Maple Creek’s old-fashioned charm
Maple Creek a unique place with old-west B&B, comfort-food cookhouse
Greg Hisey moves a bit slower these days than he once did. He’s had nine surgeries, from a youth spent riding bulls, and the pain has caught up to him. He’s quick to brush off sympathy, though.
“I’m glad I rode the bulls I did. You gotta own your life,” he says.
Hisey grew up on a cattle ranch in Montana, where his dad was an overseer. His uncle raced chuckwagons and kept horses. Hisey recalls many a day spent exploring the rangeland on horseback, “wild and free.”
He moved to Saskatchewan for the love of a good woman more than 20 years ago, and he says he’ll never leave.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s a special place. This place gives back more to you than it asks.”
Hisey has left his mark on southwestern Saskatchewan, too. Anyone who’s stayed a night at Ghostown Blues, a bed and breakfast modelled after the Old West, where guests sleep in Hisey’s painstakingly remodelled wagons full of antiques, can attest to that fact.
It all started when Hisey acquired a decommissioned Lutheran church, built in 1912, and moved it to the property he shares with his wife west of Maple Creek. Hisey’s son came up from the United States to help with the restoration projects.
“What an opportunity that was — to sit with your son and have a glass of wine and plan a creative project,” Hisey recalls.
Ghostown Blues was the result — a place that pays homage to the area’s early pioneers and their dream of land and a better life at the turn of the 19th Century.
The buildings all came from ghost towns on the Prairies and are named after their place of origin. Many of the accommodations are converted wagons. There’s even a former threshing crew’s cook cabin.
Hisey’s immaculate attention to detail is visible in the antiques and superb craftsmanship in each museum-quality restoration on the site. That old church-turned-dining hall also hosts concerts with many a musician stopped in from their travels along the Trans-canada Highway. A deck, outdoor kitchen and fire pit on its north end beckons you to linger.
Guests are encouraged to gather around the campfire at night, tell stories and enjoy a simpler pace of life. If you’re into peace and quiet, you’re in the right place. But if you’re after cable TV and Wi-fi, you’re out of luck.
“Our intent is to get back with your kids, sit around the fire and enjoy each other.”
Sitting outside in a comfy lounger, hot cup of coffee in hand, is Hisey’s favourite way to spend a morning. Lounge chairs on the dining hall’s wooden deck overlook grasslands stretching out to the north. An eastbound train, so long it stretches across the horizon, ambles across the prairie as Hisey chats about auction sale prices and politics with a neighbour.
Maple Creek is the kind of place where everyone waves as you drive by — and not just the ubiquitous Saskatchewan finger lift off the steering wheel. Here, you get a fullfledged hand wave. It’s the kind of place where Hisey fits right in.
Breakfast is served hot and fresh each morning to the guests. A cooler is stocked with homemade goodies from The Shop Bakery & Deli. A bulletin board advertises local restaurants in Maple Creek.
One of those restaurants, Rockin’ Horse Cookhouse & Bar — owned by Ralph Saemann and his partner Laurie Leigh — has been a mainstay in town for more than a decade. Saemann left a career as a corporate chef to open his own place. He knew the risks of running a restaurant in a small market with an even smaller labour pool.
“This has been a trip,” he says with a big grin.
The Rockin’ Horse quickly became a staple in the community, thanks to the good food and the couple’s commitment to Maple Creek. They’re involved in all the town’s fundraisers. They source their food from Maple Creek area farmers first before they look elsewhere in Saskatchewan or Canada.
The food here is simple, fresh and made from scratch as much as possible, with attention to method (dry ribs aren’t breaded or deep fried, rather slow-roasted and baked.)
“It’s food that everybody understands — comfort food made with quality ingredients,” Saemann says.
He’s a culinary jack of all trades, trained in Thai cuisine (try his Pad Thai) and Japanese sushi-making.
“You learn respect for the food. Treat it right, and it’ll treat you right,” he says.
Saemann moved to town 20 years ago. He says the Cypress Hills, looming on the horizon south of town, drew him in.
His first job was for a Greek family at their Moose Jaw pizza restaurant. He learned customer-service skills and a strong work ethic.
“We worked hard all day and ate amazing homemade food at night,” he recalls.
He passes on his appreciation for good food and good service to his staff, skills that will carry them far beyond their first service-industry job.
Throwbacks to the area’s history can be found all over Rockin’ Horse — especially in the classic rock-themed lounge. The bar wood and mouldings were salvaged from the Govenlock Hotel in the former townsite built on the rail line. Govenlock was once a spot to which thirsty Americans flocked during the days of Prohibition (the community slowly became a ghost town after 1922, when the provincial government restricted liquor sales to cities with more than 10,000 people).
If you’ve always wanted to explore the southwest part of the province, make 2020 the year you do it. After all, according to Hisey, “You’ve got to live through life. Some people are just gettin’ through life. There’s a big difference.”
Jenn Sharp is a freelance writer in Saskatoon. Her first book,
Flat Out Delicious: Your Guide to Saskatchewan’s Food Artisans, will be published by Touchwood Editions in 2020. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter @Jennksharp and Instagram @flatoutfoodsk.
I don’t know what it is, but it’s a special place. This place gives back more to you than it asks.
GREG HISEY, owner, Ghostown Blues