Girvin Saskatchewan "The Street's are There But The Signs are Gone" Photo Gallery by Mike Stobbs at pbase.com

Girvin Saskatchewan "The Street's are There But The Signs are Gone"

Girvin is located Midway between Regina & Saskatoon on highway #11. It is the only town on this highway that has not stood the test of time. Once home to 5 elevators 3 banks and many shops with homes on both sides of the tracks and a sports ground.....only about 8 residents still remain.
A tattered provincial flag flutters in the hot breeze on a lonely pole on the way into town, and the population sign leads you think there mite be 60 residents there.
This gallery is dedicatied to the few that remain and the ones that once called Girvin their home.
Come for a walk with me and enjoy the Ghost town of Girvin.....Your comments are always welcome.
Enjoy...........Mike (Images from all galleries are for sale to help cover the costs of bringing you these images and to preserve some of our Saskatchewan History)

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Lawrence Barany		07-Aug-2023 04:31
My Dad had emigrated to Sask from Hungary in fall of 1926 and had a sponser and who was his first employer named Bala (Bob) Kontoni of Box 4 Girvin. Anyone out there familar with someone by that last name that make be related to Kontoni Family?

Kyle		16-May-2023 18:06
My family homesteaded just west of Girvin. The Rebers and Lykes in 1904. My great Grandma Alice Reber Hill wrote a book about her child hood.

guest		05-Jan-2019 15:23
Looking for Dale Jahnke, son of Frank Jahnke

Guest		01-Apr-2018 14:51
My dad was born there. My grandparents were Henry and Margaret Gilbertson.

Walter Hazelton		01-Jan-2018 19:49
My dad livid in Girvin from 1901 to 1915 when he enlisted in the Canadian infantry. In my book entitled “Dear Folks”, which was just published, some of his life growing up on the farm his parents had there is described. There is a picture of him in front of the one room school house he attended and pictures of their house, barn and tractors.

Iris Hooge (Muirhead)		16-Apr-2017 23:34
I have family that lived in Girvin - I would love to find out more about, They Muirhead's, McConnell and Spratts. Janet Muirhead and Alexander McDonald, the parents lived in Craik.

Lori Jackson		08-Aug-2016 20:46
Family chatter talks about the Frank E Bretall Family moving up from Big Sandy Montana and running the hotel in Girvin before moving onto Hardisty Alberta in 1910. His wife was Norwegian and had quite a few kids, one being my grandmother. . Would anyone be able to substantiate that story for me. There is nobody left on that side of the family anymore.

Guest		10-Jan-2016 18:37
That's a nothing town, can't even get service there on a sunday morning...

Guest		10-Jan-2016 18:37
That's a nothing town, can't even get service there on a sunday morning...

gary storey		09-Apr-2015 03:31
I have just read all your entries of what was once a thriving and beautiful little town. I did all my schooling there from 1946 to 1958. I grew up 2.5 miles south of town and still have the farm. Here is a link to photos of Prairie Towns including Girvin. http-//www.prairie-towns.com/index.html.webloc

Karen Hutchinson		24-Jan-2015 22:58
My Great, Great Aunt Isabella Swanston, [Tibbie for short] lived in Girvin at one time around 1900's. I'm just starting to research but I believe she may have been a school teacher. I have some old photos and post cards of Girvin but can't date them yet. I'd be happy to share them for posting. Can anyone help with old info about the town from that era? I know there was a Jeweller at one time because I have seen an old box with that name. I also have a photo of Tibbie sent from Girvin by a Mrs J.D. Wilkie. Does that name sound familiar to anyone? Tibbie returned to Ontario [Guelph] later in life and died there. I wonder if Ms Crow who posted in 2007 would have any idea if her relations and Tibby knew each other since they appear to have originated in the same county in Ontario and could have been in Girvin around the same time.

Guest		28-Dec-2014 17:43
Came across history of my grandfather and possibly other family residing in or around Girvin. Wondering if anyone recalls McConnell family?

Claire Brown		17-Aug-2014 21:20
My mother-in-law gave me a coal-oil lamp and emphasized that it was the first one in Girvin. George McIntyre Brown and wife Josie lived there in 1922 with their newly-adopted son who was NEVER told. George worked for a Canadian elevator. His first wife Annie and his father and his child were buried there. George built a house there. What am I to do with the lamp?

Denise		01-Aug-2014 15:35
Thanks Gladys. I went out last summer and found it. Both my grandfather and great grandfather are buried in the Girvin cemetary. I make it a point to go visit there everytime I am in SK. Mahala, I don't recognize your uncle's name. But my family name is "Seeley". My great grandfather (Percy) and great grandmother (Mary) lived in Girvin, as did my grandfather (Raymond) and uncles (Robert & Clifford) in the 1920's.

Gladys		08-Jun-2014 21:24
The Girvin Saskatchewan Cemetery is located 3 miles directly WEST of the south end of Girvin. You turn west of highway 11. The cemetery is located on a hill.

mahala		06-Sep-2013 15:39
It's great to see there is a forum about Girvin and the pics are great. My uncle (a step brother of my Dad's) moved to Girvin as a harvester out of England circa 1928. His name was Louis Seeley Holgate - it would be great if somebody out there recognises the name.

Calvin Girvin		28-Jul-2013 16:28
Girvin, Texas, looks much the same way. It was the home of my grandparents. You might want to look it up on the internet. Calvin Girvin

Guest		10-May-2013 04:26
Very interesting read.... My Grandpa was Arnie, the proprieter of Speedway Service. This brought back many memories. Grandpa always had a coke and chips for us on the way through Girvin. Remember playing kick the can down the street. Skated at the skating rink every Christmas. Even bought candy at Yee's. Heard many more stories about the gatherings at the garage every day, from my Dad. I used to root around in the decaying elevators with my cousin, when we weren't in the tree fort behind the house. Also carried water home from "the well" . Had a few family events in the basement of the church. And As was mentioned below, Grandpa never missed meeting the bus. Thought it was just me that thought Girvin was special, but growing up in Sask, I always felt like I was in the center of the universe when I was in Girvin. Right in between Regina and Saskatoon and with hours of Saskatchewan in every direction. 3 things carried with me from Grandpa's garage in Girvin.... Coca Cola, Goodyear tires, and go Riders!

Denise		09-May-2013 19:35
I was wondering if anyone can tell me how to get to the Girvin Cemetery? I was there about 5 years ago, and I spoke with I believe the only resident left in town and she gave me directions. But I cannot remember the road that it was on. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

Guest		29-Apr-2013 22:49
Guest I grew up on a farm four miles west and two miles south of Girvin. My dad, Max, arrived in Girvin April 1st 1906. He us to tell about all the businesses that were there, I only remember a few. When dad arrived it was a bigger place thab Davidson. Dad and his brother Bill built a garage there in 1917, not sure how many years they owned it.

Guest		28-Jul-2011 21:20
I'm looking for family of my cousin Elizabeth Almira Meredith, who was married to James Harvey English JR. She died 4 Jan 1913, Girvin, Saskatchewan. They had three children: James "Jamie", Gertaude, Burton "Burt". James Harvey remarried and had two more children supposedly. James Harvey English Jr. died 1934 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Any help with this family would be greatly appreciated. Thanks butlersd@nwlink.com

Derek		20-Jul-2011 21:01
I lived in girvin for a while and was raised 6miles straight west of girvin. It really is a great place to grow up.

Amel		04-Mar-2011 19:23
Erin talks about an "older man" mowing his lawn with a riding mower..I think thats me!!

Bouvier		26-Jan-2011 02:54
My Great grand father P H Bouvier sold the family farm for the King Edward Hotel in Girvin in 1912.He lasted 1 yr then packed up the kids and moved to meyronne. It was a hard life for them in girvin. I did a tour with my father on our enduro bikes. I love all these towns...Highlights were Gravelbourg church simply breathtaking...n when we went to Bateman ....in the abandoned arena I could almost hear kids shooting pucks aginst the boards playing hockey....spooky in a good way...My Father grew in those parts ....best trip ever ever ever...n ive been all over. My soul longs to live in Saskatchewan....

Sheila Harris		22-Jan-2011 17:21
Guest My father ws born near Girvan, youngest son of Thomas and Jesse Hansford and was raised there through the thirties. I grew up hearing stories of life on the farm there, and ended up choosing to live on a farm myself...and work it. I came to realize that the family was desperately poor through that drought and depression but that my father had had a wonderful childhood, I learned that poverty doesn't necessarily follow from lack of material things. I know my grandparents felt the hardship terribly, but not my Dad as a child. Even in her nineties my Grandmother talked about always looking up to the sky for the rain that never fell. My Grandfather built several buildings in Girvin, I am coming there in February and hope to find where they are buried. I have only been to Girvin once, but it exists for me through my Dad's stories. i appreciate the photo gallery very much.

Patricia McCoy Green		12-Jul-2010 16:47
Lovely pictures of an era gone by. Sad to say so much history in the beginning and now lost and forgotten today! I too had ancestors in the area in the early 1900's. My great grandfathers brother Alexander McCoy, his wife Jane (Jennie) and children were found nearby in 1906. Also Jane's parents and siblings the Neilsons. McEwens are too to be from this area. I hope to someday visit the area and perhaps find something or someone who will remember my families.

Cindy Pells Willmott Stephen		09-Jul-2010 01:58
My great -grandfather, Billy Pells, was a blacksmith in Girvin for a while. He was from Ontario and lived in Lumsden just before 1900, then Condie circa 1902 when my grandfather was born, then Girvin til 1907. That winter, he moved east to Liberty where he was finally able to buy a farm. He moved himself, with a cart and oxen with his wife, three boys and a baby girl in March, in minus 30 temperatures. I have no photos of him or anything - very sad.

Michael Cornish		05-Jul-2010 20:40
I lived in Girvin from 1953 till 1958. We then moved to a farm outside of Girvin. I went to school there. It brought back memories about the pie at the curling rink during a bonspiel. Also, we really enjoyed the new skating ring built beside the curling rink. Before that it was a old building on the same street as the water tower. My dad was the postmaster there for the years that I lived in Girvin. I still very vaguely remember him going to meet the steam trains to get the mail. There were two stores. Tom's that was just beside our house and the co-op that was down the other street from our house towards the highway. The comments of 'Guest' on the 27 of June 2009 brought a lot of memoiries back.

Guest		26-Jun-2010 21:39
I agree with Taire Martyn, I too would love to live here someday. Maybe when I retire; it looks like a peaceful place to live.

dave		24-Jun-2010 01:39
Very nice photos of a great little town. Sad on one hand, but very beautiful an the other. I was wondering if the realignment of highway 11 had anything to do with the loss of businesses and residents?

Taire Martyn		02-Apr-2010 23:55
Beautiful Photos! I just happened to be looking for a Dorothy Brown from Girvin. I know she was living there in 1990 but I have no idea if she is still alive or not. My email is tairer@aol.com if someone knows her or of her. I would love to live in a little town like this.

Erin		08-Nov-2009 21:38
I got stranded a couple kilometers out of Girvin with my best friend in August of this year (2009). Let me tell you, Girvin is beautiful - yet so, so creepy. The first thing we noticed was the abandoned barn/machinery right at the entrance. Once going in a little further there is an Autobody shop (boarded up - there's simply a number on the door, telling you who to call.) There is a young couple living out in Girvin, an older man in the farm in the North West corner, an older man living in the house next to the autobody shop, another old man with a red truck, and a woman as well somewhere in there. There are a lot of cats out there, too! The man next to the autobody shop was riding his riding-lawn-mower for the two hours we were stranded there, which really freaked us out considering his lawn was definitely not in need of a mowing or even a trim and we are two teenage girls :P. My friend stayed in the truck as I poked around a bit. The gas station is closed and boarded up, but the few residents each have a key to the gas pump (which still works). I came across a buildling that looked like a fire hall. It looked somewhat newer so I didn't get close to it. There was an old building that looked like a school - boarded up. I looked inside the window and there were a bunch of deer antlers, a few still with stuffed heads. There are a bunch of abandoned houses out there, too. I would LOVE to poke around and get more photos, but you're automatically seen as an "intruder" as the few residents know you're not from around there, and you aren't just "stopping by" for something to eat/drink as they have nothing there! There is an old "merchandising" building next to an old house. Oh, it's so lovely :)

Guest		27-Jun-2009 21:46
If you ever were sent to Joy Yee's for milk..you were from Girvin ..If you ever flipped for quarters or played cards at Arnies..you were from Girvin..if you know the rules of can-can..your from Girvin...if you ever went over to the curling rink for pie at diner time during the bonspiel..your from Girvin..if you ever spilled the water carrying a pail home from the well..your from Girvin..went to a 4H record hop...your from Girvin...and if your asked where your from..and no mater how long its been and you answer Girvin..............

Guest		27-Jun-2009 02:18
the stairs shown in pic. 5578 were unsafe 50 years ago. That may be why I am afraid of heights today! It is sad to see the loss of ones childhood home but the memories are still clear and cherished.

Mike Ridland		07-Jun-2009 13:58
Hello, Just adding my 2 bits worth. I moved to Girvin in August 2008, a nice little quiet community in the final throws of death (or at least some seem to think so). The population has increased by 4 with myself and a family from El Salvador moving in. Population is now 15 . The Low house and property pictured on page 1, pictures #5541, 5542, 5546, 5547, 5548. The house now has a new blue metal roof and is partialy primed for a new paint job. The inside is being upgraded and made livable again after an absence of almost 20 years of being vacant. A gentleman from Alberta bought it and plans to move in when finished. By the way the grease gun on fence in picture #5546 still works after years of being out in the weather. I bought the grain growers house on the west side of the tracks that was vacant for 2 years and after evicting 12 mice, I moved in. I plan to build a hobby shop there as time permits to serve central Saskatchewan. Sadly the RM of Arm River plans to destroy the unoccupied houses that are now unfit to repair.

Guest		04-Jun-2009 19:17
Am i able to just drop by and look around?

Ian Brown		07-May-2009 21:39
Theres a model train store now in Girwin . I've only been there to visit the train store, and the person who came from Mount Forest, interesting i once lived there my self and now live in Saskatchewan.

Ian Brown		07-May-2009 21:39
Theres a model train store now in Girwin . I've only been there to visit the train store, and the person who came from Mount Forest, interesting i once lived there my self and now live in Saskatchewan.

Guest		28-Apr-2009 17:13
And who could forget the rink!

Orla White		25-Mar-2009 21:36
I lived in Girvin for 50 years in the house that Tom Hansford built. It is still livable and a beautiful house. My husbands family lived there in the early 1900,s until their passing. They were the Drayman, then the truckers, and then the bulk oil business.

Devaughn		25-Mar-2009 15:53
I grew up in Girvin!1 This is my town. Thanks so much for sharing these images. I visit this town yearly. In fact, my brother still lives in the town and my dad's farm is only 1 mile away. These are wonderful images of the remaining structures in town. The United church, that I attended as a kid, burned down a few years ago. It was a tragic loss for those of us who treasured all our memories of Xmas concerts, Sunday school, fall suppers and 4-H club meetings, weddings, and bridal showers, that were held there in the 1960' and 70's when I was growing up. It was a special place where many of the residents of Girvin gathered each week. One of the most memorable characters that I recall was Ernie Goodmanson. He owned the only gas station in town and the Greyhound bus always stopped when passing through (during the sixties and seventies). All the farmers would gather at Ernie's in the morning to exchange gossip (my dad included). We would go to Ernies for a cold pop from the pop machine and a bag of chips. Everyone knew Joy Yee. She was a chinese lady who owned a little grocery store. I recently took up photography and look forward to returning to Girvin this summer with my camera in hand. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Devaughn Squire (Wilkins) dsquire80@hotmail.com

Andra		15-Mar-2009 15:53
I grew up in Girvin, and have many many fond memories of the town. We used to play or hang around many of the structures in the photos. You could go to the Yee Cafe and buy candy from Joy, who inherited the store from her late husband Tom. Or you could go to the Speedway Service gas station and buy some candy and joke around with Arnie (who was known as Goat). It was a great little village and I think of it all the time. My brother and his family still live in the family home and they do have a beautiful yard. Anyone who cannot appreciate the beauty and peace of this little place needs to go back to the city anyway.

Terry		22-Jan-2009 18:16
Thats interesting did she happen to give you her name?

Eliza		08-Jan-2009 00:48
Just met a woman in florida in her 90s, she said she grew up in girvin and wondered if it was now a ghost town. her mother was a mcnabb

john		26-Aug-2008 18:52
visited Girvin JUly 2008, its still dead town, building standing but no sign of inhabitants. nearby Craik is a vibrant eco community, complete with straw bale structires. both are worth avisit.

george ronaldo		30-Jul-2008 01:05
me and my brother walked from saskatoon through to regina. in the midst of a thunderstorm we happened across the town of girvin. we set up our tent in what we assumed to be the schoolhouse and it had a sign on it called "the gopher hole". girvin was definitely our saving grace that night as the rain came down like it was nobody's business. would love to hear the history of this town and how it came to be in it's current state.

Mrs. S. Casey		07-Dec-2007 21:07
My mother's great-uncle Andrew Girvin, migrated to a small to part of Saskathewan after the Civil War and bought many acres of farmland. When he was in his fifties, he moved to the small town (that really did not have any particular name) after selling his farm and bought a small store. Over the years he added to the store making it into a general store that sold everything. Due to the influx of people he added a lumber yard, and he started building homes. He added churches, other stores as well. My uncles James Girvin and Andrew Girvin visited the town when travelling on a trip and learned this was the town the Uncle had lived, and that the people had named it after their uncle Andrew.

Lynn Crow		05-Oct-2007 21:59
In recording our farm family history in Ontario, I noted that one of our great aunts died at Girvin, Sk on 12 June 1906 at the age of 25 years. Her sister's husband, Robert Elliott, had gone west from Mt. Forest, ON and aunt Marion Crow accompanied her sister Mary Crow Elliott and children on the rail trip to Saskatchewan to join Robert. Marion took ill (appendicitis) on the journey and died shortly after their train arrived in Girvin. Her body was returned to Mt. Forest by rail for burial back home. I decided to look up Girvin to confirm the spelling of the town's name and was saddened to see the state of the town today. It holds lots of memories of better days, though. Lynn Crow, Wellington County, ON

Joan Nolan		23-May-2007 20:57
We are going to be in Sask. this coming weekend and next week and plan to visit Girvin where my grandparents are buried. I was there about 15 years ago and met a very friendly family who showed us the grave and even knew my grandfather's name. We want to get our own pictures this time, of the grave and the house he built. He apparently had a couple of stores there and coached the hockey team in the early days. My mother was born in the house in Girvin in 1911. Their name was Hansford - Tom and Jessie, and Tom's brother Isaac helped him do some of the building. I grew up hearing stories of the West and so did my cousins I'm sure. Our grandmother lived to be 96 while poor Tom died in 1929 or 30. Does anyone know of this family? I realize it probably wouldn't be first hand because they were there when the town was new. Joan Nolan

Caroline Norris		03-May-2007 11:41
I used to spend my summers here as a kid, when the gas station still worked and the only local store was run by a chinese family or maybe it's my bad memory and I just think they were Chinese, I used to buy Sweet Tarts there. My grandpa used to park the camper in the building in your photo dsc 5605 and all the playground equipement that used to be at the school house is gone in your photos. The school was already closed when I was a kid, but they still had the kind of merry go round thing with bars that you would run round and round and hold on a few secs if you got it to spin fast enough, it kinda looked like those flying chair rides you see for kids in Paris parks. Most people in the late seventies and early eighties were already on their way out of town or moving up the road to Davidson, that's where my grandpa worked. And for water we had to drive into the valley and fill a huge tank on the back of the pick up truck and bring it back up to the house. I used to play with the kids down the road in the big house, but one summer I came back and the family was gone, they'd also moved to Davidson. My grandfather was John Norris and was married to Dagmar Norris who died in the Davidson hospital in the early eighties. My grandfather moved up to P.A. after her death. I often came to Girvin to visit my grandparents with my parents who were both from Saskatchewan, my dad was from Meadowlake and my mom was from Stoon. We drove west pretty much every summer or so all the way from Kingston, Ontario. My favorite memory was listening to radio in the front room of my grandparents house and I seem to recall "Teddybear's Picnic" and "Animal Crackers In My Soup" so perhaps it was an LP and the huge rainstorms that would fill the ditches along the streets between the driveways and then three days later you would have all sorts of interesting things alive in the muck. I also distinctly remember the summer the grasshoppers were really bad and going through the overgrown grass at the school house to play and having grasshoppers jumping up and getting caught under my dress. Yuck!!!!!!

Melodie Coneybeare		24-Mar-2007 22:04
I am a graduate student at the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture in Ontario, and would like to get in contact with anyone who knows historical or current information about the town of Girvin. I am interested in the possibility of re-imagining abandoned or partially abandoned rural villages as thriving self-sustaining communities, and would like to study the town of Girvin. I am particularly interested in learning about the town’s current and past residents, the past and present state of community life and anything else that would be willingly shared. Thanks very much. Melodie Coneybeare melconeybeare@hotmail.com

Dean		08-Jan-2007 09:05
Fantastic gallery. I hope to get there someday to explore Girvin before it is too late.

Guest		11-Dec-2006 17:28
Theres 9 people....and our yard is actually quite nice thankyou

Y.P.Charbonneau		23-Nov-2006 14:34
It's a beautifuI little place, miss shooting these classic prairie ghosttowns!

Larry Jeffery		11-Nov-2006 16:20
George Jeffery, the brother of my great grandfather apparently lived in Girvin in 1910, with wife Clara. They died (1918 and 1922 respectively) and are buried in Medicine Hat, AB, (I think) because a daughter and her husband lived in Redcliff.

William Mitchell		01-Oct-2006 13:00
I used to go to Girvin with my grandfather in 1939 up the dirt road from his farm driving a grain wagon to shop for flour etc and to sell butter my grandmother used to make from the one cow we had,also to pick up any mail they might have. I have many good memories of the time I spent there,the one room schoolhouse,harvesting,driving my grandfathers Fordson tractor etc.

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