Category: Exploring History

Alexandra Bridge

Alexandra Bridge Fraser Canyon BC

Alexandra Bridge Fraser Canyon BC . Coming soon! We’re working on the write up for this piece and it’ll be posted shortly, so check back again later. Know more about the bridge (new window): Alexandra Bridge Fraser River BC. Stop by often for fresh and interesting content being posted regularly....

Polish Hall Coleman

Polish Hall Coleman Alberta (1927)

Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass has a storied history of coal mining and well into the 1950s, it drove the economy here. Back then everyone and everything had a connection to the industry. Period and end of story. People came from all over the world to work underground in the valley and...

Abandoned Deck Plate Bridge

CPR Bow River Bridge (Abandoned)

It happened on a gloomy day, overcast and blustery, but challenging conditions be damned. Adventure calls and even biting, wind driven sleet unable to put a damper on the fun. Appearances suggest there’s little to see out this way, but sometimes things are hidden and need searching out. Our subject,...

Pilot Bay BC Smelter

Pilot Bay Smelter Remains

Something curious can be seen from the Kootenay Lake (BC) Ferry, there on the east shore and a bit south from the of line of travel. Down at lake level. It appears something industrial once occupied the site, but clearly long ago. There’s not much left but it looks real...

Molly Hughes Mine

Molly Hughes by the Lake (Ag-Pb-Zn-Au)

Today we’re looking at remains of a silver, lead, zinc and gold mine on a rocky shelf almost at water level. While worked for decades, overall production in terms of volume were quite modest, but the ore nice and rich. This is Molly Hughes by the lake and we’re happy...

Section Man's House

The Sectionman’s Home (Middle of Nowhere)

This sectionman’s home stood in the literal middle of nowhere and depending on your take that might be either a downside or perk of the job. If you were to ask us, we’d lean more towards the latter. It’s really out there in the sense that the nearest anything, civilization...

Alamo Concentrator

Coming Soon in 2024 (2)!

Coming soon in 2024 (part two): more amazing places the Team has visited and will be posting about in the next couple months or so. As always, it’s a varied menu of subjects, to keep things interesting, and here’s the list. There’s mining remains, lost cemeteries, roadside memories, something “super”,...

Great Beater Challenge 2023

Coming Soon in 2024 (1)!

Coming soon in 2024 (1st installment): presenting places we’ve explored the last year or so and the posts that will come from these incredible adventures. We’re talking a wild assortment and we’re sure you’ll enjoy every single one as much as we did documenting them. We simply love what we...

Old Columbia River Bridge Revelstoke

Big Eddy Bridge Revelstoke BC

The bridge is old, narrow and spans the mighty Columbia River. There’s lights at each end for one-way alternating traffic and for decades, long ago, it was the only way get to the other side. Autos or foot traffic. A long crossing of many hundred metres, it was an ambitious...

St Francis in the Woods

St Francis in the Woods

St Francis in the Woods is found out in BC’s Kootenay region and dates back well over a hundred years. Secreted away down a seldom used back road, this quaint little church seems far removed from the modern world and while no longer used in a spiritual capacity, it still...

Marblehead Quarry in BC

Marblehead Underground Quarry

The Marblehead Underground Quarry is an expansive, graffiti covered chamber, that up until the late 1930s produced dimensional building stones. These blocks were shipped out by rail and used in the construction of commercial and institutional structures in the region and all across the west. We’ll list a couple of...

Pilot Bay British Columbia

Historic Pilot Bay Lighthouse

The historic Pilot Bay Lighthouse, in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, dates back to the early 1900s and remained in use for almost ninety years. Post retirement it’s been preserved in place on a point overlooking gorgeous Kootenay Lake and easily reached via a short hiking trail. Spectacular...

Willingdon Hotel

A Few Minutes in Willingdon Alberta

Let’s stop and pay a visit to the little community of Willingdon Alberta to see what’s going on. Such diversions are a road trip ritual and we simply pick some town along what ever route we’re on, ditch the car and get acquainted for a bit. We’ll wander the streets,...

Trochu Motors Trochu AB

A Few (Frigid) Minutes in Trochu Alberta

The mission assigned us this day is to explore Trochu Alberta and we’ve got no other goal than to get to know this little prairie community. That’s all and nothing more. Our little soirĂ©e just happened to take place on what must be the coldest day of the year, so...

The Sammy Cranbrook

Historic Hotels Cranbrook BC

Welcome to this post, titled “Historic Hotels Cranbrook BC” and it’s going to be a fun one. Here’s today’s line up: The King Edward (King Eddy), Byng, Cosmopolitan (Cos, Kos or mockingly, da’Kos), The York, Sam Steele (aka The Steele or Sammy), The Cranbrook and rounding it out, The Mount...

Secondary Highway Bridge

Blue Bridge to Nowhere

Our subject, the Blue Bridge to Nowhere, is about a century old, but as you’ll note it’s not seen use for some time now. Many decades ago the road along here got bypassed, yet interestingly the span didn’t get removed at the time. Old records suggest it still had a...

Saint Michael Archangel Cemetery

Saint Michael the Archangel

Team BIGDoer lives to explore and this fine day we’re with friends roaming the backroads northeast of Edmonton. It’s an area known for many “onion dome” churches and these connect back to early settlers who were of varying Eastern-Orthodox faiths. On the road ahead our subject comes into view, Saint...

Calgary Stampede Youth Campus

Doherty Hall @ Stampede Youth Campus

Today we’re in the Calgary community of Victoria Park and right beside the Stampede Grounds. Stampede? It’s a low-key, intimate event that’s been around for a few years, so maybe you haven’t heard of it. The first of our subjects is a replica of Westbourne Church that once stood a...

Sweet Home Bake Shop

Bowness Shopping Centre (Bowness Rd NW)

Bowness Shopping Centre on Bowness Road and in the neighbourhood of (guess where) Bowness, was established before the community even became part of Calgary. The city annexed the land here part way into the ’60s, but before that time it was a town on its own. The shopping centre is...

Coronation Roadmaster's House Museum

Coronation Roadmaster’s House Museum

We could only manage a quick stop at the Coronation Roadmaster’s House Museum on this extended road trip, but you can count on us paying it a revisit next time we’re in the area. We’re out in the east-central reaches of Alberta and it’s a section of flat prairie extending...

Rockfall Old Slocan Highway

Old Slocan Highway by the Lake

Come take a look at a hair raising section of road blasted out of the rock years ago, out in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia and near the community of Slocan City. It’s a narrow winding shelf, barely wide enough for two cars to pass and right there...

Cute Little Farm House

Few Words: The Cutest Little Farm House

Few Words: The Cutest Little Farm House (ever). It’s charming, cozy and so tiny you might think it’s a doll house. On the main floor there’s a bit of room to move, barely, but upstairs anyone over average height will have to stoop. Claustrophobic types will feel the walls closing...

Fort MacLeod Alberta

Prairie Sentinels: Fort MacLeod Alberta

There were once thousands of wood grain elevators across the Canadian plains, but the numbers have thinned considerably over the years. Almost every town in the grain belt had one, or more, and long before you arrived, you’d see them off in the distance. In this post we’ll take a...

Underground Coal Mine Power Building

When Coal was King (Mine Substation)

We’re taking you back to when coal was king and use of the fuel wide spread. It heated homes and powered industry, among others. The rather insignificant building seen here is hidden away in a coulee and functioned as a mine substation. Right here and on this very spot was...

Grave Markers Trout Lake

Trout Lake BC Cemetery

The Trout Lake BC Cemetery is well hidden by the forest and all but a few burials date back to the early days. It’s a lost corner in this former mining boom town and the most frequent visitors the local bear population. Peace and tranquility reign supreme, deep in this...

Tuxedo Park School Calgary

Tuxedo Park School (1920 and 1956-7)

We’re spending a quiet evening with Tuxedo Park School (North Calgary) simply wandering about and snapping a few photos. The faculty was built in two stages, 1920 and then expanded upon greatly in the 1956-7 before closing some years back. With the property currently in limbo, there’s uncertainty at every...

Saint Mary's Church Interior

Nativity of Virgin Mary (St Mary’s)

Today we’re visiting Nativity of the Virgin Mary Romanian Orthodox Church (or simply St Mary’s), built in the 1910s and last used many years ago. The Parish kept it intact even after the last services were held, but since our visit a couple years back, we’re told its been emptied...

Prairie Sentinels: Willingdon Alberta

Prairie Sentinels: Willingdon Alberta

It’s the last one in Willingdon Alberta and one of the very last wood grain elevators built in the entire province. While adapted for the era, it’s not all that different in form and construction from prairie sentinels dating back to the early 1900s. It’s old school tech and came...

St Anne of the Prairies Trochu

Two Churches Trochu Alberta

Two Churches Trochu Alberta: a look at historic St Anne of the Prairies Catholic and St John’s Lutheran, the latter doubling as a home, in this charming little community. We are no strangers to challenging conditions and this outing was on one most frigid days in all of early 2022....

Jessie's Castor AB

Jessie’s – Royal Cafe – Golden Crown

This shuttered business in Castor Alberta has had many names over the years – Jessie’s Cafe – Royal Cafe – Golden Crown – but later tenants never bothered to change the old sign. It goes back something close to seventy five years (give or take) and maybe kept out of...

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