Alberta is Canada's energy province — a landscape shaped by cattle ranching, prairie wheat, Badlands coal and the oil that transformed everything after 1947. Its abandoned places span the full sweep of that history: a CPR coal town inside Banff National Park, a Badlands ghost town whose hotel still serves drinks, prairie homesteads abandoned in the Dirty Thirties and the boom-bust oil infrastructure of the post-war petroleum age. Here are 5 of the best abandoned places in Alberta, selected from our Abandoned Places Map Canada — 2,500+ GPS locations across Canada.
Why Alberta Is One of Canada's Best Provinces for Urban Exploration
Alberta's urbex landscape is defined by the province's extraordinary boom-bust economic cycles — coal mining towns created and abandoned within a generation, prairie homesteads lost in the Dirty Thirties, oil infrastructure from the post-1947 petroleum era and the ghost towns of the CPR branch-line agricultural settlement. The dry Alberta climate preserves abandoned structures in exceptional condition.
1. Bankhead Ghost Town – Banff National Park, Alberta — 1903 CPR Coal Company Town of 1,000, Closed 1922, Lamp House and Foundations on Cascade Mountain (Known Location)
The Canadian Pacific Railway built Bankhead in 1903 to mine coal from the slopes of Cascade Mountain in what is now Banff National Park — a complete company town of 1,000 residents whose coal fuelled CPR locomotives on the mountain crossing. When labour disputes and lower coal grades made the mine uneconomic, the CPR closed Bankhead in 1922 and demolished most structures. The original lamp house, building foundations and the interpretive trail tracing the original town layout are accessible via a short hike from the Lake Minnewanka road. The most scenically situated ghost town in Canada — inside a Rocky Mountain national park with Cascade Mountain rising behind the ruins.
🔗 Learn more: Wikipedia – Bankhead Alberta
2. Rowley Ghost Town – Rowley, Alberta — 1900s Prairie Agricultural Town, Original Saloon with Bottles on the Bar, General Store and Grain Elevators Still Standing (Known Location)
Rowley is one of the best-preserved prairie ghost towns in Canada — a turn-of-the-century agricultural service community whose original wooden buildings still stand in striking condition on the Alberta prairie. The general store, a hotel, the grain elevators and the saloon with bottles still on the bar create one of the most complete surviving small-town streetscapes in the province. Local preservation efforts have kept the buildings accessible; the combination of the preserved townscape and the enormous Alberta sky makes Rowley one of the most photographically extraordinary abandoned places in Alberta. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
🔗 Also read: Top 5 Best Abandoned Places in Canada →
3. Abandoned Drumheller Badlands Coal Mine – 1910s-1940s Underground Mine, Headframe and Tipple in the Red Deer River Canyon, Badlands Hoodoo Landscape (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1910s-1940s underground coal mine in the Drumheller Badlands — the original headframe rising above the canyon wall, the tipple structure where coal was sorted and loaded and the mine portal cut into the hoodoo-striped Badlands formation. Over 139 mines operated in the Drumheller valley at peak production; when natural gas replaced coal, the mines closed and the infrastructure was left in the canyon landscape. The combination of the industrial ruins and the extraordinary Badlands geology creates one of the most visually unique abandoned places in Alberta. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
4. Abandoned Palliser Triangle Homestead – 1910s-1930s Dirt Belt Farm, Original House and Barn Still Standing, Fields Returned to Short-Grass Prairie, Southern Alberta (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1910s-1930s homestead in the Palliser Triangle of southern Alberta — the original frame farmhouse, the collapsed barn and the rusting farm machinery half-buried in soil drifted by the Dirty Thirties drought winds. The surrounding fields have returned to native fescue grassland over the ninety years since the last crop was planted. The Palliser Triangle was settled in the optimistic pre-WWI years by homesteaders who arrived to find the rainfall averages were misleading; the Dirty Thirties ended what drought had not already begun. One of the most historically poignant abandoned places in Alberta. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
5. Abandoned Alberta Foothills Cattle Ranch – 1890s-1910s Open Range Ranch Headquarters, Original Log Buildings and Corrals, Rocky Mountain Foothills (Exclusively on Our Map)
An 1890s-1910s cattle ranch headquarters in the Rocky Mountain foothills — the original hewn log ranch house, the horse barn, the corrals and the bunkhouse of one of the great open-range ranches that dominated the Alberta foothills before the homestead era fenced and plowed the open range. The foothills cattle ranching era lasted barely two decades before settlers and barbed wire ended the open range; the original ranch headquarters that survived the agricultural transition are among the oldest structures in southern Alberta. One of the most historically distinctive and most visually spectacular abandoned places in Alberta. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
Safety Tips
- Mine shafts: the Drumheller region has hundreds of unfenced coal mine shafts — never approach vertical openings in the ground and never enter mine portals
- Alberta weather: chinooks, extreme cold, severe summer thunderstorms and tornadoes — always check forecasts before any Badlands or prairie exploration
- Never explore alone — always bring at least one other person
The urbex code applies everywhere: "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."
❓ FAQ
What is the most famous abandoned place in Alberta?
Bankhead ghost town inside Banff National Park — a 1903 CPR coal company town of 1,000 residents closed in 1922, with the original lamp house and building foundations accessible via an interpretive trail with Cascade Mountain rising behind. The most scenically situated ghost town in Canada.
What is Rowley ghost town?
A turn-of-the-century prairie service town northeast of Drumheller whose original buildings — general store, hotel, grain elevators and a saloon with bottles still on the bar — still stand in striking preservation. One of the best-preserved prairie ghost towns in Canada.
What was the Drumheller coal industry?
Over 139 individual mines operated in the Drumheller Red Deer River canyon at peak production — extracting the Cretaceous coal seams exposed in the Badlands formations to fuel CPR locomotives and Alberta homesteads. The mines declined from the 1940s-1960s as natural gas replaced coal; the abandoned infrastructure in the canyon Badlands landscape is unique in Canada.
🎯 Summary
Alberta's abandoned places range from a CPR coal town inside Banff National Park to a prairie ghost town with bottles still on the saloon bar and Badlands coal mine headframes rising above hoodoo canyon walls. Each of these 5 abandoned places in Alberta captures a different layer of Canada's most boom-bust province.
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