No more school...

TARNATION !!! · 12-11-2010, 04:30 PM

...even beyond a hippie home.
Last summer I made a trip to the border to pick up a nice VH. I tend to take a lot of back roads on the way home from there (3 hours by good roads). Kay was along and tends to get nervous when pavement becomes gravel becomes a trail becomes an old pasture. I always figure if I got there and didn't get stuck, I can always retrace the route and find pavement again. Some of the land I know well and know that at the end of a horrible primitive trail (by city girl standards) there will be a decent road again.
Here's one trail, a pasture, a very photogenic abandoned and decomposing GMC school bus, and a church built the year before the 1929 stock market crash that ushered in the "Dirty Thirties". None of this would have been seen from pavement.

Also, the VH two months later.
Cheers,
Jack

Autumn Daze · 12-11-2010, 04:45 PM

Jack, I always enjoy your great photo's. Thank's So if I get this right the church is in the middle of nowhere.....right?

charlie cleveland · 12-11-2010, 07:07 PM

that sure is some beautiful country....i believe the school bus is about a 1949 gmc.....if it was not so far id like to attend church at that old place....it has some thing i like about it but i cant explain it....charlie

TARNATION !!! · 12-11-2010, 10:26 PM

Dave: Actually, the church is within a couple degrees of the centre of the universe. This one is at the hamlet of Courval, Saskatchewan. It was a small French settlement about 40 km northeast of Gravelbourg. The hamlets of Courval (parish of St-Joseph) and Coderre (parish of St-Charles) originated respectively in 1908 and 1910. The settlers came from the Eastern Townships in Quebec as well as from North Dakota; today their descendants number about 400–500. The population of the hamlet of Courval today is approx "a few". When Kay, the dogs and I arrived and took some pictures, the population had a significant percentage increase for a while. By some estimates, that would be close to the middle of nowhere.

Now this church gets closer to the middle of nowhere. A few dedicated souls are doing restorations. No inside plumbing yet but not really needed with the current amenities.

This church is at the true epicentre of nowhere. The faithful flock is but a few pigeons in the belfry.

charlie cleveland · 12-11-2010, 10:58 PM

those old churches just keep getting better and better....bet a few roosters and hens stay in the church yard.....if only those old builings could talk.... charlie

TARNATION !!! · 12-11-2010, 11:02 PM

Charlie: You can attend services here. Just ten miles from North Dakota and 1/2 mile from roosters and more roosters. Hell's inferno hath no effect here, that's for sure.

Churchyard biffy - more holey than righteous
Nothing says "emergency" like a fancy outhouse still available for the congregation in the dead of winter.

Cheers,
Jack

Autumn Daze · 12-12-2010, 08:53 AM

Good to see that this is one of them "Premium" outhouses complete with toilet seat lid and a paper towel holder! I wonder what they stock it with for reading material?...

Blind Dog · 12-12-2010, 10:13 AM

No more school for "Further" either. I think she's still located just outside Pleasant Hill, Oregon.

Big D · 12-12-2010, 10:46 AM

Paper towel holder? I thought it was a mail box.

Autumn Daze · 12-12-2010, 10:53 AM

Could be huh!.... Now those folk's spend alot of time in the john....