Beachwood Estates High River Alberta

The community of Beachwood Estates in High River Alberta is doomed. It has been for a while. Once vibrant and full of life, it’s now empty after every last soul was forced to move away. The boulevards are quiet, the dwellings are quiet, there’s nothing but total silence and come nightfall, total darkness. In the coming months, the many fine homes found will be relocated or demolished, the streets torn up and the land given back to nature.

Soon enough, it’ll be as it once was. The lesson here…we suppose…is building atop a flood plain is not such a good idea.

Tag along as we take a tour. We’ll hit the pavement, channelling Heston’s “Omega Man” character and soak up all the strange emptiness in places where there should be people, but isn’t. We’ll capture everything in its blessed entirety, as it is, before the machinery that brings destruction arrives a couple weeks hence.

Presenting a snapshot of Beachwood Estates, in all its glory, before it’s gone. Here, on the wrong side of the “wall”. Does it hold title as the “Creepiest Neighborhood in the World”? For us, it seemed nothing short of idyllic and peaceful. No Walking Dead were seen.

Beachwood Estates in back, on the wrong side of the “Wall”.

Beachwood (sometimes Beechwood, in error) dates from the late 1980s/early 1990s and is at the far western edge of High River. The land around is well treed, the Highwood River perhaps half a click or so to the north. Houses are estate style, large, of mixed design and following no particular style philosophy, but all generally pleasing in appearance. Each is on a good sized plot of land.

The streets here are wide and most houses on cul-de-sacs. The main road follows historic Macleod Trail.

Nature abounds, a pastoral setting if there ever was one, and no doubt a fine place to live in the day. If not for the river, often a pussycat, but with the potential for trouble, it’d be damn near perfect. History confirms, that waterway has an ugly side.

Once in a while, every couple/few decades or so, when the snow pack in the mountains is particularly high and melts quickly, it sends down a torrent of water. This liquid bulldozer takes out everything in its way. Flood plains, those flat gravely expanses, treed belts of land on either side of the Highwood look pretty tranquil.

Come high water, anything on them, like says houses, houses like those in Beachwood Estates, well, they’re done for. Welcome to a world of soaked basements, structural damage, ruined possessions, mould and mud. It’s not pretty!

Everyone knew the potential, everyone knew it’d happen…one day…some day. A head in the sand take perhaps, by those who lived here? Possibly. Ditto for those who developed the place? Perhaps the all mighty dollar had something to do with it there. An inept local government that allowed it to happen? If you believe the people we spoke with, yes.

Sure enough, in 2013, the river let loose and the neighbourhood flooded. Badly. In fact much of the town was under water and they needed a fix.

So they built an earthen berm surrounding the parts of town south of the waterway most susceptible to future flooding. For reasons not fully explained, Beachwood Estates (jokingly called Wetwood or Wetfeet Estates by those we spoke with), was not in the plans and the people living there given one option. Get out!

This was after most had already fixed up their places after the 2013 flood.

Fast forward to 2017, Beachwood Estates is now in no-man’s land on the wrong side of the berm and devoid of residents. Entry is only by foot and it’s otherwise blocked off from the rest of town. Any other roads in from the south are gated and closed to vehicles.

The flood wall, by the way, is not without controversy. We asked locals. Worries are it’ll act like a huge cistern and keep water in if breached. We thought that very thing ourselves before chatting to anyone about it.

Back to the story…the houses, now vacant, went up for auction with the stipulation they’re to be moved away afterwards. The bidding proved slow to begin, but near the end got hot and heavy for some properties (of some 30 in total). The lowest house went for $30k, the highest a cool quarter million and some change. Keep in mind, these places in their prime and pre-2013, had a value of $800k to one million.

Those bidding highest have a certain amount of time to get the houses off of the property. They estimated moving costs to be in the $50-$100k range or more, depending on distance and other factors. Then, remember, a new foundation needs to be waiting at the other end.

While it seems like bargain prices, there are additional points to consider. That foundation mentioned before, land to put it on, damage from moving, perhaps hidden damage from the flood? We imagine some people will snap out of their post-auction high and realize, it may not be worth it. For many, however, it’ll work.

Bidders will lose deposits for anything not moved within a certain amount of time, then demolishing the house will follow. They’ll remove streets and infrastructure and the whole place can revert back to nature. There should be zero signs of Beachwood Estates in the coming years and then it’ll be but a memory.

BIGDoer.com visited Beachwood Estates twice and the second on the final day of bidding. We sort of expected it to be busy both instances and doubly so for number two. You know, with everyone getting in a last look, curious what the fuss was about, eyeing up what they planed to purchase and so on. But it was strangely quiet.

That one has to walk in up and over the flood wall, sometimes through mud and snow, I guess kept most away. It wasn’t trespassing to walk the streets, by the way, but each property was off limits (we got permission for that). Once the remediation begins this could change and everything might be a no-go zone, for a time anyway. Then I suspect it’ll become a recreational green space.

We asked if we could get inside some of the most interesting houses, but told no and that only the exteriors were accessible. They’re vacant so perhaps there’s not much to see in them anyway. Still, it’d be interesting.

It felt rather strange walking the neighbourhood. They clear the streets of snow and ditto for the sidewalks. The houses looked occupied. Vandals had not really made a mark and the neighbourhood looked alive. At least before night fell.

We fully expected someone to step out of a house, jump in their car and drive away. Ditto for a Purolator Van dropping off a delivery, or a pizza a guy doing similar. Fully expected to see residents out walking dogs…kids out playing…people, but there was nothing.

House here date from the late ’80s/early ’90s.

Strange and weird, perhaps a tad spooky, there’s a bundle of emotions all swirling about and of course certain sadness. All the memories from all the families that resided here, done. Dreams, lost. Fine homes, gone. Thanks for the good times, it was nice knowing you. RIP Beachwood Estates, 1990ish–2017.

Joining us for the second visit was good friend Byron Robb. We always love to hang with friends. It elevates the experience and it’s more about the good times than it is the photos that come of it. Good pictures are the icing but fun is where the real memories are made.

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They’re saying…

“Chris and Connie have a unique way of documenting the places they visit, not copying the style or technique of others, but making it their own.” Alex Craig, Filmmaker.

Random awesomeness…
Grain Elevators of Consort Alberta.
Alone in the Gulch.
Greyhound Has Left The Building.

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Date: February, 2017.
Location: High River, Alberta.
Article references (and thanks): Postmedia – Calgary Herald & Calgary Sun, the town of High River, the High River Times and our dear friend Byron Robb.

One last look and one last shot.

All buildings are empty now, waiting to be taken away.

Channelling Heston’s “Omega Man”.

In BIGDoer yellow and we approve.

Built on a flood plain, people were forced out recently.

Expecting someone to answer the door.

There’s about thirty empty homes here.

Value, for most, pre-flood were high six figures.

Oddly, walks were cleared.

Soon it’ll be gone.

Sunset on Beachwood Estates.

The place doesn’t feel empty…

Loved it so much, shot it twice.

The silence was eerie.

Byron Robb takes it all in, on the last day of bidding.

There was very little vandalism.

We’ll hang around till night falls.

Most of the homes here were had at auction for 100k or so.

For sale, gently used outdoor furniture.

A few years back most home owners here were underwater (literally).

Historic Macleod Trail passes through the community.

Winning bidders have a finite time to move the houses out.

Dwellings are large and estate sized.

It’ll soon be dark…

Trying to figure how to shoot at night.

One last look and one last shot.