Ghost Town Stories of the Red Coat Trail

Ghost Town Stories of the Red Coat Trail follows the Red Coat Trail in southern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, a lonely highway that runs near the route of the North West Mounted Police’s 1874 March West. Johnnie Bachusky brings you back to the heyday of towns that sprang up as settlers pushed west during the last great land rush.

From 1920s bumper harvests to the region’s bootleggers and bank robbers, the stories move through fortunes made and lost in high-stakes poker games. The book also covers the Great Depression’s toll—disease, drought, dust storms, and grasshoppers—bringing true accounts to life, including a 1920s bank robbery in Manyberries and tales of a boisterous Govenlock rancher who hunted with Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok.