Jesse and I have been talking about going to a ghost town for years now. We have been doing research into many different spots that we want to travel to, some are further away, which is basically why we haven’t made the trek yet but this is something we have had in the works forever. it’s hard to find information on Manitoba ghost towns. There is a website that does have a good deal of info but if you don’t know where to start or to look then you can for sure become lost in your ghostly pursuits. Which is why I wanted to write a blog post on our little adventures so there would be information out there on the world wide internet. For all you other ghost town seekers this one is for you.

The town we have really wanted to visit for some time now is called Snowflake, Manitoba but it’s about 3 hour drive which isn’t terribly far but the timing has never been perfect so for now it is still on our to do list. Ste. Elizabeth was recommended to us by one of Jesse’s coworkers. She grew up in Morris, MB which is where this little town was near by. We also chose it because of it’s close proximity to both Winnipeg and St. Malo Beach. It was only an hour away and then 25 minutes away from St. Malo. We made a day of the whole thing, visited the ghost town and then went to the beach. Ste. Elizabeth is a little French town that included French settlers and eventually Mennonite and Russian immigrant folk as well. The town started in 1898 and the church was founded in 1901. Many French familiar names that you will see or hear of today: Marion, Ayotte, Desaulniers, Collettes, Labossiere and Fontaine among them. I am sure everyone knows at least someone with this last name. At one point the little town had the church, houses, a barbershop, bank, general store and a town hall. I have done a bit of research on the town but there is not too much information out there aside from about the church and parish. I read a long historical blog post on Ste.Elizabeth but it didn't really offer much insight into what happened to the town and why it became abandoned. My guess or assume is something to do with the highways growing and changing or the train stopped going through. Something to do with the roads out there becoming less important and other communities developing faster and bigger. This is usually the reason for abandoned towns anyway. If I ever find out or if anyone knows what happened to Ste. Elizabeth leave me a comment!

We were able to visit 4 abandoned buildings while we were there. The abandoned church, which also had a really old cemetery attached to it. There were three abandoned houses facing the church, across the street. As we were leaving we did notice a whole section of further abandoned buildings that we never even got to explore.

The church was in immaculate shape. It had handmade poster signs all over the walls that had pictures of parties/gatherings/church bbqs. It started from the year 2001 on the left hand side and made they’re way all the way around to the right hand side to the year 2017. I imagine that’s when the church was officially abandoned. At first you couldn’t really tell it was abandoned because everything was intact and mostly clean, the outside was still in perfect condition, but after further exploring we did indeed discover that it was abandoned. There were animals that visibly had been living there, a bird was flying around while we were exploring. Jesse went up to the attic and a very large bird swooped close to his head, my guess was an owl. There was a trap laid out for some sort of rodent sized creature and there was an actual piece of fried chicken inside of it. I almost wondered how old that piece of chicken was. The confession booths were old and unkempt. The pews were extremely dusty after further inspection. There was a room with all of the towns history. It contained newspaper articles and other pieces of historical facts about the town. One of the articles was dated May 13th, 1901 which I thought was odd because that is my birthday. The guest book at the entrance of the church is the only way you could really tell that people still visit that church as there had been recent signatures and dated for sure only a few weeks prior to our visit. The cemetery attached to the church was old, some gravers dating back to the late 1890s. All very French names. We all know I have an affinity for cemeteries and this one was tiny, rustic and felt very comforting.

We visited the three houses after the church. There was a large and unwelcoming no trespassing sign on several of the trees, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around so we ignored them. They basically got more and more decrepit as we visited each house. The first one was a two story with a porch in the front It was pretty easy to get inside and there was even a broken open basement window if you wanted to crouch down in the long grass, risk tick bites and then probably come face to face with some unlikely creatures in the basement, I did not however so we did not explore the basement. All houses were covered in graffiti and it was very apparent when you walked into the first. I googled “support 81” which was graffiti’d in numerous places and I came to learn that this is Hells Angels so that was definitely creepy. You could tell people go there to party, empty beer cans and liquor bottles, and all the graffiti as well. You could go up the stairs but neither of us wanted to really risk walking around upstairs. The second house I feel like I had more personal homey touches. You could tell 2 bedrooms had been children’s bedrooms, you could very visibly tell it was a bathroom. This one was also fairly easy to navigate but three were large holes in the ground and you needed to be careful where you stepped. Grafitti in this house was daunting, “I killed them all” with can arrow pointing to a very destroyed old bedroom and more “Support 81.” The third house was the creepiest of them all. Grafitti’d on the front was “Death Count; Visitor Count:” You had to navigate yourself on a wooden 2x4 across to the door because the porch was broken. It was a little like walking a tight rope. The house was falling apart, you really had to be careful where you stepped because large chunks of the floor was missing. This house had an upstairs that I do believe is still very much used. Tons of beautiful and creepy grafitti could be found throughout this house, “stay in drugs, eat your school, don’t do vegetables” the third eye with ‘trust no1”, “blood”, “our wild hearts”, “you will regret it” and “ghost alert,” The energy in these houses was kinda off. The cemetery had good vibes, the church and houses gave off weird and unwelcoming energy to me. Despite the nice day and sunny atmosphere. I feel like if you explored at night it would be immensely creepy.

We were there for about 2.5 hours. We got there explored the church and cemetery, went and had a little picnic on the dirt road in his truck and had a couple drinks, explored the houses and by the time we had finished that it had been close to 3 hours and we were off to our next destination. Had we known there was more to explore we might have stayed but I will say the one thing that kinda sucks about exploring this area is it has very long and I am sure. tick infested grass. I would definitely suggest wearing pants if you can, even if it’s hot. We went to St. Malo provincial park afterwards and went to the beach. I dove right into the water and swam a good 1000 meters in the lake, then we laid in the sun for a bit and went home. By the time we actually got home it was still early enough and we were able to go out and do more exploring around the city and neighbourhood. It was honestly the most perfect time spent together and I encourage everyone, especially childless, to get out and adventure as often as possible with their favourite adventurin’ partner.

I recommended this spot to a good friend of mine because I know she is just as into this stuff as I am. Her and her sister were able to visit and she got also got some really amazing pictures. She actually told me this super creepy story about how when they entered the second house there was a group of birds. Three in the shape of a triangle, with the 2 on the bottom lying still, and the one on the top staring at them. There was also a bird in a nest just staring at them. Super creepy and cult like. #justwitchythings right lol?? Anyway the story disturbed me and she talked to me about how much it disturbed her so I can only imagine in real life.

I definitely would go back again, I think a trip in the fall would also be sooooo cool. When it’s all moody weather, cooler outside and everything just seems a little creepier. Anyway I hope this inspires some of you to get out and do something a littler bit different. You gotta add some spice to your life to keep things interesting and this would be a perfect way to do that.