Ghosts of the Archives
There are a number of ghosts in the Archives. Often they are people, but sometimes they are places.
For our current vignette that opened in early October, we investigated the lost town of Dauntless. A little less of the spooky variety, and a little more of the confounding mystery type, Dauntless was a promising settlement just ten minutes south of Medicine Hat. As we began to look into it, we had to piece together pieces of information from newspaper articles, maps, and photographs. We wanted to know, what happened to Dauntless?
When you view Dauntless on a 1913 map, you can see the plan was for a town that would be three times the size of Redcliff. Even stranger, Dauntless was set to surpass Medicine Hat in size. Beginning in 1913, an engineer named Leigh A. Hunt placed an advertisement in the Medicine Hat News pronouncing that he was going to open a million-dollar cement factory, just outside of Medicine Hat, in
Dauntless. This cement factory was going to employ over 700 people, and the company town was going to rise up out of nothing on the prairies. Hunt wasted no time, and took out permits for buildings, and petitioned City Council to assist with getting utilities secured. Gas wells were drilled, bridges were built, kilometers of water pipes were laid, and very quickly, Dauntless boomed. Over 500 lots were sold to prospective owners, and it attracted the interest of the Canada Cement Company, who bought out Leigh Hunt’s shares. The cement factory itself, as well as the infrastructure of the town, meant that there was a 2 million dollar mortgage taken out on Dauntless. In today’s dollars, that would be closer to $53 million; certainly no small amount. Dauntless grew quickly. There was a grocery store, a bakery, a post office, a train station, and land was secured for a church. A CPR spur line was built from Dunmore junction, and there was talk about the CNR line coming right through Dauntless as well. But the grand promise of a town bigger than Medicine Hat was suddenly overwhelmed by its own potential. By 1918, the post office was closed. The train station was dismantled and removed, and the church was never built. Of the 500 lots that were sold, only a handful of houses were actually built, and the rest were listed in tax arrears. The Dauntless schoolhouse was in operation until 1944, before it too was dismantled and sold.
The once grand vision of a new town crumbled into dust. All that remains today are the cement foundations of the long-missing houses, and the large 400-foot long cement factory building, which has withstood the test of time for over 100 years. The town may be no more, but you can explore the boom and bust of Dauntless: the Lost Town on our vignette wall in the gallery foyer. On now until Jan. 29.