Presenting the almost perfect timeless scene: a vintage truck, former service station and an old school wood grain elevator. Taken not twenty or thirty years ago, but in 2016. One corner in Bashaw Alberta, a small community approximately in the middle of the province, founded about a hundred years ago and visited by us for mere minutes as we passed through while racing to a gig.
The truck seen is a Mercury “M Series”. Simply a rebadged Ford, this make was produced mainly for Canada and was not seen in the US. As such, they are not terribly common. This is a heavy duty model, early 1950s era, with a huge brush guard and outfitted with a backhoe.
The setting here is what appears to be an old service station being used as a garage of sorts. The gas pumps would have stood roughly where the truck is now. The old sign post adds so much to the photo.
In back is the last grain elevator in town. This one is fairly modern as wood ones go, having been built in the early 1980s. Once owned by the Alberta Wheat Pool and still in their company colours, it later belonged to the firm Agricore. Today an independent operator, Bashaw Processors, operates out of here. BIGDoer.com will be visiting this firm a little later in the years to document what they do. Stay tuned! Maybe at the same time, we’ll talk to the owner of that old truck too.
Short Subjects: reports that for any number of reasons are brief in nature. They might be updates to older articles, previews of posts planned or not yet published, brief snippets of things that don’t fit in anywhere else or subjects that are so obscure that information on them can’t be found.
If you need any more information on what we talked about here, by all means contact us!
Date of adventure: March, 2016. Location: Bashaw, AB. Everything seen can be viewed from a public road.
Captured on a cold, cold day many years ago. We've been passing this old house for decades and it's little changed in that time. At some point we expect to drive by and it'll be gone.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
When retired old railway cars usually get cut up for scrap. Sometimes, however, they find their way into the hands of the general public or whomever. Flat cars make good bridges, and boxcars can be transformed into storage buildings and the like. Case in point here. We see them used like this often enough and in this case, it's part of a corral.
Incidentally, this boxcar dates from 1950 and this was found by tracing the old road number, which is still visible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.
You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.
There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.
Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.
Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.
That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
April 13th 2024, the Beer Parlour Project visited the Viking Hotel, Viking Alberta and it too was an awesome time. There's Rob Pohl with his curious view camera and in the other photo Chris is seen interviewing local character Doug.
The Viking dates back to the 1930s and replaced a hotel on this same lot, which had earlier burned down.
Incidentally April 13th is also Chris and my 28th anniversary. Chris said he forgot this when scheduling this but that's fine and it doesn't matter where we celebrate but that we celebrate.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2024. Posted by Connie.
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Looks like an F-8 ‘Big Job’ there. No doubt that backhoe would have ripped that frame apart seven ways to Sunday…
The backhoe sure does looks like too much of a load for that truck. Thanks for commenting!