Back in the fall of 1997 we were passing through the area and so paid a brief visit to Nordegg Alberta with intentions to explore the old CNR rail line located nearby. Fast forward a few years to 2001 and we are in the area again and have a bit...
Nacmine is a former coal town in the bad lands of Alberta, only a few kilometres west of Drumheller. At one time there were many mines here and in fact the town was even named after one of them (North American Collieries Mine), but the subject of this report however...
The tiniest Boler yet! You’ve heard these trailers were cramped but this one takes that to the extreme and in fact is the smallest one we’ve seen. A rare sub-sub-sub-compact model, we caught this one pulling into a gas station. Actually…it was seen at a local train show in September...
If you’d like to experiment with time lapse photography but don’t want to invest a lot of money into it you might want to consider the home-brew rig described here. It’s proven, simple, dirt cheap and produces pretty respectable results. The parts needed can be purchased cheaply online, in a...
This post has been retired and a new version can be found here: Coleman Miners’ Hospital 100 Years Apart. They’re saying… “OTBPwC&C is a brilliant concept. Thank you for enriching our lives with so many engaging and entertaining posts. Five stars all the way.” Erin Bay. Random awesomeness… The Sidewalks...
Canadian National Railway #1158 is a fairly workaday engine most at home on branchlines or in local service None the less she and her many sisters played a very important role and they could be seen up and down the entire CNR system working hard every day, doing the mundane...
At one time nearly every medium to large sized town had a rail yard and often located nearby or within it was a turntable and roundhouse. These were needed to turn steam engines around and as a place where they could be inspected, maintained or stored. Nowadays few of these...
This post has been revised with new info and pictures, here: A Few Minutes in Stavely Alberta. The old pictures here have been retained for your enjoyment, but please refer to the new post for all esle. Grain elevator time… Prairie Sentinels: Bulwark Alberta. Grain Elevators of DeWinton. Providence Grain...
Before anything: I really enjoy old trucks but I am by no means an expert or even remotely good at identifying them. With that said, even though I got some help from those in the know I am certain I’ve made some mistakes in this post. If you see where...
They’re loading coal trains in Coleman! Hurray, hurray, coal mining has returned to The Pass and prosperity will soon follow! They are so eager to get going that cars are already being lined up at the old Coleman Collieries plant and it won’t be long before they’re filled and headed...
“Connie…is that a Studebaker?”, asking like I expected her to know. “Damn, I think it is and it’s a later one too…a 1964 or 1965 maybe.” “I’ve got to get a picture of this.” So here are and without even trying we come across a seldom seen car. Not a...
I guess you could say this was a weird choice for a hike, trekking along the rail line from south Calgary into Okotoks. Yea it’s odd, but we’re strange anyway. Not a terribly challenging undertaking, even given the long distances, it was less than pleasant in places given the hot...
For this trip we set the time machine back to 1998 and we find ourselves exploring the barren and dry prairies in the eastern part of the province. For this report we’ll make a brief stop in Empress Alberta, a tiny little hamlet right on the Alberta – Saskatchewan border...
This post has been retired but a similar post can be found here: Polish Hall Coleman Alberta (1927). They’re saying… “Thank you for all the engaging write ups and pictures…you two are a national treasure!” Bonnie & Gerald McDonald. Check out these… Marblehead Underground Quarry. Downtown Bassano. Rocky Mountain House...
It’s old, cold and gold! No lightweight, this massive mellow yellow coloured Marshall road roller is a long way from its birthplace in the UK and can be found in a small town on the Alberta prairies. Seen on a cold winter’s day, it sure makes one wonder how it...
While a sign proudly proclaims it to be The Biggest Piggy Bank in the World, instead it’s actually a small underground mining locomotive. Looking much like a miniature steam engine, this “dinky” operates under the same principles, except it actually runs on compressed air instead of steam. This makes it...
Okay, here’s an odd choice for a hiking trail – let’s follow access roads that parallel the CPR”s rail line along Bow River, travelling from the Bearspaw Dam on the west edge of Calgary all the way to Cochrane. Sounds like a interesting idea and in spite of being close...
Known as a “Buffalo 2000” the elevator seen here in Lyalta Alberta was an innovative and advanced design for its time and was to help usher in a new and exciting era in the Canadian grain handling industry. It was the future! However, in spite of such lofty aspirations, in...
The locomotive seen here, CPR 9005, is known as a “Red Barn” and while to the uninitiated it looks like any other engine out there, it’s unique and fascinating in a number of ways. It’s rare in that it was made with non-standard body style (called a cowl), and it...
The notorious American Hotel doesn’t look so menacing today. Vacant, sombre and forgotten, in the not too distant past it was ground zero, a place for trouble, BIG TROUBLE, and not a weekend went by without seeing it in the news. Fact is you would not want to be standing...
In this then and now series we take a look at the Greenhill Hotel, a prominent Blairmore landmark for over ninety years. In the early days this distinctive barn shaped structure was a watering hole for coal miners, locals and visitors and it today it serves in much that same...
Almost forty years separate the two images seen here and while the mountains in the back help line up the pictures, otherwise one would be hard pressed to know this is the same location. Seen in Cowley Alberta, the elevators, the train station, the oil shed are all gone and...
Once again I line up the shot pretty good but mess up on some angles a wee bit. However, it’s pretty close and given the conditions at the time of my photograph it was amazing I could get it at all. Let me elaborate – try to shoot one handed,...
Chris rushed in excitedly and showed me this comparison, but after a short pause, his look changed. It's that confused expression one gets just before the face-palm, when they realize something they did just doesn't add up.
One year shy of a century separates the two images but as it turns out, they're not even of the same building. The top is Westmount School and the bottom McDougall School, both in Edmonton and not far from each other.
It took this long to realize we'd been shooting at the wrong place all this time! The two schools were built in the same year and very close in design, so it's still an interesting comparison. We had a good laugh and we'll give Chris a mulligan on this one.
Looks like we're going have to head back for a do-over.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photos: 1924 and 2023. Submitted by Connie.
It's amazing how many of these Canada Centennial Maples Leafs still exist out in the wild across the prairies. We could fill an album with the ones we've photographed. It seems rural folks embraced patriotism with more fervor than their urban counterparts, but that's just an observation.
This example was found in a small Saskatchewan town. When they placed this up above the community hall there was a certain optimism that's not seen now. Today, only a handful of people call the community home, and it's that close to being a true ghost town. Almost sixty years in place and this memorial to a 100 year celebration is still here.
If our readers have found any of these while out exploring, please share in the comments. We'd love to see them.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2014. Submitted by Connie.
Billy Clark’s Cabin in Meadow Creek BC and it dates back over a century. Now at the local museum it formerly stood in a valley a little to east and on the shores of Duncan Lake (now Ducan Lake Reservoir).
Billy was a trapper, hunter, and woodsman. All he had was this tiny log house, a small plot of land, the surrounding wilderness, and his wits for survival. Nothing more. That spirit of self reliance seems to be a lost art today.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Submitted by Connie.
Both Chris and I both grew up in the malaise era for cars and get giddy when we spot one from that time out in the wild. It's like meeting an old friend. This '80s beauty was found out in a hiking area of Kananaskis and by all appearances, looks to be driven regularly.
The malaise era is marked by cars with uninspired design, quirky traits, hobbled performance and often questionable quality. Depressing stuff. This Cutlass is probably one of the better GM cars of the time, and both Chris and our son Will have owned examples in the past.
Have a malaise era story or photo to share? Post it in the comments!
Out in nature with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2023. Submitted by Connie.
We come over many rises on a the prairies and on doing so surprised by many interesting things. This one caused a double take.
This lonely locomotives sits at the then very end of track outside Leader SK and was out of service at the time. Guess they socked it away out of sight to forget about it. We found photos showing it in service the year before our visit but here it was cold and dead.
Since this photo was taken, the Great Sandhills Railway has extended the track across the road and set up some kind of transloading operation. In years passed, the track (under CP ownership) continued west all the way into Alberta, but that's a distant memory.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2014. Submitted by Connie.
The messages have been coming fast and often. No, the book we produced a couple years back is not being published after all, in spite of appearing on many websites recently. Oddly some are showing it with the cover from another volume altogether. Please don't order and it must be a glitch.
The other two books shown in our capture are available however (and are awesome) and were produced by some friends. Interestingly, Chris contributed to each and those you can order.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Submitted by Connie.
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