The old road bridge we’re looking at here, located in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, is something close to a hundred years old and is still sees use to this day. Crossing over the placid Moose Jaw River, a winding and rather muddy water course, it’s located inside a city park. That it does not see heavy use and appears in good shape, it’s likely that it’ll continue to serve for some time to come.
This bridge uses a variation of the Parker (sometimes called Camelback or Parker Camelback) truss system. Most sources seem to agree that it was constructed about 1912. The firm that made, the Saskatchewan Bridge and Iron Company Ltd., was located right in town. This metal fabricating firm was in business during the 1910s. This author has found no other bridge existing today that has been confirmed to have come from this manufacturer, so heir output in that field must have been modest.
The location here is Wakamow Valley park just southeast of downtown. Based on the layout of the structure and the roads leading to and from it, this may have been the main highway south out of town. There is a second bridge, similar in size, age and appearance, located not far away, which will be the subject of its own report soon.
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: May, 2014. Location: Moose Jaw, SK. Everything seen here is publicly accessible.
This bridge was seen briefly in the movie “Just Friends” starring Ryan Reynolds. About 1/2 the movie was shot in moose jaw in winter 2004/05. (the outdoor hockey scene)
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.
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This bridge was seen briefly in the movie “Just Friends” starring Ryan Reynolds. About 1/2 the movie was shot in moose jaw in winter 2004/05. (the outdoor hockey scene)
Oh, that’s cool! I’ll have to track down the film.
I love bridges too…
Finally, someone who likes them!
Dan & I have a thing for bridges too!
So we’re not the only ones!