Abandoned CPR Bow River Bridge

This post has been updated and can be found here: CPR Bow River Bridge (Abandoned).

They’re saying…

”…Chris & Connie do an amazing job on studying their subject matter.” Rik Barry (Time Air Historical Society).

Remote…
Taunton/Fortner Bridge.
Green Door Ranch Then and Now.
80 Years Empty.

If you wish more information on what’s seen here, don’t hesitate to: contact us!

Date of Adventure: September, 2012.
Location(s): Middle of Nowhere, AB.

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Bow River Bridge Cecil AB

The Bow River here is wide and shallow.

24 responses

  1. Dana Anhelher says:

    Hello Chris,
    I have lots of history with that bridge been Visiting for almost 45 years! The very first time was a fishing trip with my friends father in 1976 and at that time the bridge was no longer in use. There were already several ties missing but that didn’t stop us kids from walking on the metal structure to get to the other side to fish. When one buddy was old enough to have a drivers license we would camp on top right on the old track bed. The memories are truly something to treasure. Been going there all my life, beautiful place and will continue to do so. My wife and I have been there several times this fall, the last time was November 3, 2021.

    All this time and only recently have I checked on the history, amazing, thanks Chris.
    As kids all we ever knew was going fishing to “Cecil”

    Cheers to All

    • Sorry for the delay – a bit a sick these days. Nice photo! And thanks for sharing your memories – we love when people do that. We want to go back too, as it’s just so cool and worth a revisit.

  2. Karen says:

    I am reading Obasan by Joy Kogawa that takes place in Cecil, Alberta. When trying to learn more about this town, I found your site. Now, I’m inclined to think that the towns in her book are fictional since Cecil never was a town. It also references a Granton, Alberta, which doesn’t seem to exist. Interestingly, the places she speaks of are so similar in landscape! I wish they were real.

    • Sorry, we had to step away from this site for a couple months. We’re back now. Cecil was not a town in the true sense, even if there was a grain elevator there, but think of it more as the centre of the local area. Still it had an official name and was listed on railway time tables. So if you lived in Cecil, it probably meant you did so on a nearby farm. There were many such non-towns like this across the prairies. On doing a cursory look, Granton does not come up in any lists we have access to. Perhaps in that book all the towns are fictional and the name similarity for the one was just a coincidence?

  3. Old JR says:

    I grew up down in that area and all there was at Cecil was a grain elevator and a CPR Section man.

  4. Dennis Roll says:

    I just noticed the photos you took of that old bridge. We farmed just south of there at Hays for many years. Would it be possible to use a few of those photos on my Facebook page? I will give credit…let me know how to credit the photos please. Thanks.

    Dennis
    Drumheller, AB

  5. Oldernwiser says:

    Thanks for posting. The photos bring back old memories. My dad’s farm was just south of the bridge at Lot #98 Hays, Alberta. In 1955 we moved there from across the river at Rolling Hills, and crossed this bridge with farm vehicles when the trains were not expected, in order to get to the new farm at Hays. My parents were one of the original settlers there in the 1950’s. It was real homesteading. I think his crop got hailed out 100% the first year. He stuck it out there and had a nice farm by the time he died in 1995. As kids we also used to walk across the bridge and look down between the timbers to the river many feet below.

    • Oldnwiser? Love it! Wow, drove across it? That’s amazing! There’s no way in heck I’d ever cross that bridge, even on foot. Too far down! This is such an interesting story and we’re so happy you shared it. Glad you liked the pics and write up!

  6. Byron says:

    Yet another wonderful read. Places most of us would be unaware of without your work.

    On another note, I frequently read articles about better photography by adding feeling to your photographs, which is a somewhat nebulous idea. How does one actually do that short of photographing war and poverty? I just realized today that your photographs are full of feeling. Especially meaningful because they evoke feeling without any people in them. Always evidence of people, but people that have likely passed on.

    • In times of self doubt, ashamed to admit that’s a hotel room I check into a lot these days, I’m going to come back to this comment. Made my afternoon. Yes, this is it. You understand what we hope to convey. I didn’t think anyone was getting it, but maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps they’re just not saying it aloud. Yes, we love the remote and obscure, the places where people were and now are not. People here, people gone. The sadness that comes with that.

  7. Daryl says:

    Hi Cris, I really enjoy reading about the CPR and the branch lines that once blanketed the Alberta prairies, when I was young my folks, grandparents, and Uncles farmed In the Hays area. I believe it was south of the Ronalane bridge, anyway I was very interested reading about the rail history between Vauxhall and Medicine Hat. Years ago we hiked up to the rail bridge which you showed in your pictures crossing the bow over to Cecil. This might sound weird but I can still see the trains in Hays and hear the horns across the prairies in my mind. I’m 43 Thank you for posting these terrific photos.

    • Thanks for sharing these memories. I know what you mean. Standing along these lines, long abandoned, it’s easy to imagine a train approaching as though the track was still in use. Thanks for visiting our site.

  8. My 1958 CPR timetable notes that the mixed service actually ended in 1957 and was strictly freight afterwards. I recently obtained an 1936 timetable that shows the flagstops along this portion of the track, and that a mixed train operated at least twice a week, sometimes three times. I will scan it and email it to you for you to look over!

    • My source, who’s pretty good, suggested they stopped in the summer of 1958. Twice or three times a week? Wow, always thought one round trip per. Not that anyone lived out that way!

      Thanks, got it in my inbox!

  9. John says:

    I was going to suggest contacting Doug Phillips or John Sutherland, but then read part 2.

    You obviously found Doug on your own!

    Great story, keep them coming.

  10. It is a neat bridge! We were a quarter mile away from it this May. Got some decent long-range shots of it. Always nice to find forgotten railway bridges!

  11. Dan Overes says:

    This is a very cool find. I lived in Vauxhall for three summers in the early 90s and — despite using my 4WD pickup in the hills near the old Ronalane bridge — never knew this railroad bridge was here. I just had to do some digging on Google Maps to find it. Very cool, I am adding this to my list of places to explore.

  12. Tom Tom says:

    You have an amazing ability to take a fairly mundane thing and make it interesting. Bravo!

  13. rory hall says:

    You find some pretty hidden spots in your travels!

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