Fort Steele, British Columbia

Fort Steele, British Columbia

 

About half of the town burned down around the turn of the century. Its in a really dry area, so youd have a grassfire hazard if you didnt ensure it was watered properly in summer. Youre not even allowed to smoke inside the town. On the other hand, there is a lot of stuff there that you dont see, including the functioning farm that produces root vegetables, stables filled with Clydesdales that are used to plow said farm, the old fort itself, and a works yard that helps maintain an old steam engine (the one from Shanghai Noon) that runs on a few kilometers of track on the outskirts of town. What youre actually seeing in this photo is a fraction of the residential area. Most of what is left are commercial buildings because the area that burnt down, which would have been to the right of the photo, was where people actually lived. Basically what Im saying is that the manicured lawns at the front of this image are about 1/20th of actual town.