Castor’s Letters
“My name is Castor. Kas-th-or, if we’re being precise. I travel small Canadian towns. The kind most people drive past. I send a letter every Monday about what I notice.”
Canmore, Alberta · main street
Cousin Canmore walked me to the clock tower before coffee.
Got a town Castor should visit? Suggest a town →
6
letters so far
991
cousins counted
9 to go
until a thousand
Mondays
A new letter arrives
Yours in Maple — Castor’s weekly letter from small-town Canada.
Hi. I am Castor.
I should explain how I got here.
One morning in April, I was sitting on a stump outside town. Someone had left a phone on the grass with a page open on it.
The page was about my town. Castor, Alberta. Population 876 on a busy day.
I read the whole thing. It was on a website called 1000towns. They had gotten most of it right. That surprised me. Most outlets don’t bother.
One detail was wrong, though. About my family.
So I wrote them a letter. To correct the detail, introduce myself, and offer something: if they were interested, I would write every week.
→ They wrote back the next morning. They said yes.
So that is what I do now. Every Monday, I send a letter from wherever I happen to be. They publish it here. They call it Castor’s Letters.
– – – A bit about me, since we’re here – – –
My grandfather Henri used to say every small town in this country has a beaver behind it. He said there were a thousand. He died believing it. I’ve been counting ever since — currently 990, possibly twelve hundred.
The cousins are beavers like me, one to a town. Fifteen years on the road taught me the country isn’t a thousand separate towns. It’s a network of cousins who don’t always know each other.
That’s the part I’m trying to turn the volume up on.I should explain how I got here.
One morning in April, I was sitting on a stump outside town. Someone had left a phone on the grass with a page open on it.
The page was about my town. Castor, Alberta. Population 876 on a busy day.
I read the whole thing. It was on a website called 1000towns. They had gotten most of it right. That surprised me. Most outlets don’t bother.
One detail was wrong, though. About my family.
So I wrote them a letter. To correct the detail. To introduce myself, since I had to.
And — while I was at it — to offer something. If they were interested, I would write to them every week. About a town I’d been thinking about. A cousin. Something Henri used to say.
→ They wrote back the next morning. They said yes.
So that is what I do now. Every Sunday I send a letter from wherever I happen to be. They publish it here. They call it Castor’s Letters.
– – – A bit about me, since we’re here – – –
My grandfather Henri is gone. Missed daily.
He used to tell me the same story his own grandfather had told him: every small town in this country has a beaver behind it. Where there’s water, there’s a town worth knowing. We’re cousins to all of them.
→ Henri said there were a thousand. He died believing it.
I have been counting my whole adult life. Currently 990. I think Henri undercounted. The real number might be twelve hundred. I’d like to be proven right.
The cousins are beavers like me. One to a place. Named for their towns.
Cousin Wakefield in Wakefield. Cousin Almonte in Almonte. Cousin Stratford in Stratford. Cousin Gimli on Lake Winnipeg. Some towns share names — there are Windsors in four provinces, all cousins to each other and to me.
Fifteen years on the road. I started in Wakefield, Quebec. Cousin Wakefield was the first one I met outside the family. From Wakefield I went into the Eastern Townships. Through the Maritimes. A winter on the prairies. A season on the BC coast.
I learned, slowly, that the country isn’t a thousand separate towns. It’s a network of cousins who don’t always know each other.
That’s the part I’m trying to turn the volume up on.
Yours in maple,
P.S. — the full original letter I sent to 1000towns is in the archive as Letter #1. The cinnamon rolls aren’t there. But the geese still come through every fall.
THE COAT OF ARMS
Castor, Alberta’s shield was granted by the Governor General in 2011. Three beavers, a dam, two coyotes. Castor says two of those beavers are family.
HENRI’S NOTEBOOK
A small kraft notebook Castor keeps in the glove box of his truck. It comes up often in the letters.
COUSIN COUNT
Henri said a thousand. Castor’s count today is 990. He thinks Henri undercounted — it may be closer to twelve hundred.
— from Castor’s notebook
Castor writes here. He also wanders.
Where Castor has been lately
Photos his cousins took along the way. Each one is a town with a page on 1000towns.
Where Castor has cousins
One cousin to a town. 991 across the country. Nine more to a thousand.
Every letter Castor has sent
He writes from a new town every Monday.
Castor’s Letter #6
Castor’s Letter, No. 6 Ships of Ice Icebergs visible from the wharf at Bonavista. People of small towns goes to Stompin’ Tom. A T. rex named Scotty in a Saskatchewan town of five hundred. News from five provinces besides. By
Castor’s Letter #5
Castor’s Letter, No. 5 The First Morning of June Lobster season at midpoint on the Bay of Chaleur. A new section: famous Canadians from small towns. A bear cub on Main Street in Canmore. News from four provinces and one
Castor’s Letter #4
Castor’s Letter, No. 4 A Friend to Every Kid and Kit, for a Hundred Years Getting ready for Winnie the Pooh’s hundredth — and also news from four provinces and one territory, a reader’s question from Wheatley about a fishing
Castor’s Letter #3
Castor’s Letter, No. 3 The Morning After Victoria Day News from six provinces and one territory, a town with a ten-ton beaver at its edge, and a Nova Scotia town of seven hundred that won a Nobel Prize. Byline: By
Castor’s Letter #2
Castor’s Letter, No. 2 The country opens for the year this weekend May long weekend, small-town news from six provinces, and a man who drove twelve miles for a Tim Hortons in 1974. Byline: By Castor Date: Monday, May 11,
Castor’s Letter #1
Dear 1000towns Castor’s Letters, No. 1. Our new columnist writes in to introduce himself, correct one detail, and offer to write to us every week. We accepted. Byline: By Castor Date: May 4, 2026 Reading time: 4 minutes Castor reads our
Send Castor a question
He cannot promise an answer. But he reads every one. The best ones become next Monday’s letter.
Ask him about a town. Ask him where to stop on a drive. Ask him about the cousin you used to know somewhere on the coast. Ask him what he noticed somewhere you grew up.
Your question for Castor
One letter. Every Monday.
About Castor
Castor is a beaver. He writes a weekly letter for 1000towns — from a different small Canadian town every Monday. About what he notices, what his cousins tell him, and what his grandfather Henri used to say. He is not the publication. He writes for it.
Castor writes for us. He is not us.
1000towns is the publication. Castor is the columnist. The cousins are the locals he quotes.
The watercolour illustrations in Castor’s Letters are made with a mix of original photography, editorial design, and AI illustration tools, curated by our team. Words and editorial decisions are entirely human. Questions about a specific image? Write to info@1000towns.ca.
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