Writer takes you ‘On the Road to Abandoned Manitoba’

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This article was published 03/11/2023 (699 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are countless places in rural Manitoba that may be deserted and forgotten about but are worth the road trip to see, says author and historian Gordon Goldsborough.

In fact, Goldsborough believes so strongly in his love for forgotten places, that he’s compiled a mile-by-mile treasure map with stories about each location that he says deserve to be seen and celebrated.

“I’m passionate about Manitoba history, and of course am partisan when I say this, but I think Manitoba is one of the best places to live — anywhere. And I’m hoping to induce people to get out and see their province,” Goldsborough said.

If credentials matter as proof of his commitment to the Keystone Province’s history, Goldsborough has them. He is a research scientist at the University of Manitoba and is secretary to the board of directors of the Manitoba Agriculture Museum at Austin.

And every Sunday morning, something he’s done for the past eight years, Goldsborough keeps his storytelling skills sharp on his radio program called Abandoned Manitoba, sharing anecdotes about the places that “used to be.”

So, when he was approached by a publisher to compile all the stories in a soft cover, he agreed to start writing. That was two books ago. The first was called Abandoned Manitoba, and for the second book, the publisher added the word “more” to the beginning.

This third book is titled, On the Road to Abandoned Manitoba.

“Things like maps are a part of my job, and I’m very familiar with GPS. So, in the book I provide GPS coordinates for every place I talk about. There are 30 chapters, but each one is stand alone,” Goldsborough said.

“So, you get your smartphone, you get a map app, or you get a GPS receiver, type in the coordinates, and it navigates you right to the spot. With this third book, I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for people to travel the province and see the things that I’ve seen.”

Even with a layer of snow on the ground, there are places worth driving to see, added Goldsborough, including a now abandoned one-sheet curling rink northwest of Carberry, that he said he believes is accessible in winter.

And in Roseland, which is southwest of Brandon, there is a “surviving and thriving” curling rink, that is “one of only three one-sheet rinks left in Canada.”

Rewind to July, and you would have seen Goldsborough in Brandon, as one of the key organizers of an historic convoy that rolled through the Wheat City, called the Pine to Prairie Relic Run.

Five antique Fords ranging in age from 92 to 100 years old made the trip across Manitoba from Ontario to Saskatchewan on the original Trans-Canada Highway of gravel and dirt roads – on the route that Goldsborough researched and mapped out.

The front cover of Goldsborough’s latest book pays homage to the oldest vehicle that made the trip, a 1923 Model T.

“We purposely took that picture. That was north of Oakville, Man., on a dirt road and in the background, there is an antique bridge.

“So that is a scene that we recreated, but that could have happened 100 years ago, you know. A Model T crossing an old bridge on a dirt road, and you can still do that experience. Finding those old places connects you in so many ways to how it used to be,” Goldsborough said.

Many of the photos that appear in the pages of On the Road to Abandoned Manitoba were taken by West St. Paul’s George Penner, a retired photographer.

Penner was along for ride for the Pine to Prairie Relic Run last summer and described it as Manitoba’s version of Route 66, referring to one of the original highways in the United States.

“My wife and I had a super time, but as photographer, one of the vehicles posed a real problem,” Penner said.

“It was that old Model T, if you can believe it. I wanted the cars to be close together. But the Model T was always faster than the other cars. He was always kind of spoiling the picture – by being out of the picture,” Penner said as he laughed.

“And when we got on the Trans-Canada Highway, they actually clocked it to see how fast it would go and it went 70 miles an hour. Not for long, but it went that fast, and that was the 100-year-old one.”

It doesn’t matter what people use, said Goldsborough, whether it’s an antique car, a bicycle, motorcycle, or horseback – “just get out there and drive.”

“The whole premise is getting people out to see these things themselves, and it’s baked right into the title, On the Road to Abandoned Manitoba. It emphasizes that it’s the journey as much as it is the destination.”

Goldsborough will be in Westman over the next few weeks sharing stories from his book about travels through abandoned Manitoba, with two appearances in Brandon.

On Nov. 10, Goldsborough will be at the Daly House Museum at 6:30 p.m., and on the 15th he’ll be at the Brandon Public Library on Rosser Avenue, at 7 p.m.

Other Westman appearances include Reston and District Library on Nov. 14, Glenboro’s Raystone Memorial Centre on the 16th, MacGregor’s library on Nov. 22, and a presentation at Virden’s regional library on the 30th.

On Dec. 7, Goldsborough will be at ArtsForward in Neepawa.

For more information visit https://bitly.ws/ZgTx

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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