'On the Road to Abandoned Manitoba' is the third and most recent book for Manitoba historian and author, Gordon Goldsborough, and he's been travelling throughout the province to share the rich history showcased in this wealth of stories of Manitoba's past.

Since the publishing of his first two books in the Abandoned Manitoba series, many have shared with Goldsborough how much they enjoyed reading about all the many places, and that has inspired them to venture out and explore and see for themselves these treasures of history in our own backyards.

"This is so heartwarming," he says. "I love hearing that, because that is really my motive. Doing this was not at all about a financial transaction. It was entirely to share about the things that I've seen in Manitoba with the hopes that other people in Manitoba will want to see them too. I'm Manitoba-born and I love this province and I want to share that with other people, and I think if you get out and see this province, you'll have a much better appreciation for how good we have it here!"

Goldsborough encourages folks to travel down the back roads because that's where you see the rich history, "because a lot of the places that have been torn down in heavily settled areas are still around in those less developed areas. So, if you want to see, for example, a one-room schoolhouse there are plenty of them out there!  You just have to take the road less traveled!"

'On the Road to Abandoned Manitoba' features 30 chapters that deal with an array of different locations but in each chapter, there are sometimes multiple places that link together in some ways and might share a similar theme, he says. However, each location must have an element of the unknown, that 'Wow!' factor.

"The reaction that I'm hoping people will have is, 'Wow! I didn't know that!'

"That's what I'm hoping for," he says, "and so I think in the course of doing these chapters there have been those stories that I have rejected because they just didn't have that element of the unknown.  I've had the benefit of being able to travel a lot of the province, and I've been to literally thousands of places, and I've seen things that probably most Manitobans have never seen, and so I really do have a huge sort of treasure trove of places to choose from, and it usually isn't hard to choose what goes in the book!"

The stories that have been featured in all three books had a special uniqueness to them and present themselves as obvious additions to the list of stories to share in print.

"I'll feel like yes, this is one that I can use as a chapter because I find it so interesting," shares Goldsborough, "and I figure that if I find it interesting then hopefully readers will too!"

Gordon Goldsborough will be sharing his book in Deloraine on Friday afternoon, December 8th at 2:00 pm at the Prairie Skills Building.

Please listen below to one of Gordon Goldsborough's favorite stories featured in his latest book!

Cover picture credit: Christine Loff
Bottom picture credit:  Maria Zbigniewicz

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