If you are hunting Alberta ghost towns, abandoned prairie villages, or a Drumheller day trip that is more than hoodoos, start with Rowley.
Rowley sits in Starland County, north of Drumheller in the Alberta Badlands. In the 1920s it had hundreds of people, a train station, stores, a hospital, a church, and three grain elevators on the skyline. Then the Dirty Thirties, better roads, and the end of rail traffic emptied it out. Today eight to twelve people still live there. They mow the grass. They keep the saloon. They call it a historical village more than a ghost town — and they are right.
KassDays walked the streets in this 23-minute video already live on YouTube:
Inside the Abandoned Ghost Town That Refused to Die! (9 Residents)
https://youtu.be/tSDHEJurHYE
You will see the three grain elevators, the old hospital, the church, the bank, Sam’s Saloon, the community hall, and the speeder car on a short stretch of track. Hollywood has used Rowley as a period set. Locals still run Pizza Night on the last Saturday of the month to pay for repairs. That is why the place looks cared for instead of collapsing.
- Search “Alberta ghost towns map,” Starland County, Special Areas, Crowsnest Pass, and Highway 9 / Highway 56 corridors near Drumheller.
- Good public or semi-public stops: Rowley, Dorothy, Wayne, East Coulee, Atlas Coal Mine, Leitch Collieries, Nordegg, Bankhead (Banff area ruins), and parts of the Crowsnest Pass.
- Use Travel Alberta, municipal heritage pages, and recent visitor photos. Old map pins are often wrong or on private land.
- Pair Rowley with Drumheller, the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the hoodoos, and the Atlas Coal Mine for a full Badlands loop.
Mind the signs. This part matters.
Many “ghost towns” still have residents, private houses, working farms, and buildings owned by the community association. Rowley is one of them.
- If a sign says Private Property, No Trespassing, or Residents Only — stop. Do not walk around it, do not try the door, do not film through windows.
- Stay on public roads, marked paths, and clearly open townsite areas.
- Do not enter boarded buildings, climb elevators, or treat someone’s home like a movie set.
- Dogs on leash. Pack out everything. Do not move artifacts.
- Ask before flying a drone.
- Pizza Night and posted summer tours are the welcome mat. Random weekday peeking into yards is not.
A ghost town that still has nine people in it stays alive because visitors treat it like a living place, not a free-for-all ruin.
Watch the full walk-through here:
https://youtu.be/tSDHEJurHYE
