The year 2017 will go down as a very good one for the DanOCan.com blog. We managed to increase our number of postings and thus we attracted a lot more visitors this year compared to 2016. It turns out people like new and fresh content and I hope we can continue to produce new photos, videos, and stories to share in 2018.
Our number of visitors more than doubled (145% increase) and our number of views was up by 131% too. While we’re less than a blip on the internet’s radar, we are reaching a larger and wider audience. If we were a business, we would be very happy with our results!
We spent more than a week on the road, visiting family in Saskatchewan over the Christmas break. The bitterly cold temperatures limited our outdoor activities but we still managed to get in some exploration. We didn’t really have set destinations, other than wanting to visit the abandoned elevators of Dankin, SK. Recently damaged by wind (or so we think), these elevators have deteriorated significantly since we first saw them a couple of years ago. If you like grain elevators, you owe it to yourself to get out there and see them before they are gone.
But, let’s be honest, that is not just true for Dankin but for all the places we explore and visit. We lost a lot of history in 2017 and there is no reason to think 2018 will be any different. Get out there and take photos! Whether they are artistic in nature or more for pure documentation purposes, we need to capture and record these gems before they disappear.
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you enjoy the photos from our trip because there are a lot of them.
What appears to be a former general store. Craigmyle, AB
Perhaps a former hotel? Craigmyle, AB
Built in 1915 as a Methodist church. Last service was held in 2004. Now owned by Craigmyle Historic Society. Craigmyle, AB
Craigmyle School. Craigmyle, AB
Seymour Hotel now only hosts pigeons. Hanna, AB
Aberdeen, SK
This former hotel barely hangs on. Smuts, SK
Smuts, SK
Holy Trinity Church. Built in 1926. Saskatchewan
Saint Mary’s Church. Built in 1923. Near Alvena, Saskatchewan.
Saint Mary’s and its bell.
I love the details and angles on this church.
Another view of Saint Mary’s near Alvena, SK
Classic prairie barn, this one built in 1949
Fish Creek Church, one of my all-time favorites.
The area NW of Saskatoon is a hotbed of Ukranian churches.
The former elevator in Wakaw, Saskatchewan did not have a Merry Christmas
The remaining elevators of Wakaw, SK
Every good prairie town had a Chinese-Canadian restaurant and this one in Wakaw is a classic.
Cudworth, Saskatchewan
Breman, Saskatchewan
Dana, Saskatchewan
At first glance we thought this was a former school, but those tend to have larger windows. Near Totzke, SK.
Moon rising over the privately-owned elevator from Totzke, SK.
Fun and vintage hotel signs in Vanscoy, SK
Faded advertising in Tessier, SK
The Tessier elevator has been recently painted and is in great shape. Tessier, SK
Another recently-reno’ed elevator, this time in Harris, SK
Fiske, SK
Dankin, Saskatchwan. The elevators are heavily damaged and not in good shape.
This service station in Eatonia, SK must have been one of the largest operations around in its heyday.
The grain elevator of Laporte, SK
I wonder what year the “Over 87 Years” sign was placed on this building in Mantario, SK.
DanOCan 
Great photos! Looking forward to more trips and more photos this year!
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Loved this series! Great photos. Those Russo-Greek churches are a favourite. Fish Creek is also amazing – wow! The building you believe may be the hotel in Craigmyle. I thought so too. The fellow next door said it was a store with living quarters upstairs.
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Ah, that makes more sense. It seemed sort of small to be a hotel, at least compared to the other hotels of that era. Thanks for the info!
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