decided to share that as well!

fall advantage

2011-11-05T09:39:00.000-06:00

Made the most out of my weekend and continued up to another area that I use to explore but now that I live farther away I haven't been to in a couple years. It was nice to return and with no leaves on the trees it was much easier to find some of these buildings.

bountiful prairies

2011-11-02T09:39:00.000-06:00

Decided to go on a weekend trip to check up on some locations we have not visited in a while. We were very surprised by what we found. A complete ghost town now has people living in it again and fixing up the houses - never thought I would see this happen. We also found some other interesting things along the way and had a chance to do some photography before it got to cold.

along the way

2011-10-27T12:12:00.000-06:00

We went out to do some photography of a ghost town we had driven past many times but never actually stopped to document. We took some time walking the quiet streets and documenting the buildings. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Wyoming & Montana Mish Mash

2011-10-11T17:51:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures from all over Wyoming and Montana during our trip. I didn't feel they were big enough to get their own blog post so I mashed them all together into a single post!

mountain mining

2011-10-08T17:48:00.000-06:00

No shortage of mountain mines in Wyoming. We ran across tons of underground mines fenced off with warnings and above ground gold mines. Here are some of my favorites from the trip.

Rawlins Jail

2011-10-04T17:48:00.000-06:00

We decided to take a tour of a historic Jail in Rawlins, Wyoming. This jail does tours daily but may not have the funding to stay open so we decided we better see it while we can. It was a very informative tour and I would recommend to see it if your in the area. The place was very old and you can see the paint peeling away and how time is taking its toll. Very neat, here are some pictures and a link to their official website:

http://www.wyomingfrontierprison.org/

cafeteria

water tower & yard

showers - dont drop the soap

kitchen

death row

gas chamber chair

gas chamber - i was the first to volunteer to sit in it!

ghost towns of wyoming

2011-10-01T17:47:00.000-06:00

Along out route in Wyoming we came across many ghost towns. Some were very neat and others just ruins. Most ghost towns had people living in them much like Saskatchewan, other's were completely abandoned and some even restored and available for tours.

The one ghost town we went to had no trespassing signs on every single building. Didn't matter whether it was a house, shack or even a pile of logs each building was posted. With one resident it was obvious this town is closely watched.

Here are some pictures of the buildings from there towns.

military memories

2011-09-29T17:47:00.000-06:00

During our time in Wyoming SaskUrbex really wanted to check out some military locations. We drove to a few and were unable to visit them. We decided to head back to the first one we visited and go through a back road.

Originally we had went up the main road and saw a man opening the gate - I was going to ask him for permission but he quickly closed it and drove away. Maybe he wasn't supposed to be in there? So after a slight detour we made it a "Atlas D Missille Base". If you want more information about it you can visit blog.saskurbex.com2011/11/09/wyoming-atlas-d-missile-base/

In my opinion it was well worth the walk, this location was severely gutted but has stood up to the test of time well. It was very neat to see how these places were set up and the cradle was definitely my favorite part. I am surprised by how much they had left behind.

power plant

2011-09-27T17:51:00.000-06:00

During our trip in Wyoming we decided to stop an abandoned power plant. I had found a single picture of this building online and was immediately interested. After some research I found out its name and its whereabouts. Although I didn't find its excact location, SaskUrbex was able to find out where it was.

The building was huge with windows intact and foundations of long gone buildings. There is a very active substation connected to the plant but the plant itself is long since abandoned. Now a farmer owns it and uses it as storage which was a disappoint to us but still worth a stop. This location was neat and very photogenic.. see for yourself.

be aware ski with care

2011-09-08T17:37:00.000-06:00

Another Ski Hill?!?!

Crazy I know. I'm giving the credit to SaskUrbex for this one. If it weren't for him I would have never figured out that this existed. This neat little find this hill was surprisingly intact with plenty of vandalism. The chalet was definitely the most interesting, but sitting on an abandoned chair of a ski lift was an interesting experience. This ski hill had a chair lift, T-bar and quite a few runs. Overgrown now and with years of neglet its surprising that there is still glass in some of the windows and not everything was stolen.

A neat place to document.

No shortage of selection

model of the runs

school for mice

2011-09-02T19:13:00.000-06:00

Out and about the other day we cam upon a schoolhouse. Not looking very promising from the outside we checked it out anyways and were surprised by what we found. A piano, learning materials, dishes & chairs still remain in this school. What was strange was the amount of mice around this schoolhouse. Someone must have gone crazy with the mouse poisen because everytime i turned around there was another dead mouse.

Don't scroll all the way to the bottom if you have sensitive eyes!

brick plant with no past

2011-08-21T17:39:00.002-06:00

Seems I am on a roll this year as this would be the third abandoned brick plant I have visited. This one I have meaning to visit for years now but never had a chance. But I finally did it and it was better than I expected. Small but still loaded with history this brick plant has a line of small kilns with two stacks on either sides. Evidence of outbuildings could also be seen.

I dont know much about the history of this plant. I do know that I am only posting these couple pictures of it because I feel you only need a few pictures of this place to give you a good feeling of what it is like.

Neat fact, the bricks used to build most of this brick plant were from Claybank Brick Plant. Ironic that I was just at Claybank for a visit. ^-^

lake discoveries

2011-08-16T21:39:00.001-06:00

Well, I finally made it up to the lake this year. Its about time considering last year I never made it up. Of course any trip to the lake is an excuse to explore on the way up or on the way back. This trip was no exception. I explored on the way up and made a couple new discoveries.

Highlights:
- got into a church I never had access to before
- found a ghost town and an abandoned school
- visited one of my favorite ukrainian churches in the province

good ole' construction - this guy had it good with his lawn chair beside his car

return trips

2011-08-10T22:19:00.005-06:00

Seems all I have been doing lately is return trips. I have seen most things in the area so all I have had time for is return trips to sites I have seen. I always like to check back and see what has changed, usually its for the worst. As depressing as it is to see these beautiful sites decay and be destroyed by other people it is part of the circle.

I chose to take a friend with me to a few sites I have been to in the past. I went with my camera but didn't take to many photo's as I have documented these sites many times. Here are just a couple of my favorite pictures from the bunch. Enjoy.

claybank brick plant

2011-07-31T20:35:00.000-06:00

One of my goals this summer was to return to Claybank Brick Plant. A historic site in the province, this brick plant it still very much intact and an interesting site to see and photograph. We went out for a couple of hours and after taking a tour of the place then we wandered around taking pictures.

Most pictures are in black and white because I wanted to try a different effect. Considering the whole factory was basically steel and brick, taking black and white pictures created an interesting effect with shadows.

This site is one of my favorite historic sites in the province and I hope is able to stay open for years to come. I recommend anyone that likes history visit this site at least once.

all that remains

2011-07-18T22:27:00.003-06:00

Went out with Saskurbex to a place we have been at least once. Seems every time we try to reach it the road is impassible due to snow or mud. We took my small car on dry grids and made it out to this elevator and church. Nothing had changed except the decor in the church. It was nice to revisit this.

The highlight would be visiting a more intact elevator and driving through grass as tall as my car.

lake exploration

2011-07-02T20:13:00.001-06:00

Recently in a last minute decision I decided to head up to my families cabin. The plan was to relax and enjoy the lake and time away. Since sitting around and doing nothing is not my forte in life I chose to explore the next day.

I headed out on the road with my dad and what started as a 1 hour one church trip turned into 5 hours of countless churches, schools and houses. The trip was a great success, so much so that I was not able to stop at every location and take a photo due to time constraints.

Some of my favorite moments include:
- finding an intersection with 2 churches on the corners - opposite denominations (lol)
- finding remains of a bombing & gunnery school
- rest stop at an abandoned gas station
- churches full intact, some even with collection plates & money
- historical signage

in church on saturday

2011-06-26T19:55:00.000-06:00

Sitting around bored on a Saturday with nice weather for a change Saskurbex and I decided to head out into the country and explore same familiar places. On our way we found some things we had never seen before and some that were familiar.

Highlights include:

giant brick house
abandoned graves
seeing an old church we have been to many times during the day for the first time!
huge statues in a church

flooding restrictions

2011-06-18T07:17:00.003-06:00

I recently had to travel for my cousins wedding. Since I am not one for weddings I knew that I had to plan exploration while I was visiting. Unfortunately I was in the wrong part of the province as most of my favorite places were flooded. I was only able to get to a few locations in the area but did manage to explore on my way back home.

once again more statues in the graveyard -

this time i was taller than one!

abandoned graveyard in a very active city

mummified cat

2011-06-14T09:20:00.003-06:00

While exploring on my most recent trip I encountered something I had never seen before, a mummified cat. Just the other day I ran across a show called oddities on TV and the man was searching for a mummified cat. Interesting that just days later I encountered one in small town Saskatchewan.

As interesting as it may seem, it is not for everyone. This is not something I usually photograph or enjoy looking at because I am a major animal lover, but I was certainly intrigued by this cat. Why did it die here and and how could it's body preserve itself like this? I also noticed that all the moss growing on the ground, grew around the cat.

school of moss

2011-06-08T19:32:00.008-06:00

There seems to be an endless amount of schools in this province. I have seen most of them but it seems just when I finish exploring an area I realize I forgot something - in this case a school. So on this recent trip since I was in the area I decided to check it out. I wouldn't drive out of my way to see it but it was interesting. Most of the school was gutted but its previous life was obvious through magazines and books.

The floors were ripped up and the ceiling torn down. Despite being gutted and having a flooded basement it was full of life. Moss started growing all around the school and was taking over most of the classrooms. I love to see when nature takes over an abandonment.

in the country

2011-06-04T19:31:00.010-06:00

Here are some of the photo's taken from driving around the countryside on my way to other destinations.

Some highlights:

curling in an abandoned rink
finding old cast iron
playing shuffleboard
photographing a fox sitting on the side of the highway
driving through extremely muddy roads

ghost town mash up

2011-06-01T19:31:00.006-06:00

These days it seems everyone is fascinated with ghost towns. Most of the time its because these people are pickers but there are people that are just fascinated with the fact that people can leave an entire town, everything in their homes and never return. I have seen many of these towns all over this province so it doesn't surprise me when we visit a town only to find one or no one living there. a

On this recent trip after the great race we headed out to do some more exploring and found a couple ghost towns. I decided to mash them all together into one blog post with my favorite pictures. And yes, even the church with the power was in a ghost town - we find buildings with power on in ghost towns more frequently then one would except.

prime real estate

2011-05-29T19:31:00.004-06:00

Would you like to live at the corner of railway ave & road allowance? This street is one of many in what basically is a ghost town. With about three residents I was entertained that this entire street was for sale, two of them by a realtor and the other by owner. Two abandoned houses and the other occupied, I was surprised that this realtor thinks they could sell these houses. This is a sign of what soon will be a complete ghost town.

abandoned

occupied

hotel & bar (last time)

2011-05-27T19:27:00.008-06:00

During the great race we stopped by an old hotel & bar that we had been to in the past. We knew we could check off a few things on the list but didn't realize the condition this place would be in when we arrived. The entire roof of the bar had fallen in on everything and water was leaking everywhere. The hotel had more water damage as well and the floor was becoming unstable. This place wont be around for much longer so I was glad we were able to document it for the last time.

These pictures are just a few of my favorites and best angles of the hotel...

great race 2011

2011-05-24T16:19:00.010-06:00

This year Saskurbex and I decided to participate in the Great Race. Its basically a scavenger hunt for urban explorers that is organized by Deggi5.

Since we have never participated before and we live in the most desolate province ever - we planned out a route and traveled over 1000 miles. . .yes miles. Starting at 2:30am on Saturday, we drove to our starting point which was about 4 hours away.

So we began the race at 6:00am and had twelve hours to race and post the pics online for judging. They gave us our list and password which was "Arrrr Matey" (which related to our team name being pirates). We hit the road following our route and tight timeline finishing as many tasks as we could. I spent all weekend in my rubber boots and a raincoat for obvious reasons.

We came in fourth place, which isn't that great since their were only four teams that finished but we did our best considering it rained most of the weekend and getting to places was interesting to say the least. We were glad we didn't take my car because we could have never made it down some of the roads.

Here are just some of our pictures from the race.. .

find a no trespassing sign

put clothes on found in a location

laughing -because having fun is what its about

whole team in a bed

landlocked boat

abandoned church!

mummify a teammate in a location

room/cell with bars

provincial boarder
yes we made it to the Alberta/Sask boarder

teammate in a tight space

on a bicycle

dead animal

30 cans in a location

on my route. . .

2011-05-21T08:30:00.002-06:00

On my route I needed gas but all I could find was an abandoned gas station. . .
If I needed car repairs that wouldn't have been possible. All I was able to find was an abandoned garage. ..
Then I tried to seek some tourist information for the area, but all I could find was an abandoned information center. . .
And on my route I passed many overgrown rail lines and one's missing signs.. .
It was an interesting route, to say the least.

plenty - o - ghost towns

2011-05-19T07:58:00.001-06:00

Along our route we crossed many ghost towns. Since posting a picture of every single house in every ghost town we crossed I decided to create a mash up of my favorite abandoned buildings in some of the towns. Enjoy!

Highlights include:

Underground church
Hotel
Abandoned playgrounds
Large religious buildings (no pics. . . . yet)

past education

2011-05-16T16:14:00.008-06:00

As per my recent post, thanks to nicer weather and dry grids I have been able to get out a lot more than usual. I decided to head out for a day and hit up some small towns I had never visited before. I went with Saskurbex with a plan in mind. Soon realizing that there was much more than we expected to find our trip ran late but we did find some interesting sites.

We found a couple ghost towns, interesting schools, large religious buildings and all sorts of things along the way. With a late start in the day the trip ran into the dark but it was definitely worth it. I have split up the posts because some of the locations are larger.

This post is about a couple of the schools we found. Larger multi roomed schools, one had been converted but its previous state still obvious.

Highlights include:

rolling a wheelchair down the hallway of a school
having a run in with barbed wire and electrical fence (thank goodness it was off)
finding large industrial equipment & a mini press
old water fountains
converted room into a gym
brick buildings!
finding a shower in one of the schools

dry grids ... finally

2011-05-13T12:19:00.002-06:00

I am so glad that the worst of the flooding is over and the grids are drying up. Makes it so much easier to get out and explore places with my car. With nice weather and dry grids how could I not go out?

Very last minute the other day I decided to hit the grids and head towards an old school I have been to in the past. I found other places on the way, the most interesting was a massive old farmhouse.

Here are some of the pictures:

hospital pt.2

2011-04-10T13:57:00.003-06:00

Here are some more photographs from the hospital & power plant.

hospital with no guts

2011-04-05T13:55:00.005-06:00

By now I am sure you all know that I absolutely love abandoned hospitals. Unfortunately there are not many left in this province which means I get to travel to other provinces and states to find them.
As you may know there is flooding all over the province right now which has made it virtually impossible to get to any locations. Because of this there is a lack of blog posts - but don't worry I have much more that I have not shared with you! I figured now would be a good time to share a hospital that I explored. As gutted as it may be, it was still interesting to see.
Some of my favorite parts:

tunnels
power plant
hospital bathtubs & other equipment
hallways filled with sunlight (usually its dark because of boards)

Here is the first part of the photographs. More to come!

winter grid drive

2011-03-30T19:15:00.002-06:00

There is a ghost town that I have never had the chance to check out, until now. Unfortunately there was two building left, both surrounded by huge snow drifts and the whole thing did not look very interesting. It was also very touristy, with signs stating where the buildings used to be and what the purpose of them was. I continued onto nearby towns and found some more interesting things such as a church with a garage door in the back, old bar and a small stone church. Here are just a couple photo's from the trip.

station way

2011-03-21T09:48:00.003-06:00

I get restless sitting around my apartment so go for drives once and a while to see what I can find. Lucky for me SaskUrbex also enjoys this so we went out together for a quick drive and found a couple things. With all this snow around its still hard to get to things and flooding is on the way.

ice road travels

2011-03-05T21:12:00.002-06:00

The other day I was out with Saskurbex and he had heard the ice road was open. We decided to drive across it and explore a bit on our way. We checked up on some ghost towns to see if anything had changed and found some new churches we had missed in the area. We also drove through a couple towns we had never seen before and found a few interesting buildings & schools. I decided to post just a couple buildings we found.

gospel & tack shop?

drifted grids

2011-02-27T09:54:00.006-06:00

The other day I decided to make a quick trip out because there was no wind! I went out with saskurbex and we decided to stay nearby and visit a stone church we had found at night a few months ago. The grids were fine until we arrived to the one leading up the church, it was full of snow and nothing any vehicle could make it through. The snow drifts were extremely high but since it was nice outside we decided to walk. It was definitely worth it as the sun was beautiful against the frosted snow and the drifts in the graveyard were very interesting.

quick valentines day drive

2011-02-15T21:59:00.000-06:00

Usually around valentines day I take a large multi day trip somewhere around the province. This year things got changed around and it just didn't work out. I still managed to convince saskurbex to go out on a small one day trip to see what we could find. It was nice to get out but because of all the snow from this winter its hard to get to anything. We did find a few churches, community center and a ton of deer.

Here are some pics from that trip:

random and worthy of a picture..

this was only a small portion of deer we found on the roads we drove

and a nice pink sky to end the day...

new website & updates

2011-01-30T10:38:00.005-06:00

If you live in this province you will know how bad the weather has been this past month. The weather is the main reason I have not been going out exploring. This doesn't mean I haven't been doing exploring related things. All this time inside has given me a chance to create a website.

Since exploresask.com is no longer I wanted to create a website by myself that would connect to my blog. A place for people to browse more pictures from locations. There are only two full locations on the website now but I have more updates on the way.

So go check it out!

http://vanishedcompass.yolasite.com/

Looks for more updates on the blog & website as the weather improves! I have been getting anxious to get out and explore again. Hopefully this happens in the next couple weeks.

I also have an e-mail now, you can contact me @
vanishedcompass@yahoo.com

new year 1-1-11

2011-01-01T08:00:00.008-06:00

I didn't have high hopes for 2010. In fact, i figured since I have explored most of the province, this past year would be a slow one. I was very wrong, this year turned out to be a huge year for me. So many changes took place and I was able to explore many locations. I travelled through four provinces & two states. I explored with a couple new people and did quite a bit of solo exploring.

This year began slow but soon picked up with a couple trips to other provinces and some familiar locations in our province. Over the summer I relocated for a job and quickly found myself consumed by the areas history and finding out more about my family roots. I over explored the area but am well educated about each location.

I managed to get in a few large trips this summer to the mountains in Canada & the United States. The four day road trip covering all of Montana with SaskUrbex was definitely the longest trip i went on this year. The large trips were amazing and I have nothing but good memories from them.

I also spent the summer working on exploresask.com which launched in august. This was a collaboration with PhoenixEnigma. My relationship with him ended in September which was a huge change in my life but definitely for the best. I have no regrets and couldn't be happier. I needed to get rid of the site so exploresask ended in December. This was for the best as now i have more time for exploring which in turn means more blog posts. Maybe in the future there will be a website, its hard to say.

The fall had some downtown as SaskUrbex was busy with his life and contact was lost, but we eventually got back on track. A new person named Scythe comes out and explores with us when he gets a chance. He loves exploring and is now starting to get into photography. We have made it out a few times this winter on a couple day trips and other smaller nightly trips. All which have paid off in their own way.

I explored in every type of weather this year from thunderstorms, to waist high snow, hail and more. I dropped my camera a couple times which caused a couple dents but no real damage. I also watched my tripod & camera almost fall down Castle Butte (200ft) this summer. Thank goodness they both survived but shortly after my tripod broke which i quickly replaced with a new all metal one. My gear has been put to the test this year but for the most part has proved strong.

I managed to cross off more things on my lists of things to explore this summer. Some of those included a theater, finding a morgue, underground mine, modern school, residential school and more. I still have the passion for exploring and cannot wait to get out to explore again.

I look forward to this new year and new opportunities.

highlights of the my favorite locations this year include:

military base
mountain mines in BC & Montana
a modern school
Indian Residential School
giant kilns of an old brick plant
true ghost towns
hospital full of equipment

some goals for this new year:

finish photographing all Ukrainian churches in the province
explore a small area of the province i have not been to
hopefully head back to the states
more exploring with saskurbex & scythe
some old locations photographed in new ways
possible relocation again

christmas hall

2010-12-28T15:23:00.002-06:00

To celebrate the christmas season Saskurbex, Scythe & I decided to head to a town hall we had visited last year. Unforunately things change over a year and the piano along with our favorite decorations were gone. The christmas tree was still there and the basement was frozen with 2 feet of ice. This proved to be alot of fun as Scythe & I played some hockey with 2 brooms and a big wax candle shaped like a pine cone. The hall was still fun but this may be the last year we go there at christmas.

Some highlights:
- little frogs frozen in the ice
- ice perfect for hockey
- frozen chairs in the ice
- christmas tree still intact
- nothing broken
- saskurbex falling into waist high snow on the way back
- visiting an old abandoned church on the way

face off!

one of many little frogs frozen

merry christmas 2010

2010-12-25T08:13:00.004-06:00

Cheers!
Merry Christmas from VanishedCompass & SaskUrbex!

what intersection?

2010-12-21T13:00:00.003-06:00

The other night there were very bad road conditions. On our way back we decided to stop at a couple potential ghost towns. Unfortunately for us saskurbex hit ice and ended up driving us straight through a t-intersection into the ditch. Fortunately for us i have both CAA and cell phone reception with virgin mobile. We were rescued in a fairly short time but it seemed like forever as we watched the weather outside get worse.

My tip to everyone is be prepared, make sure you have all the necessary winter clothes and an emergency kit. I have CAA which definitely saved me in this case and having a phone that you know has reception around the province will also prove helpful in the end.

Here are some photo's of the vehicle:

west is warm

2010-12-17T13:00:00.008-06:00

This trip is the definition of last minute. Saskurbex and I didn't have a plan until the very last minute and the area we explored was chosen because it was supposed to be the warmest area in the province that day . We gathered up our gear and hit the road with only a few locations in mind.

At the start of the day the roads were nice and the sun was out. The downfall was the windchill, it was very cold and so we could only spend a short time outside before we started to freeze. As the day went on the weather got worse and by the end of the night there was blowing snow all over the roads complete with some freezing rain. We took a secondary highway back which was not to bad but then decided to move to the main highway which may have been a mistake. There was whiteout conditions and everyone was slow moving. Between having to scrap the windshield of freezing rain, windchill, blowing snow and crazy drivers it was an interesting night.

We did find a few neat things on the trip so that made it worthwhile. Here are some of the highlights:

- finding a church with power
- creating techno beats on an old electric organ
- finding a couple old school houses
- a school with power & full of antiques, no lock on the door
- annoying saskurbex with ode to joy on the piano
- very deep snow
- saskurbex driving us into the ditch

sask security

2010-12-14T13:00:00.004-06:00

Once and a while on trips we run into an area where people are very concerned about their abandoned buildings and make silly attempts to protect them. Most places have what i call "Saskatchewan security" - usually a small wire, broken padlock, wooden board, cement block or broken handle.

On this most recent trip i encountered some things i had never seen before. One was a no trespassing sign nailed to a door... from the inside. The nails were all the way around the outside sticking out. Apparently if you get to close you will learn your lesson? I would like to meet the person that pulled this one off.
We walked up to a church and realized it had a giant board across it. After removing the board and putting it to the side we tried to open the doors - after a bit of tugging saskurbex took off the entire door. It was soon obvious why the board was across the doors in the first place, not to keep people out but to keep the doors on.

ukrainian paradise

2010-12-11T12:39:00.013-06:00

You all probably know by now that i absolutely love Ukrainian Churches, abandoned or not i love to document them. On our recent trip we were in an area full of churches, most of them being Ukrainian. Even though most of the churches are still used and many of them locked I took photo's. So here they are...

sunday snow day

2010-12-08T10:22:00.001-06:00

Saskurbex and I decided to go on a quick day trip. The weather was nice, lots of snow on the ground and we had quite a few smaller locations in mind. The trip started out slow due to every single church being locked, which was a disappointment. Apparently no one trusts others in this area. Fortunately for us our luck turned around and we started finding churches we could get into, schools and even a railway station. The trip was definitely a nice way to spend my Sunday.

some highlights:
- finding not one but 2 abandoned railway stations, one of them was not converted
- getting attacked by pigeons
- frozen flooded basements
- interesting lighting
- saskurbex accidentally pulling a door of a church
- thigh high snow (that will teach me to wear ski pants)
- finding an abandoned ski hill
- finding "the pop shoppe" bottles still in original crates

nothing better than knee deep snow

these are the pigeons that lived in the schoolhouse

a wild bunch that couldn't seem to find the way out

just taking a break with the pop shoppe

thank god it is winter and these were frozen

address change!

2010-12-04T18:58:00.002-06:00

NOTE THE CHANGES!

My new blog address is vanishedcompass.blogspot.com
the address is no longer vanishedcompass.exploresask.com

The website exploresask.com is longer is existence.

Also note that arilem@exploresask.com is no longer my e-mail address.
If you need to contact me please leave a comment until I get a new address.

Thank you for your support during these changes.
Please change your bookmarks and spread the word.

missed church

2010-11-24T23:02:00.002-06:00

Believe it or not i missed exploring a church. In an area i have explored many times i missed seeing a spectacular little stone church! :o

Saskurbex finally found some time to explore with me so we went out on a last minute small trip to some familiar churches and decided to see this other one i had missed many times before. It was a cold night and there was a lot of snow but the church was worth our while.

Highlights:
- a working organ in the church
- making a snow angel
- trudging through thigh high snow
- getting to wear all my winter gear!
- finding something new that is nearby
- forgetting my flashlight
- finding a stone building

here are some pics:

rich in history

2010-11-17T08:48:00.000-06:00

The area we were in is very rich in history. This said it was bound to have many churches. Saying there were many churches would be an understatement. There were so many that we had to skip over the few we had already seen just to fit them all in! None were used and they ranged from completely gutted to full of everything and even was a historic site.

Not only did we find many churches so well intact but we also found a one room school with most original parts. It was fascinating to see such a small school with these original parts and no vandalism. It pays to be in the middle of nowhere i suppose.

So here they are..

When Neko and i first saw this we were unsure whether it was alive or dead
Thank goodness it was dead - poor little guy - so young.

grid of abandonded houses

2010-11-14T09:48:00.006-06:00

Imagine a grid road over 8 miles long with only large & small abandoned houses on it. This is what we found at the end of our trip. Unfortunately we were running out of time and did not have a chance to see every building but we did see a couple and plan to make a return trip next year.

Some highlights from the house:
- finding my second KFC bucket!
- huge homes abandoned with everything in them
- food still in a fridge
- house full of antiques
- beds with sheets still on them
- abandoned cars
- clothing still on hangers
- medications still in the bottles

north to explore

2010-11-11T09:47:00.010-06:00

I met up with my best friend Neko this past weekend and we decided to take advantage of the amazing weather and go on a road trip. We pick an area that was rich in history and had explored once before. We knew there was more to see and since it was not to far away we could always make it back if we ran out of time. The weather was nice and the road seemed nice at first but things turned for the worst near the end of the trip when we got stuck. Neko just learning to drive a standard in a little car was not the ideal situation. With no cell phone reception we started to panic but kept trying and eventually got out. Thank god. Before this whole mud incident we did hit up many places like schools, churches & houses.

Here are some highlights of the road trip:
- getting stuck in mud
- almost driving into a lake
- finding a grid of abandoned houses (huge houses!)
- the car wash not cleaning the car
- using an ice scraper to pick off mud
- no cell phone reception half the trip
- seeing the first ghost town i ever visited in the paper
- finding way more than we expected in such a small area

overall it was an awesome trip and i will definitely visit this area again!

even the car wash couldn't get the mud off

school continued

2010-11-08T08:15:00.000-06:00

Here are more pictures from the school. For a further description please see my previous post.

Indian Residential School

2010-11-04T09:10:00.000-06:00

The goal of the trip to Manitoba was to explore an Indian Residential School. This is something that was on Saskurbex's list of things to see. Most, if not all the residential schools are gone in Saskatchewan so finding out there was one left in Manitoba not to far off was definitely something we knew we had to see.

Good thing we went when we did because the place was falling apart and in a few years it may not even be standing. This was definitely the most unsafe building I have been in. Between the rusted out ceilings, holes in the walls and unsafe flooring it was quite the experience making our way through the building. In its day this building would be beautiful, although its history is quite the opposite.

This building was beautiful and i captured some beautiful photographs. I will probably not make a return trip to it so enjoy the pictures. This place was a huge 4 story brick school and took a while to get through. Places that are larger are always hard to post because i have so many pictures to sort through. I may not post the best pictures but i try to post a variety so that my readers may gain a wide sense of what the entire building is like not just one area that may have taken the best photographs.

Anyways, here are the highlights:
- Saskurbex falling through a subfloor
- Saskurbex almost falling through the stairs
- Saskurbex not having a tripod and borrowing mine
Just buggin... I know he's going to hassle me for posting that

here are my highlights:
- old chalkboards, books & clothing
- being in a building that was not converted from its original purpose
- lighting laying along the ground
- old water fountains
- communal showers was interesting
- original artwork and murals still intact
- a view of the entire town
- old windows, some not broken
- watching nature take this building back

abandoned long before this license plate

motel pt 2

2010-11-02T08:11:00.000-06:00

A continuation of the motel in Manitoba.

quiet motel

2010-10-29T11:10:00.001-06:00

During our trip in Manitoba we stumbled across an abandoned motel. The rooms still intact with beds, sheets, chairs, bibles and dressers this was your classic small town motel. Not very exciting we were surprised the place was not more trashed. We went through each room and soon realized it had been abandoned because it was indeed falling apart. The floor was caved in near the back of each room. Very unstable and definitely not worth fixing. There was quite a bit to see in this motel even though most was the same it is just one more thing we can check off our list.

part of the lobby area

high tech intercom system

to be cont...

drive on by

2010-10-24T04:25:00.000-06:00

While in Manitoba we decided to grab a bite to eat. We drove from town to town trying to find a restaurant that was open on a Sunday. Finally we found a Chinese restaurant/electronics dealer in a small town. We had a bite to eat and drove around the town. Before you know it we found an abandoned drive-in restaurant along the highway. We walked up the door was open so we decided to take a look around. Although it was very small it was abandoned and we didn't want to leave it out of our trip. Enjoy!

churches to and from

2010-10-21T07:10:00.000-06:00

As usual I wanted to stop at a couple churches on our way to and from Manitoba. Some were in Saskatchewan and others in Manitoba. I never get tired of churches because i feel everyone is different in its own way, even if they look very similar. On that note every church ranges from having everything in it and being used once a year to everything being gutted and nothing but a frame left. This always intrigues me because i can find churches on maps easy enough but i never know what i will find. Here are a few pictures of the ones we found:

day in manitoba

2010-10-18T11:09:00.005-06:00

Saskurbex and I decided to take a day trip to Manitoba. He has recently heard about a residential school and since this was on his list of things to explore we decided to make it into a trip. On this trip we also found a motel and a small drive up window restaurant. Of course we saw other interesting things such as ruins, churches, one room schools, etc. Since we saw so much stuff in such a short time, except to see many posts to come!

Some highlights:
- finding a not yet assembled wind turbine
- locating ruins
- Saskurbex losing a lens cap and us unable to locate it in the four feet he lost it
- a beautiful 4 story brick Indian residential school
- finding one restaurant open on a Sunday (we searched a few towns)
- lots of doors left open to every abandoned building
- drive thru restaurant
- almost falling through stairs
- did i mention a four story brick residential school?

Manitoba :) or :(?

ruins at sunset

ruins

wind turbine - so huge!

dad lets detour

2010-10-12T16:07:00.004-06:00

I recently went to my cabin as i have not been there in over a year. My dad needed to finish some things and i was up visiting them for the holidays. My plan was to do some exploring while my dad visited friends and finished stuff. Unfortunately when i went to take the truck out for exploring the engine light came on and i quickly turned back.
I decided to sit around instead but it soon turned bad when i got the flu the next day. Sitting on the couch with the flu did nothing for my urge to get out and explore something. We headed home the next day later than usual because i wanted to detour for some places i had not seen. My dad did not mind and the weather was beautiful. I snapped a few photo's of each location so here are a few.

I know this is not like my usual posts but i can assure you one of these is abandoned and the other two are used once a year. I would also like to point out that i drove through two ghost towns to get to these churches.

church pride

2010-10-08T16:01:00.005-06:00

Saskurbex and I decided to go out exploring for the evening. We had this planned in advance and both chose different directions to find things. Before we went out we chose the direction with what we thought would have the most pay off. The car was packed with all out gear and we hit the road. The night was a success because we got to see places we had never been before.

Some highlights:
- full size Ukrainian, Canadian & Saskatchewan flags
- a Ukrainian church i have not seen, fully intact
- finding a stone historic church
- old fire extinguishers
- a church with a cedar interior
- finding a mailbox in a graveyard that said - sign our quest book

I am part Ukrainian - just showing my pride!

and lets not forget Saskatchewan

pass on the tour

2010-10-04T15:55:00.004-06:00

Sitting around my apartment with nothing to do i decided to take a quick trip with scythe to an area i had been times but he had never seen. We packed up and hit the road. On the way there we found a historic site and went to photograph it. We soon realized they offered tours. (costing money we decided to pass on that and move along) We visited three churches and one school, one of the churches i had never seen. It was a beautiful day and the grids were dry.

Occurrences throughout the trip:
- Scythe playing the organ and echoing throughout the large church
- photo's in old school desks yet again
- finding a church i had not yet seen (this is rare these days!)
- finding 2 over sized bibles in one day
- finding my name in guest books from years back as well as on chalkboards - oh the memories!
- sad to find vandalism throughout some of the buildings
- almost getting attacked by bees

photo credit: Scythe
good thing scythe kept up with the piano lessons
it sounds amazing in an abandoned church

no more showtimes or services

2010-09-29T11:39:00.004-06:00

I found out that one of Saskurbex's goals include finding a full intact theater. He remembered seeing one online and so we decided to track it down.

When we first arrived at the town we scouted around for where this mysterious theater could be. I pointed out in the distance a building with no windows. We hiked through long grass but finally made it out to the building and all agreed this had to be it. Once inside we went to the projector room. It was still full of all the letters and the curtains but sadly no projectors. We looked through the small holes and could not believe the size of the theater. We walked down and started walking the isles of the theater very impressed in its condition. nothing was broken. All the curtains were still on the stage including the multi-colored lighting above and controls. Who would have thought that this building was here?

It was definitely something new and exciting and I know we all enjoyed it very much.

On our way out we passed a few other buildings and i spotted an abandoned church. I instantly got exciting and knew we had to explore it. Clearly running out of time we all agreed and went inside. It was much larger than i expected with hallways of rooms, meeting areas and a huge church barely touched. The only way to tell it was abandoned was by the dead insects on the carpet. Looked like the last time they used it was around 1996. All original elements were still in place, which was nice to see. I am glad we made time to quickly photograph and document this building.

Some highlights from the trip:
- all of us spelling our names with theater letters
- a full theater with no vandalism!
- a complete intact church with no vandalism!
- once again using my flash to create interesting lighting effects
- finding a snakes skin and starting to worry about what to do if i run into a snake
- having another photographer follow us
- church robes still in plastic

Here are some of the best photo's from the trip:

tempting to put on.. but time was against us

i am the light of the world? who knew.

hidden hospital encore

2010-09-27T11:55:00.006-06:00

Since the hospital was so interesting to me i decided to share more photos.

only thing missing is a dentist

scythe lounging out

hidden hospital

2010-09-25T17:18:00.001-06:00

A return trip to the hospital was promised to me for my birthday.

We decided to return to the hospital for a more thorough explore. It was amazing! We went into every wing and into every room. We found some x-ray machines, lab, hospital beds and things we never realized were there.This trip turned out to be much longer than we planned but it was worth it.

Some highlights:
- Scythe wandering off from the group
- sitting in almost every hospital bed
- working with my new flash & remote
- finding an x-ray machine like the one in Weyburn Mental
- dental chair and tools
- lots of funny pictures
- how intact the hospital was
- finding original documents

We spent hours wandering the halls photographing everything. Pictures speak louder than words in this case so here they are:

the only time i am happy to be in a hospital bed

where is my assistance?

saskurbex, scythe & me

three varieties