The company that makes Trilliums today (officially Outback Trailers by Team Trillium of Calgary), also repairs, renovates and fixes up older fiberglass trailers. And it’s not limited to examples bearing the Trillium name, other makes are done as well, including, of course Bolers. Seen here on a warm February 2015...
Built just over a hundred years ago, the old Number One Fire Hall, located in Calgary’s downtown core, was last used by the fire department in the 1970s. Now surrounded by looming office towers, it almost gets lost in the clutter. Today it’s a car rental outlet and appears in...
The Turner Valley Gas Plant was the first in Alberta, the one that started it all, and today is museum you can visit. We join a group of passionate amateur photographers (perhaps some pros too), from the Foothills Camera Club, who’ve arranged a private tour of the complex and invited...
In this early season warm up hike we follow the Death Valley Trail then loop back on the Pine Ridge Trail, where we gain some modest elevation, before dropping back down to our starting point. Our “summit” goal is a long and low undulating hill, Pine Ridge proper. Aligned in...
Old industrial remains are a natural attractant to the BIGDoer.com crew and in this post we take a quick look at an old tank car loading station. Located deep in the middle of nowhere on the Alberta prairies, it sits along an abandoned railway branch line. The station was fed...
As traditional style wood-cribbed grain elevators go, this example, located in the small prairie town of Stavely Alberta, is both huge and relatively new. Towering over a very busy highway, this massive “prairie sentinel” is seen by thousands of passing motorists each and every day but I doubt many pay...
Once the darling of the mining sector, Bre-X Minerals of Calgary was later the subject of one of the largest stock swindles in Canadian history. Born of obscurity, the company quickly rose to great heights before crashing back down – spectacularly. Millions, no billions of dollars were lost on one...
This was a plan “B” hike, quickly decided upon given our original goal, a modest sized hill/mountain would soon be surrounded by clouds and likely covered in snow due to ever worsening weather conditions. Better stay low, and better avoid any steep slopes. We didn’t know this when heading out,...
The old Parrish and Heimbecker (P&H) grain elevator in Stettler Alberta has seen close to a hundred years pass, boy it looks great, and today is a museum you can tour. Located right across the tracks from the Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions (APRE) station, tour trains, some of them steam...
One very distinct advantage to owning a Boler, given their small footprint, is that they can be placed nearly anywhere on a person’s property without getting in the way. They can be stored in the back yard or take up little space on the driveway, or one can do like...
In this train themed then and now we position ourselves at the east end of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s huge Alyth Yards Calgary, in an attempt to duplicate a photo, sent to us by a reader, that dates from the 1980s and shows that very location. Not only were we...
What a huge difference a couple short decades make. Back in the 1990s when the first photo in this then and now series was captured, Vulcan Alberta had a huge and much celebrated grain elevator row. It was giant – count them – there are five singles and three sets...
This is a follow up report to one we did approximately a year ago, where were do a casual survey of all the houses, either lived in, empty or converted to businesses, left in Calgary’s downtown core. There are not many left. We lost one since that last report, and...
We used to do something called the "pointless challenge" 🤪 and miss those days. It was so much silly fun and often frustrating as heck. In these we'd invite people to send in random photos of obscure locations, but not give any information, and then we'd track where it was and shoot something similar.
Most of these came from old family collections, as was the case here. Anyone up to resurrecting the series?
In hindsight, why didn't we pose someone in our shot?
Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster.
If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/ Thanks to Connie for making this post possible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: ca1970 and 2014. Posted by Connie.
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.
Comments are currently turned off