In the sunny late July day, Andy McCracken, a man in his 70s, takes a moment before dialing his father’s old number using a vintage rotary telephone. The disconnected landline, situated inside a small wooden structure next to a graveyard in Alberta’s Rocky Mountain foothills, serves as a “wind phone.” This symbolic phone allows visitors to engage in one-way conversations with deceased loved ones. The booth, overlooking the valley of a former coal mining community turned ghost town, now reclaimed by nature, is located at Mountain Park Cemetery in Yellowhead County, Canada’s highest elevation burial ground.
Yellowhead County recently installed the wind phone at Mountain Park, nearly 1,900 meters above sea level. Andy and his wife, Anne McCracken, who currently reside in Edson, Alta., have chosen Mountain Park as their final resting place. Andy’s birth in a Coal Branch town near Mountain Park, where his father served as the mine doctor, qualifies them for a plot at this unique location.
Expressing gratitude, Andy McCracken speaks to his father through the wind phone, thanking him for his birth in Luscar, Alta., in 1953 and the enjoyment of the mountains. The McCrackens have already selected a plot at Mountain Park Cemetery, offering a view of Cheviot Mountain.
Established in 1911 as the terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway line, Mountain Park saw its peak with about 1,000 residents residing in 100 homes until the coal mine ceased operations in 1950. Today, only the cemetery remains, with 269 documented interments dating back to 1913.
Madison Sharman, the heritage co-ordinator for Yellowhead County, highlights the town’s history during an interview at the cemetery. She points out remnants of the former train tracks, which were crucial for the town’s connection to the outside world. Residents relied on the railway for supplies and social interactions, with the train station being a focal point of community gatherings.
Despite the romanticized view of a secluded life in the subalpine, Mountain Park Cemetery reveals tales of frontier hardships. The cemetery holds infant burial sites and commemorates tragic events like the Spanish flu pandemic and mining accidents that claimed lives in the early 1900s.
Over the years, dedicated volunteers, including former residents like Mary Salzsauler, have worked to restore the cemetery. Today, Yellowhead County oversees the cemetery’s maintenance and continues to offer new cremation burials for locals.
The McCrackens, along with many others, find solace in visiting their chosen burial site, viewing it as a peaceful and joyful place to rest eternally. The wind phone and restored cemetery serve as reminders of enduring love, memories, and the interconnectedness of past stories with the present landscape.