Pam Fedack
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Winnipeg Sun
In the summer of 2020, while the world locked down, Kadyzha Penney opened up a new one.
Armed with a camera, a curious spirit, and five hard-won years of sobriety, Penney started exploring the gravel veins and quiet backroads of Manitoba. She photographed the half-collapsed schoolhouses, moss-streaked cemeteries, and weather-beaten barns — all remnants of stories once told, or never told at all.
From that pandemic-era wandering came something remarkable: Manitoba Uncovered, a photography and storytelling project and Facebook page that’s grown into a digital community dedicated to the province’s overlooked, abandoned, and mysterious places.
“At first, I just had a ton of photos and nowhere to put them,” Penney says. “I needed something to pour myself into. Manitoba Uncovered became that thing.”
It began as simple documentation: haunting images of pioneer ruins and ghost towns. But soon Penney’s work deepened. She began researching local archives, collecting oral histories, and — in cases where the past had truly vanished — she started writing fictional vignettes that serve as emotional stand-ins for a past that might be truly lost to time.
“Some of the names I read have been silent for over a century,” she says. “They deserve to be heard again.”
These “Story Time” posts, clearly labelled as creative fiction, have become fan favourites. They’re an attempt to reconnect readers with people and lives that once filled these now-empty spaces.
And readers have connected back. Since launching the page, Penney says she’s received daily messages from people sharing personal memories or offering new leads on lost sites. One fan even admitted her morning coffee ritual now begins not with the news, but with Penney’s latest post.
“It’s a little overwhelming,” she says. “But it’s incredibly motivating. I love that people care so much.”
Penney now plans her photography outings with intention, researching historical markers, monuments, and former settlements. Her favourite stomping grounds? The wide-open west of Manitoba, where forgotten grain elevators and crumbling churches still punctuate the prairie sky.
She admits that, at first, she didn’t have a particular passion for history.
“It came later. The more I dug in, the more I realized everyone has a story. Even the buildings. Especially the buildings.”
Though she’s not in it for profit, Penney has floated ideas for the future: a photo book, a website for longer stories, even merchandise for her growing fan base. She’s already made herself a few shirts with her logo, which she wears while exploring.
“People stop me now and say, ‘Hey, I follow you.’ It’s wild.”
What she’s built is more than a photo archive. It’s a living tribute to places and people that might otherwise vanish quietly — a kind of digital preservation.
“Manitoba doesn’t have the ancient history of Europe,” she says, “but we have history. And it matters. We just have to go find it.”
To see more of her work, find Manitoba Uncovered on Facebook.
— Steven Sukkau is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
