Highway Gas

Our subject is not terribly old and while less than photogenic it is abandoned and there in lies the appeal. There’s something haunting about a place like this, a former business in this instance, closed down and forgotten. Call it strange, yet here were are. This is Highway Gas, a former fuel stop and convenience store found out in rural Alberta. It’s been empty a while now and suspect it might stay that way for the foreseeable future. Or maybe forever.

The building appears to have been a gas station/store from the start and first makes mention in local phone books early this century. Interestingly, however, the gas pumps look to be models that are older than that meaning they many have been salvaged from somewhere else. That said, evidence is found that suggests there was an earlier gas station just a wee-bit down the road so perhaps they didn’t travel far. Who knows?

The business appears to have changed names and owners a couple times over the years. Like your usual Gas ‘n’ Gulp, you could both fill your tank and your belly. Mmmm chips, a Slim Jim, a litre of Dr Pepper – it’s the meal of champions. Prepared food was also offered, at least for a time but we’re not sure if it was a restaurant in the traditional sense.

The last owners seem to have called it quits a few years back. Setting up shop out in rural areas is at best hit or miss and if there’s a lesson here it’s the odds are against you so come prepared. We’re not sure the reason(s), be it a bad practices or simple lack of customers but in the end the outcome is the same. We get what we see here, a sad ending to something earlier that showed much hope and promise.

It’s not a pretty building, but I guess it’s functional. The gas island is a simple affair, with the diesel pump offset to the side of the parking lot. A big sign by the highway announces your arrival but I guess it didn’t entice enough people in the end. Diesel @ 22.9c? No, a one must be missing. There’s no traffic on the highway, but there’s a pandemic on, so it’s not surprising. We stand there alone.

We didn’t doddle long, but later at the motel, our thoughts kept going back. There’s a not a lot of history here and it’s nothing to look at, but someone invested their time and effort into making a go of it and failed. It’s nothing new in business circles and that won’t change in the future. You roll the dice and hope for the best. Highway Gas is a place of lost dreams this little hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere and it’s the “what was and could have been” we reflect upon.

Before the emails arrive and they always do: when we say abandoned, it does not necessarily mean no one owns it, but instead speaks of a disused or neglected state.

Till next time, we bid you goodbye.

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Gas Stations!
River City Classic @ Eamon’s Garage.
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If you feel like chatting or want more information on what you see here feel free to contact us!

Date of Adventure: September, 2020.
Location(s): The Backroads of Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Old AGT/Telus phonebook at the Calgary Public Library and Medicine Hat and District Genealogical Society.

It’s a place we call Highway Gas.

Along some rural highway, it’s been closed for a while.

It’s not that old but it sure is interesting.

The lesson here: being in business ain’t easy.

The little things left behind.