During the first half of the 20th century, the mixed forests of west-central Alberta were cut down to make room for farms. This produced lumber that was used for building Alberta’s future.
New towns sprang up at the sites of the larger sawmills, These towns often included schools, churches, and businesses, as well as homes for local residents. Antross was named after the Anthony and Ross lumber companies, which had sawmills on the site. My mother and her younger sisters attended Antross School, and my aunt Myrtle was married in Antross. and I think that one of my uncles and his brothers played for the Antross baseball team. And my dad nearly died there when a skittish team of horses pinned his neck against the scrap wood burner. (But that is another story,)
Antross was a booming place. But its sawmills were not the only ones in the area. I remember someone saying that on a clear winter day, he could see the smoke form six different sawmills from his farm house.
By 1950, Antross suffered the fate of many other resource-based communities, The timber was exhausted and the sawmills shut down, and everyone moved away. Many of the people moved to nearby Breton, where Pearson’s and Fraser’s sawmills continued to operate for a few more years, before they too had to shut down,
By then the Pembina oilfield was opening up jobs for some of the unemployed local people. Breton survived the collapse of the local lumber industry and became a supply center for local farmers.
Only two buildings remained on the Antross town site by 1960, the remains of a house and a barn.
The dynamic hamlet of Antross deserves to be remembered, It touched the lives of many people, It was place to work, to learn and to enjoy activities with family and friends..
I remember seeing photos of a “railroad track” built out of scrap lumber, so that young people could push a mining car up the hill, jump in and ride the car to the bottom of the hill, before restarting the process. You don’t see that every day.
#Vanished #town #Antross #Alberta
