Lying just outside the eastern boundary of Alberta’s Jasper National Park, Mountain Park — with its spectacular back drop of towering Rocky Mountain peaks — may be in the most majestic and serene setting of any ghost town in Canada.The area’s vast coal deposits were discovered by American explorer John Gregg and his wife Mary in 1895, and they quickly attracted the attention of British industrialists and financiers.The Mountain Park Coal Company Limited was incorporated on May 5, 1911 and by 1914, the mine started producing and shipping good quality coal to markets by a newly constructed railway. The company and the town quickly grew and prospered, and became the most important operation in Alberta’s famed Coal Branch area. Mountain Park eventually swelled to a population of about 1,500, and was planned and designed to look like a peaceful mountain village. Despite its isolated location, the citizens of this booming coal-mining community organized a multitude of competitive sports and social events. The town had outstanding hockey, soccer, and baseball teams, and some of the finest athletes in the country played their chosen sport in the Rocky Mountain community at 6,200 feet above sea level. The town also had churches, a hospital, community hall, theater, a library with reading rooms, card rooms, billiards, parlor, and restaurants. Company managers also successfully recruited top caliber school teachers for the four-room school, a doctor and nurses for the hospital, as well as music teachers and musicians for the town band. The town’s prosperity continued into the mid-1940’s. But natural tragedies, floods, economics of operation, and customers changing from coal to diesel fuel, all took their toll and contributed to the closure of this once busy and bustling mountain village.The mine was eventually closed on June 19, 1950, and residents quickly left. Within a few years, most of the mine buildings and homes were either torn down and sold for scrap or became the targets of vandals. Today, there are only a few building foundations and some crumbling mine structures left for visitors to see.However, former resident and miner Robert (Bob) Bracko came back to the ghost town in 1994 and erected a historical plaque to honor the mine, town and its people. In 1997, many former residents, family members, and friends also came back, and lovingly restored the town cemetery, meticulously clearing away the buck brush and other debris. The historic cemetery, which had its first burial in 1913 and is the final resting ground for many First World War veterans, is situated at the highest elevation of any graveyard in Canada and the British Commonwealth. Submitted by Johnnie Bachusky. Submitted by: Johnnie Bachusky

Across the landscape at Mountain Park, scores of simple tree-shaped blue markers have been erected to show visitors where homes and buildings used to be.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

The end of the line of the railway that once came to Mountain Park.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

A few foundation ruins can still be found at Mountain Park.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

The hill in the background, where the historic cemetery lies, overlooks the long-forgotten rail tracks.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

Mountain Park cemetery at sunrise.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

The town's cemetery in the early morning, beautifuly restored two years ago by friends and family members.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

Mountain Park's cemetery was lovingly restored by former residents and family members in 1997.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

The cemetery overlooks the former townsite and mine operations, which have both long vanished.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

A simple sign on a nearby hillside, denoting where the town's hospital used to be.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

The cemetery, once overgrown with brush, has been restored and burials have been made in the 1990s.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

A railway once serviced the town and mine but the station is now long gone, and grass is and mountain weeds are overtaking the remaining tracks.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

Some mine operation structures at Mountain Park can still be seen by visitors, including this boarded-up mine entrance.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

A simple cross marks at grave at the town cemetery. Many graves still lie unmarked in the bush.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.

The crumbling foundation of a former mine building at Mountain Park.
Photo by Johnnie Bachusky.