Alberta's Forgotten Cemetery | Ghost Town Expedition to Mountain Park Cemetery

Midwestern Alberta has [music] no shortage of remote roads, but today my daughter Victoria and I pushed deeper than usual, spending [music] 4 hours driving on rough, unpaved terrain towards Jasper National Park. Our ultimate destination is a cemetery from an old mining town [music] that was abandoned in the 1950s. This old cemetery is perched high in the mountains [music] with nothing left around it except large mining operations, open space, and [music] no trace of a town that vanished more than 70 years ago. Join [music] us as we visit the highest elevation cemetery in Canada, Mountain Park Cemetery. Okay guys, here we are. We are still in Alberta and Victoria and I are going to what's called the Mountain Park Cemetery and it's an old mining cemetery and it's the highest elevation cemetery in Canada. But we just went through absolute hell to get here driving through the worst of the worst of the worst. >> Look at our Look at the Look at Yeah. Yeah. >> The back of the car is filthy. And this is my backup camera. Okay. This is my backing up camera. It's completely muddy. I don't even want to know what the car looks like on the outside right now. >> We saw no wildlife. We saw no nothing. We've literally driven for like what 4 and 1/2 hours and we've seen nothing. >> I literally don't even know. I've been watching Love Island. >> Victoria's been watching Love Island on the tablet in the back seat like on the chaperon. I'm the chauffeur. I mean, anyways, ahead of us here, Mountain Park Cemetery. [laughter] Here we go. Let's see if this was worth driving. >> I swear to God, >> all this distance distance for. >> So, they got a little sign here. Mountain Park. >> It says Mountain Park. >> I don't know. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. Here we are. Here we are. Yeah. Mountain Park Cemetery. >> Yeah, that's what it looks like. And I can get in this little fence there. So, I like it. It's kind of neat. Okay. I got to put on my rain gear because it's raining out and I did not come all this way here to not do this. So, I'll be back in a minute. Okay, guys. So, here we are. I'm getting out of the car and we're going to check out the cemetery here and see what we can tell you guys about this place. This is a cemetery. Lives are commemorated, deaths are recorded, families are reunited, memories are made tangible, and love is undisguised. This is a cemetery. I want to read that. Okay, so this is a cemetery. I believe it's a mining town cemetery. Here is a uh listing of all the people who are buried here. Okay. All right, guys. Let's go. Mountain Park Cemetery. As you tour the cemetery, you may notice symbols and initials repeated on the various markers and plaques. These symbols and initials represent the different organizations and groups that the person belonged to with the most common symbols and initials described below. Okay, let's go inside, guys. This is a very interesting interesting old cemetery. Oh, wow. There are many unknown graves in this bush area. So, there's people buried here, but they don't know who they are or any of that. Interesting. Ronald Room. He died in just the year 2000. 1920 to two 2000. This is a super interesting little cemetery. Dora C. Embleau 1911 to 1939. It Oh, here we go. Victoria. Oh, it's the baby. Victoria M. Embleau. December 13th, 1948 to March 21st, 1949. Here we have a soldier Stanley James Wright 1890 to 1928 served with the East Suri Regiment. Sergeant Tony Rec 1922 to 1996 Royal Canadian Air Force. So, there's several people buried in this area right here. I'm so glad I brought this umbrella. Oh, what's this? Oh, he's just a young guy. Roger Husber, April 27th, 1973 to November 20th, 1980. That's very sad. Oh, this place just keeps going. Wow. Again, many unknown graves in this bush area. Wow, this is so interesting. Wow. There's a little bit more back here. They're kind of just everywhere. It's a lot Reminds me a lot of the Anok cemetery cuz they're just so like scattered and random. A lot of soldiers, too. Look at this. Just a cross leaning up against the tree. No name. Wow. This is so interesting. Private John. Some ashes of Private John A. Clyurn and his wife with their son were put here. Wow. What is this? Now there's so many things in here to find. In memory of Vernon Buddy Monson, 1959 to 1997. And then there's a little Holy cow. It just keeps going, guys. There's another one right here. There's two. Oh my god, they're everywhere. There's three of them here. Walter Wagner, Jake, Leonard, Hector, Stewart, Allen. Wow, this is such I keep saying this, but this is so interesting. Like, I can't re read them all. There's so many Oh my god. It goes back here too. Nicer. This is a nice one. Wow. Okay. Okay. So, I'm in the far back right corner now and I'm going to move myself on this way. And so, I've gone that way. Actually, I came up over that way and I'm going to go back down this way. And this is a bit of a longer stretch down here. It's pretty wet and slippery. Besides the cemetery at Annocks, this is definitely one of the most interesting graveyards I've ever been to. All right, let's keep going down and have a look at some more of these. There's probably more. Like I feel like right here kind of like at Annox that there's plots that don't have crosses anymore, but there's still people buried there. I think we already saw this one, did we? Yeah, I think we already saw this one. And then behind it, this one's interesting here. It's got flowers. So, this is a whole family, the Phillips family. We have George, we have uh Maggie, Matthew, Sarah, John, and Henry. Whole family plot. All right. So, we'll move over here to what looks like maybe a more modern area. Maybe not, though. I don't know. We have a little bench here for the family to sit on when they visit their loved ones. So this is the Davies plot and gates 1899 to 1940. 1932 to 2001. Oh gosh. John Derbishshire, first Mountain Park Coal Company mine manager from 1912 to 1918. And then for here, this is a brand new nice looking one. It's got the It's got the uh the solar powered light, the candle. Wow. Okay, guys. I think we're going to wrap this one up and I'm going to get some voice over for you guys and tell you a bit more about this cemetery and why it's here and why it's so significant. All right, so hang with me. I'm going to just run some some uh some cinematic uh panning footage of the cemetery with some voice over and let you guys know a little bit about this. And thank you so much guys for being here and thanks to the town and to the people who made this beautiful cemetery and who've maintained it for us to come and visit and enjoy it. Thanks guys. Mountain Park Cemetery sits at roughly 6,200 ft above sea level. [music] Widely regarded as the highest elevation cemetery in Canada, with snow often lingering long after spring reaches the valleys. [music] Mountain Park developed between 1911 and 1914 [music] as the Mountain Park Coal Company opened its mines, growing to about 1,000 to 1,500 residents with homes, a school, a store, and the services of a remote but active mining [music] town. >> [music] >> Life in Mountain Park revolved around the railway and harsh winters. And despite the isolation, residents built a close community supported by clubs, [music] gatherings, and regular social events. The cemetery overlooks the former towns site from an open hillside with many graves surrounded by white picket fencing and several belonging to veterans who are still honored by descendants. [music] After World War II, coal demand collapsed as diesel replaced steam. A major flood damaged the railway link and by 1950 the town closed, leaving only the cemetery behind. In the late 1990s, families and former residents returned to restore the cemetery by repairing fencing, clearing growth, and stabilizing [music] grave markers, preserving the site for future generations. The ridge is exposed to steady winds, long stretches of silence, and shifting weather, offering wide views across mountains, forest, and former mining lands. >> [music] >> The region later became part of modern mining operations, so access routes can vary. Visitors must follow posted directions, and the cemetery is treated as [music] a protected heritage site within the broader mining zone. [music] If you like this video, be sure to drop a comment and click the like button. If you love videos of old abandoned places and unique stories, subscribe to my channel. Thanks for watching.