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Hamlets and villages all across North America have been abandoned or so
badly depopulated to the point where these once thriving communities are
little more than ghost towns. Crooked River, about ten minutes drive east of
Tisdale is one such community. At one time it was a bustling centre with saw mills
and its two railway lines heading off to Hudson's Bay and the other to Preeceville. Hotels
shops and services were abundant at one time to service its industrious population. But now its school is gone, its elevators knocked down and even its post office closed forever.

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Here are the village
"superboxes" where thefolks from Crooked River and the nearby
farms pick up their mail. In the background you can see the extensive park
that stretches out along the south side of the village.
As I drove around this community with its fall colours and rustic beauty it certainly made me think about the whole concept of rural life. It would seem that through time people have often lived in urban or rural settings out of default rather than choice. Although in the last few decades more and more

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have actually had the opportunity to make a conscious
choice of where they want to live their lives. However, the recent Canadian census shows clearly that Canadians are more than ever determined to be city dwellers. Certainly the folks in Crooked River can not go to the symphony or a professional football game but they don't have to commute from a suburb to work each day in raging traffic risking life and limb just to go to and from their place of work. What is it about urban life that holds such an attraction? Clearly, looking around Crooked River it is hard to understand why anyone would give up living in a setting like this.

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During the eighteen and early nineteen century Britan's romantic poets and painters dealt extensively with the alure of living in a natural setting. Given the rude nature of urban life of that time I think that was perfectly sensible but today many cities and most urban life is relatively civilised but nontheless definitely compact. I suspect that economics will more and more have a profound affect on where people choose to live. We, the baby boomer generation are going to live for a long time as retirees and I suspect many of us will choose to live in small towns just for the practical financial reasons that will allow us to have quality of life on the budget we have available. Sadly most of us will not choose Crooked River or even Bjorkdale but larger communities with hospitals and recreation centres.