'We persevere': Ladies group holds lifeline for southern Manitoba ghost town
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Abandoned homes line the streets of Lauder, a town that's now a ghost of what it once was. Yet inside, a small community is thriving.
It's eerily quiet in Lauder, Manitoba. Abandoned homes line the streets, a rusty swing set in an overgrown yard creaks in the wind. The town is a ghost of what it once was, yet inside there is a small community that is thriving.
Lauder is home to just six residents depending on the time of year.
"People you know definitely work at trying to stay as long as possible, but there becomes a time when those things have to change," said Bonnie Clarke, one of the last few remaining residents in the area.
For more than 76 years, Clarke has lived around Lauder and has watched it change from a quaint country farm town to what she describes now as a ghost town.
"It definitely has become inevitable that it cannot survive," she said.
Lauder was established as a railway town more than 130 years ago in 1891. While never a large town, it boasted a modest main street with a hotel, a variety of stores, and four grain elevators that kept the community bustling.
