Sharples, Alberta facts for kids
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Sharples is a fascinating ghost town located in southern Alberta, Canada. A ghost town is a place where people used to live and work, but now it's mostly empty. Sharples is found in the unique "badlands" area of Kneehill County. The badlands are a dry region known for their cool, eroded hills and canyons.
This small community grew up in the 1920s. It was built because the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), a major train company, extended its tracks through the area. Sharples was located along what used to be the train tracks, specifically a smaller "branch line" that connected towns like Carbon and Drumheller.
What Was Sharples Like?
Sharples was an important place for local farmers. It had two large buildings called grain elevators. These tall structures were used to store grain, like wheat, after farmers harvested it from their fields. The grain would then be loaded onto trains and sent to other places.
A Busy Time for Sharples
At its busiest, around the 1940s, the grain elevators in Sharples handled a lot of wheat. They could store over 100,000 bushels of wheat each year! (A bushel is a way to measure grain, like a big basket). A few houses were built around the elevators for the people who worked there.
Why Sharples Became a Ghost Town
The trains and grain elevators in Sharples were very important for the local coal industry. However, by 1982, the coal industry in the area started to shrink. This meant there wasn't as much need for the trains to carry coal or for the grain elevators to store grain from farmers.
Because it was no longer profitable for the CPR, the train branch line was shut down in 1982. When the trains stopped coming, the grain elevators were no longer needed. One of the elevators, owned by the Alberta Wheat Pool, was taken down. But the other one, owned by Parrish & Heimbecker, still stands today. It's a quiet reminder of a time when Sharples was a busy hub for farmers and trains.
