When I put the great story by Joe Ives together dealing with the train wreck at Murphy's Siding I wrote back to Joe and told him I would go out and take a look around and see what is left out there. But before I actually set out with the van I thought I should take a look at Google Earth and see if there was any evidence of a siding out there between Eldersley and Crooked River.

Even though the resolution for this part of Saskatchewn on Google Earth is extremely crude, the siding, or where it was located, is very clearly visible on the image above. There are two reasons for that. One is that on the surface, earth work gets grown over and can not be easily seen, but in an aerial view, the marks on the land remain visible. In this case, the siding is enhanced because it remains an active site today, for indeed it is the location of the Pioneer inland terminal so a siding is visible as well as some indication of the former development in the area years ago.

Below is what Graham Jackson had to say about the site in his messag to Joe Ives:

Dear Joe:

Saw the photo of the train wreck near Tisdale on Tim Shire's website. Sad to say that all that is at Murpys these days is open fields with nair a building in sight.The last buildings were burnt down by myself and my former employer Morris Beattie in the early 1980's.

Moe was renting the land at the time.There was a small house and a couple of sheds all made of wood.These buildings had been farmed around for some time and with farm machinery getting bigger all the time they just had to go.Also the remaining bush alongside the track was knocked down and buried by a Cat making the whole field clear of obstuctions and easier to farm.

Iwas told about the round house by Eldersley farmer Wilfred Foster and had the site pointed out to me in a clump of bush just further east but never ventured in to have a look.

Hope this info is helpful.

Regards
Graham Jackson
Tisdale.

As part of his reply Joe Ives mentioned:

Seems too bad that everything at Murphy's has disappeared. One report I read said that it was to become a Divisional Point for shipment of grain to Churchill. But that's progress I guess.

Did anyone ever mention to you anything about a complete townsite that was surveyed for Murphy's. Maybe that was just a rumour or maybe another part of the abandoned plan.

It was in his reply that Mr. Jackson confirmed the status of Murphy's today:

I forgot to mention that Murphy's is now the site of the Crooked River Pioneer Grain elevator. The aproach road to this passing along the south side of the track and running half a mile west into the elevator. So Murphy's is busy these days although not as originally envisioned.

Graham.