Cruising along the Number Two south of High River Alberta you can see it over there in the west. Silhouetted by the Porcupine Hills, it’s a towering grain elevator found at a place called Azure, never really a town, more a siding along a (now gone) rail line. Dating from the 1920s the structure was built by the firm Alberta Pacific. Later, in the 1960s it was sold to a local farmer who used to it to store grain for a time, but today stands empty and unused. We understand plans are in place to preserve the building so it does not appear threatened.
We’ve been trying to get into the elevator, for an intimate look, for some time now and will keep on it. We did visit it many years ago, but not up close like we want to today. A link below will show how it looked in 2012.
This day: lucky us we happened to be driving by as the sun set. Screech, a hard left, a little burning rubber to find a cross road where the elevator and sun could sort of be lined up. That amazing bronze hue. It was not a planned stop but opportunity presented itself and we’ll take it.
Azure, in the world of colour, is a powdery blue. And it’s the name of that place.
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. Or sometimes we just ramble on about Lord knows what.
If you need any more information on what we talked about here, by all means contact us!
Date of adventure: October, 2018. Location: Azure, AB.
I am surprised you forgot already, I took you and Connie there in June 2016, as we met my friend BJ who has the keys to the elevator. He said we could come back and photograph there (when we coordinate with him). We should plan on documenting this elevator this year 🙂
We do remember that. To keep it simple we made no mention of it since we had no pics to back up that visit. We took none. For readers, if there’s no photos, it didn’t happen. As to paying it a (re)visit, yes, we’re in! Tomorrow then?!
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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I am surprised you forgot already, I took you and Connie there in June 2016, as we met my friend BJ who has the keys to the elevator. He said we could come back and photograph there (when we coordinate with him). We should plan on documenting this elevator this year 🙂
We do remember that. To keep it simple we made no mention of it since we had no pics to back up that visit. We took none. For readers, if there’s no photos, it didn’t happen. As to paying it a (re)visit, yes, we’re in! Tomorrow then?!
A bit of rally driving to get here.
It had to be done!
Great picture 😀
We lucked out that day. But we’ll take it!
Beautiful photos!
So pleased you appreciate our work.
Nice photos.
Thank you so much!
I remember when Mac Rudd was the elevator-man at Azure! 1940? We used to ride our bikes down there from High River.
Such amazing memories! Thanks for sharing.
Azure was our back yard for years …. loved it ❤️
That’s so cool!
A beautiful of an iconic elevator. Do you mind if I dnld for my personal enjoyment?
We’ll send you a copy to use. Stay tuned.
Love the photos!❤️
We were blessed with an amazing sunset!
Great photos!
Thank you, it means a lot.
Beautiful colors!
Thank you, they really popped that as the sun set. A shout out to Mother Nature too!