Abandonded Manitoba, WPG Stonehenge

This five-minute video, with Gordon Goldsborough of the Manitoba Historical Society, describes an abortive cement manufacturing plant in northwest Winnipeg.

[@RoosterG33rs]

I just watched 5 minutes of concrete piles and a guy talking about them and it was riveting. I tell you what.

[@johnjohnsonson5473]

Not sure if we have been locked down for too long or if genuinely interesting...

[@apdurn]

I tell yewl wHHAt

[@karlsteininger5388]

Thx Gord! A friend and I used to climb these suckers when we were kids...hands on one, feet on another.

[@TrevorLazar]

Would love to see more of these. Been to a lot of really cool abandoned places in the province it would be neat to hear history on some of the strange lesser know ones!

[@billkuz865]

Google map 'Cement Cemetery' and you will find it is located at Sturgeon Road and Farmer Rd...Not too far Little Mountain Park.

[@StoneC0ld5345]

It's in even closer proximity to the Prairie Dog Central Railway station, if that helps anyone get a better idea where it is. :)

[@mathewbacke9975]

I didn’t

[@crushingvanessa3277]

@@StoneC0ld5345 Is it on a public space?

[@StoneC0ld5345]

@@crushingvanessa3277 I have no idea if the land it's on is public or private. Don't know where to look that up...

[@nunosoares2329]

Gordon. This is very impressive. By the way. I live in Winnipeg and I'm curious to check this out.

[@mathewbacke9975]

Haha right!! Me to.

[@BuckHunter-l4m]

Towtruck Nuno?

[@stvitalkid7981]

Can you do something on the old military communications site on the northeast corner of PR 207 and Dugald Rd? I recall there being a forest of radio towers there when I was a kid in the 1960s. Along the northern edge of that tract of land, there appears to be a military style fence (along Corbett Rd.).

[@MrGlenferd]

I remember discovering this place in the 60s and wondering why? Thanks for the information. I also wonder why there are no cement plants left in Winnipeg. We still need it here. We're they taxed to death? Where does it come from now?

[@rainerpenner8202]

There's a lot of collusion in the cement industry. Winnipegs limestone is a bit deeper in the ground. It's cheaper to consolidate manufacturing in exshaw Alberta and ship it across the prairies

[@ShearedJoy]

Thanks for posting this!! I’ve been there many times and that “building” and the print on it had me puzzled for years. It’s so random

[@niscola1]

Maybe some of that concrete was used in the flooding and water diversions by hydro in the north

[@lucidmoses]

There are a few problems I see with your explanation that maybe you could address. 1) Buildings, expectantly silos, would normally use unified piles, Maybe different ones around the edges. Why would then have random sizes, shapes? 2) If you look closely at the pliers, they are each made differently. Why would they make each pillar different? 3) Why would there be serial numbers on the pillars? Lot numbers sure. Maybe even a 2 or 3 different lot numbers. But not different numbers for each pillar like your trying to keep track of different formulas. 4) If this was for a structure, why would you carve letters into them. This would be a no no as you wouldn’t want to give it a place for stress fractures to start and water/ice to destroy the concrete. Also, notice they are all labelled by hand. 5) why would they back fill the area with different kinds of soil? Surly they would have just picked one and gone with that. Or more likely not back fill at all. 6) Notice that the piles were not cut to height. 7) And of course. Why would they have done this in 1950 for a company that was going to buy the area and build a silo in 1963? These are of just the obvious ones that I noticed. So I’m sure they came up during your research plus other not so obvious ones. I would really like to know the answers.

[@thaijet8230]

Where is this?

[@biddydibdab9180]

It’s at the intersection of the old Sturgeon Rd. and Inkster. I don’t know if the roads are still there after the development of the Canada Way highway system.

[@kenroberts5283]

@@biddydibdab9180 their there

[@corssecurity]

@@kenroberts5283 they're there. 😉

[@KF1]

@@corssecurity there, there

[@kerrykrishna]

Acoustically Inclined did a photoshoot here for publicity pictures...

[@kenforgues6356]

Where is this located?

[@kenroberts5283]

sturgeon road north

[@tiggerhaines4307]

Where is this. I like to go there to visit.

[@xAnAngelOfDeathx]

The Inland cement plant on kenaston had a collapse in the late '60's or early '70's (cannot recall exactly when). At least 1 worker was killed as I recall, it was bad.

[@karenbraun-prince1997]

Who OS the narrator??

[@melplishka5978]

Interesting

[@bobmanp8653]

yay

[@Specogecko]

Seems accurate for Winnipeg

[@d7458]

?

[@joshuahawrylak6819]

Looks like a blowfish pattern.

[@apdurn]

MORE MANITOBA VIDEOS this is great ❤️❤️❤️

[@ShearedJoy]

Thanks so much for posting this!! I’ve been here many times and it was a puzzler It’s located a couple of kms west and slightly south of Little Mountain Park

[@nicoolpeg7821]

Thanks for this info! I was wondering where it is.

[@jonamadatsu2918]

Yup! Close to the Prairie Dog Central

[@c.fredolds706]

It would have been appropriate to have mentioned where this site is located!

[@redfisher4132]

www.google.com/maps/place/Cement+Cemetery/@49.9503816,-97.2776858,421m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x52ea0d57343d5b41:0xcc5df99a5b65edd3!8m2!3d49.9503581!4d-97.2762594

[@Poppagee69]

My father was a foreman and crane operator building the biggest Trans Canada bridges in Kenora and Kapuskasing driving much bigger piles than those , them ones are drive tested before being passed for safety standards for construction sites .

[@wavygravy63]

When I was young I was told the same story of it being a test sight. Thanks for clearing this up. Very interesting

[@jamesglenn2006]

I just went by there a couple weeks ago, before seeing this video today. I was thinking someone had not secured proper permits. I had never seen it before and would not have put that many years behind it. Very interesting 👍

[@jeremypaluck4246]

My understanding of this area was an abandoned site for a factory, the ground wasn't able to support the requirements of said factory Just old folklore of the north end of Winnipeg

[@OswaldBeef]

West end

[@kathym2031]

Very interesting FYI, Inland has a cement facility in north Wpg.

[@Hotmackey]

This is a great video showing some history of manitoba.

[@zach13mlb1]

Never seen a video about concrete that was so interesting! Well done my friend

[@rapturekevin]

Used to have parties there in the 90's. Place was called the pillars.

[@thomasbroderick6388]

Quite beautiful really. Thank you Gordon.

[@arthurdlowry6025]

Thank you, I always thought it was a concrete test facility also and that's what me parents told me. Great story.

[@RogerDiotte]

I'm also fascinated how ideas started and just went forward with them and in doing so would spark competition in other areas or similar producers. Case in point the story here where another company thus buys out the rising phoenix...and returns it to ashes! Today we have NO dreamers that DO because of hinderance, cost and other paper weight resources before an idea even becomes remotely something of hand and foot! Heaven forbid if something built now doesn't have internet LOL.

[@alrosenthal1031]

How come no one talks about the status that are in Gramdale manitoba, they are quite the sight .an a lot of hard work.

[@creatorTWin]

Most likely it was Aliens , I mean why not just go with the most probable solution to a question 😝

[@amsivertson]

Interestingly, this site may now be being used as a concrete test site after all! There was reference on a FB thread to the U of M Faculty of Engineering using it for concrete pile testing, as of 2023, with sources cited (i.e. the supervising professor’s name & participating grad students).

[@SteveGrimsley]

I have driven past this site hundreds of times and now I know what it actually was. Thank you for researching and sharing. So interesting.

[@iamastig]

Thanks Gord! Not sure I would have recognized you with that Dr Hare like beard :)

[@dermar130]

The boxy structure has badly translated Cicero / lorem ipsum placeholder text on it. Were they testing some kind of concrete signage technique?

[@MichaelKochSchulte]

I'm thinking that is a very recent addition. This place probably has acquired new status with certain sub-cultures as evidenced by the "offerings" which can be seen in frame.

[@mmm-uw1ep]

So are there ley lines running through here? 🤫

[@stuartdavies78]

Fascinating! I'm no expert, but if you are driving piles, wouldn't you drive each pile in turn to the required depth? You can only drive one pile at a time. These piles don't seem to be all at the same depth. Even if construction was halted, what you would have is all the pikes that were worked on at the same level, then some piles missing. Well that's my logic anyway. Perhaps there is more to be uncovered. Also some piles have a reference number scraped into them. Do they all have the same number? I would think that would be a manufacturing lot number.

[@rainerpenner8202]

Yes, you drive piles to the required depth. The depth of refusal. You use a hammer of a certain size and when it refuses to go any farther you have reached your load bearing capacity and you blow the top off of the piles to expose the rebar to incorporate into the foundation

[@stuartdavies78]

Thanks Rainer, you have just educated me further about piling. Good information.

[@asgby585]

Thank you so much for sharing

[@keithmarshall4350]

Not sure if "Abandonded" in the title is intentional or not (I'm guessing not). But just an FYI it might be a spelling mistake.

[@kennethkowalchuk7868]

Thanks for that. Although I have lived in New Zealand for nearly forty years I grew up in St. Charles Winnipeg and was recently back (late summer) there. I spent a lot of time touring around on a bicycle and I'm pretty sure I went past these concrete posts wondering what they were intended for.

[@basswanderer2765]

I thought that 2as Dave Letterman in the thumbnail, interesting video btw.

[@ianpatrick3589]

What an interesting revelation about the cement heads of corporate Canada in the 1960s!

[@ConnorH.]

But what do Ancient Astronaut Theorists suggest?

[@Rhythm911]

From the air they look like figure 8's or the infinity sign.

[@aassaasslamas4932]

There is some sacred geometry alignment to this area.

[@raypoirier3566]

Interesting backstory... I had heard that the Manitoba Development Corp (gov't agency) had subsidized the company to invest in building a plant in Manitoba, and the next payment was conditioned on their having started construction. LOL -- We all like to blame the gov't, right?

[@michaelfisher6354]

I worked for MDC in the 1980s and had a look at some of the old files covering Manitoba's efforts to ramp up industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s. I was amazed how many firms were still major contributors to the economy 20 years later as MDC was shrunk down to 3 or 4 people following a few bad investments (eg Saunders aircraft). I recall nothing about a cement plant but it would not surprise me.

[@doolbeepi3059]

I remember seeing these as a kid.

[@joeshphroach4517]

Cool

[@PrettyFly4aWi-Fi]

i hate click-bait bs.

[@bazin-c]

Where is this? All i can find is north west Winnipeg

[@kenroberts5283]

sturgeon road north

[@OswaldBeef]

As someone who grew up off sturgeon road I can tell you we kids thought it was a bomb shelter of sorts. The piles were supposed to activate the bomb before it hit the ground. :O

[@dosmundos3830]

someone should be responsible for cleaning that mess up

[@joedirt9600]

What mess ?

[@dosmundos3830]

@@joedirt9600 are you for real? all that concrete sh*t is an eyesore in the environment. smh

[@joedirt9600]

@@dosmundos3830 huh, all the locals see nothing wrong with it. What's the difference between these concrete pillars compared to all the other concrete pillars that are everywhere holding things up ?..they have been there since 1964 and the environment around them seems to be doing just fine...are you a Wacko Liberal by chance ? Just asking..

[@joedirt9600]

@@dosmundos3830 Wacko Liberal has joined the conversation..