Located Along The TransCanada Highway
Have you ever been driving between Morley and Canmore in Alberta, and noticed Fort Chiniki gas station? Sure you have. It’s the abandoned gas station covered in graffiti, just off the TransCanada Highway by Seebe. It’s on the south side of the eastbound lane, just on the edge, but within the Stoney Nakoda reserve, a short drive from the Stoney Nakoda Resort & Casino. I have not been able to find any information on when it opened, or when it closed, who owned it, what was sold and which services they offered. Jenkies!
In addition to pumping gas, they also used to have a go-kart track, just off to the side of the gas station. It has since been turned into a skateboarding park of sorts, as has the inside of the building. People have actually created skate ramps inside, see below.
Did You Ever Stop Here?
If anyone has any information about this place, please by all means drop it in the comments! What was inside? Who ran it? What food did they serve in the restaurant? So many questions!
Directions
How you get there depends on the direction you’re coming from. It’s coordinates are 51.092640, -115.046252.
What It Used To Look Like
Photo taken May 22nd, 2006. Photo credit: Boulianne.net
Photos Of Fort Chiniki Gas Station
The below pictures of the abandoned gas station were taken February 6th 2020.
Conclusion
Interesting place! Would love to know more information about it.
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So you know sometime after this blog was posted the owners went out and set up No Trespassing signs. This area is not public land and this blog should be removed as the landowner doesn’t take kindly to people being on his property. The skate park is there for the Stony-Nakoda residents use.
Not according to the RCMP it is a tourist attraction and the “land owner” his boundaries start at the barware fence 30 feet behind the building!
Does anyone remember a miniature museum here, or in a separate building, probably back in the 1980s or 1990s? I think it may have dioramas with gophers (Richardson’s ground squirrels) pre-dating the Torrington Gopher Hole Museum.
My roommates and I went here today and we didn’t know it was private property. We had seen numerous of our friends and other people who had gone there and added to the amazing graffiti and skateboarded. Two of my roommates assumed it was okay to spray paint some of their own artwork, however the owner of the property pulled up in his vehicle right to us (there was also about 10 other people at this place too) and he was definitely angry and asked us why we thought it was okay to trespass and vandalized, and that either we could leave the property immediately or pay $30 for the damage. We responded respectfully and said we would leave. And then he yelled at us to never come back again. We understand and recognize that we shouldn’t have “vandalized” the property, especially since we didn’t know if it was public or privately owned. However, it was weird how he hadn’t said anything to any of the other visitors, and reading above comments I wonder if his rage also had anything to do with us all being female. Who knows?! But good to know for next time, that this is privately-owned and everyone should remember to be respectful!
I have a feeling he just hates white women. I commented on a post with a photo of a double rainbow I got there a few years ago. He stalked my Facebook and chewed me out.
Probably because the other people weren’t spraying graffiti on his property?
I wasn’t being disrespectful, and be thankful you had men with you. Because that “nice” young man not only stared but maybe recorded my five year old going pee in the field behind the building. Accused me of shitting in his home. Threatened to come to my home and shit in my yard. I told him “have at er sir. If you need to relieve yourself in my backyard where there are no facilities feel free. We are not trying to cause problems, my five year old needed to pee.” He ranted on and on about people like me on his private property treating it like shit. As I repeatedly told him, “sir, we simply pulled in so my child could go pee.” From the way he exploded on me, I’d have thought I was responsible for the place being windowless, doorless, graffiti everywhere, and I was attempting arson. I did notice he had nothing to say to the couple who pulled in in a Ferrari. But that woman had a man with her. I didn’t and was an easy target for his abusive rage.
There are no private property sign posted around, other then the sign across the dirt road leading to the reserve. Which we did not cross and never considered crossing as that sign stated private property. Guy was a hothead looking for a fight.
Had I had a male child I bet buddy never would have said a word about a bush getting peed on. Hell I bet people have peed all around that property. There certainly are no toilets available these days and it’s the only pull in I can recall before the petro around 22. I wonder where he pees when he is home in his yard with no toilets anywhere around? He seemed to get his rocks off on threatening women and children. Not a nice young man at all.
I stopped there with my boyfriend and a friend because they’re skaters and found this “abandoned” place online. We were approached by a very polite man who owns the place who lives on the reserve. He built the little skatepark. So of course he will be defensive over it. This place is not abandoned what so ever, be respectful, don’t leave trash or be destructive and he won’t have any problem with you being there!
Don’t know who owns it, but stopped to explore and let my five year old pee behind the building. Didn’t even make it in the building sadly. I would have loved to discover people skate there! I Was accosted by a very rude young man pulling a rusty engine behind his truck who claimed it was his “Home” or property and told me he was going to come shit in my homes backyard. I told the guy if he needed to relieve himself when passing my yard he was more then welcome. He cursed me out and threatened us. Personally I plan on pissing there every time I drive by now. Just because he was such an a**hole.
I worked there during the early 80’s as a waitress. It was a Petro Canada then and was run by Jerry and Mabel Kuttera. They were very nice people and it was a great place to work. I lived in Seebe as my dad worked for Trans Alta Utilities and Seebe was predominately Trans Alta employees at the time. I took a bus to Canmore for high school. I worked with some great people at that time. Kim & Melody Ward and Karen Faucett to name a few. I would walk across the reserve from Seebe to get to work crossing over the TransCanada highway on foot. I met and served many Native people during my employment there. There was one family in particular that I remember. A family of 5 and he had a young daughter who was deaf and his wife made me moccasins by tracing my foot for measurements. They were a perfect fit and lasted for years! Although it’s sad to see the building with broken glass and covered in graffiti, it is living another era of re-purposing. The graffiti is creative and the skate park is resourceful. Thank-you for sharing these photos. It brought me back to a simpler time.
My grandfather, Eugene Scown and his business partner Frank Powderface built it and owned it originally. It was the first time there was a partnership like this. It was originally a Phillips 66. It was built in 1962. My grandfather ran the garage and my grandmother cooked in the restaurant. My mom spent her teenage years there until she married in 1968. My grandpa retired in 1972 and moved to BC. There are articles in the Calgary Herald archives about it.
I recall this station from the 1960’s but I believe it was a Pacific 66 station, the name under which Phillips 66 operated their stations in western Canada. It became a Petro-Canada station at some point. It’s too bad it fallen into such disrepair as old gas stations like this are disappearing, being replaced by convenience stores with gas pumps. It needs some love but will more likely meet the wreckers ball someday.
It was a great place to work way back in the 80’s. I met my husband there I managed and worked in the restaurant and he was one of the employees that worked in the Gas station. We have been together for 35 years and would of changed anything. Met great people Natives and Truck Drivers and holiday visitors. Learned the native language it was great got invited to different functions like Pow Wows and had lots of time to listen to stories while having a great feast. To bad this building had to close it was a good to stop and take a break from life. Sad to see that place look like that after all the fun and memories we had there.
I cooked one Easter at the YMCA camp near Fort Chin It was the mid 1970s. A white guy and his son ran the place. The son was a member of the King’s Crew that much I remember but no names. One day my friend Paulina was filling up with gas and smiled at the son . Whereupon a lady from the Res came running out from the back, grabbed the gas nozzle and soaked P with fuel.
The son’s name was Truman Housowski. I worked for him and his Dad in the service station as a teenager! The restaurant was managed by Dale Niles. I worked there too as a cook.
Some wonderful people from canmore for all the concrete work in there now to make it a DIY skate park it’s a nice hidden gem in our small skate family out here in the bow valley
Do you know how I could get in contact with the owners? I would love to do a photo shoot or video shoot here!
Should be burnt down. Too many Indians on drugs. All welfare cases.
They are not Indians they are Native Americans and no they are not all on drugs. They are nice and loving people. Stop judging people as a whole from maybe a bad experience you had.
Oh and fucking white people NEVER do drugs Karen oops Dave!!
Read a fuckin newspaper or better yet quit listening to your dumbass relatives or your will learn the hard way
Meaning…lol Dave u will end up getting fucked up in some way n the only one around will be some Native person willing to see that your ignorant ass is okay…welcome to the Real World!
And I suppose you are the person that’s going to do that? Yeah, go fuck yourself shit stain.
Once upon a time it was a Petro Canada station that had gas(obviously), a small convenience store, a small garage with towing services and a restaurant. I should know…I lived and worked there from 1992-1994 or so. At the time it was a dual family business owned by Karl Peterson and Ron and Sandra Smyth. All of the kids worked there and helped out and it was actually a very fun and cool place to live and work. Petro Canada forced the closure in I think 1994 due to insufficient sales(if I remember correctly), and the place was abandoned for awhile. Was sometime after that it was revitalized as Fort Chiniki, the go cart track was added and the place was re-opened. Not too sure about what happened or who re-opened it at that point though.
I used to live in Seebe in the 90’s when I was a teenager. We use to go through the bush and across the hiway to the Huskey and have fries and gravey. There was a GoKart track that was running but never used it. My friends Rick and Rod use to live in the trailer beside the gas station and we would hang out at the restaurant. I think of what’s left of Seebe, it has been used for graffiti also but it’s hard to access from what I remember.
Thanks for all the information. I always wondered. The photos I think are great and I almost feel like I’m looking into a museum. The art ( people call it graffiti) but……honestly if you go beyond that word in this location …… it is fascinating and contained in one area. Not like some you see on box cars and defacing city buildings or overpasses. Yard should be cleaned up; safety fence surround and have a bannock food truck.
It’s cool it’s being repurposed and is becoming an icon. Reminds of this place: https://www.whistler.com/blog/post/2016/07/27/boxcars-bridges-new-access-to-iconic-whistler-train-wreck-hike/
Dave Feltham was his name I believe
I remember when Dave Frazier (wasn’t that his name) was the manager there. After that it went belly up. Reason, no idea?
Crazy. Check this tee out. http://chutesclothing.com/product/chutes-road-to-banff-shirt/
Hi, what’s his number?
Waaay back in the dat before they built up Hiway 40 and commercialized K country you would take the gravel road behind this place to drive up to Upper and lower Kananaskis lakes
Yes – remember it well – we drove up to cottages on the lower lakes almost every summer weekend over that gravel logging road – we needed to gas up after making the trip there and back on our way out – I remember parking in front of that sign, when my dad would go in to buy cigarettes and pay for the gas before we went back to Calgary- it was a real landmark and the only place to get anything like supplies If you had forgotten something or ran out when you were up at the lakes
The Peterson’s Owned it. I only know the sons name – Jeremiah Peterson.
Homemade soup and bannock. Yummy
I thought the reason it closed was due to a fire and it was never repaired after that? I always stopped there on my way home from a day in Banff to have some Bannock. So sad 🙁
They had a sign behind a gas station cashier that said – IF YOU ARE AT LEAST 90 YEARS OLD AND ACCOMPANIED BY BOTH PARENTS THEN EVERYTHING IS FREE in that place. I then said, they must have had that client eventually and he or she ran them to the grave…
Location is too close to the city for a gas fill up or truckers to pull over and too far from the tourist and hikers locations like Canmore and Banff. Maybe that’s why they went belly up?
I had fries and gravy a few times in the 1980’s. Shame to see it how it is.
I’d guess it closed in something like 2004.
Was there since the early 90s maybe early i remember the place grew up going to get junk food there as a kid
You spelled Morley incorrectly. The ruins are hardly “ancient”
Ty! fixed
Stay off our property it is private and has always been it is run down now. And you are still trespassing. If you continue this we will prosicute you. Stay off our lands.
It was in a Petro Canada commercial, showing it as a refuge from the bad ass Rockies.
I remember it was a husky n they had a family resturant…almost the same as the Husky at Deadman’s Flat. They had great food, wish it was rebuilt…was a great spot.
In the 90s it was a Petro Canada and the only place to stop at sun Trucks would leave Exshaw with loads coming east
Should say at Night
I mean the last person that it was ever leased to and they served food like fries and burgers , it was actually pretty good when it was leased to Dave but yes it’s family owned and if yu need to talk to one of the seniors in our family about this would be my uncle like I mentioned .
I do it’s family owned that person they leased it to was a guy name Dave , he made the go karts and ran the gas station since it’s been abandoned it’s best to talk to my uncle as he’s the only one we have left .
We called it the Whack Shack when I worked in the parks. haha