On the road back from somewhere special, the most amazing Hanna Roundhouse (link below), a small detour to take in some old buildings we’ve not looked at for many years. Over there on the west end of Three Hills Alberta, down by the train tracks, two vintage wood grain elevators. On one side, a former Alberta Wheat Pool facility from the 1960s now privately owned. And across the tracks, one that once belonged to a firm called Parrish & Heimbecker that’s been empty and closed up for some time now. It’s a hodgepodge of additions and annexes put in over the years with the core structure dating back almost a century.
There used to many others just like these in Three Hills. Every prairie town had a least some and they almost always stood at the far end of downtown or somewhere close. Most of these are long gone now having been torn down in the great wood grain elevator purge of the 1990s and early 2000s. Today’s elevators are giant towering steel and concrete things generally outside of town – there’s one up the tracks from here for example. That this pair managed to survive could be akin to a small miracle but we can’t help think that their days are numbered, even if the one still sees some use. There’s few wood elevators, outside those in museums, that aren’t threatened or on the endangered list in some way. Not much use for them, sadly. Shoot them while you can.
Canadian National Railway’s Calgary to Edmonton line spits the pair. Crossed our fingers a train would show as we pulled up – us and our pipe dreams – but none did. This stretch of track is not super busy.
And the road calls, and we’re off. Status report: Three Hills still has two wood grain elevators. All is well…for now.
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: April, 2018. Location: Three Hills, AB.
It’s an interesting town. The elevators across from each other are neat and it’d be really cool to catch a train splitting these uprights. It’s not a terribly busy line though, so the wait could be long.
I love Three Hills! It might be a little limited, but I do the bulk of my grocery shopping at their little IGA. I could get a better value, in a larger urban centre… but you just can’t beat, how genuinely friendly people in Three Hills are!
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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When I was out that way a week or so ago, I noticed the fence was still around the P&H elevator, I wonder what the status of that elevator is?
I’ve called around but no one seems to know for sure. I hope it doesn’t mean what I think it means though.
I’ve yet to get to Three Hills, I will have to make an effort this year!
It’s an interesting town. The elevators across from each other are neat and it’d be really cool to catch a train splitting these uprights. It’s not a terribly busy line though, so the wait could be long.
Jim Pearson would be pleased.
We’re touched you’d say that. Thanks, it made our day. And we so miss Jim.
…I’m pretty sure there’s a similar grain elevator in Mossleigh that also says P&H.
Yes, they too once belonged to the same P&H firm. They had a modest network of grain elevators across Alberta.
I love Three Hills! It might be a little limited, but I do the bulk of my grocery shopping at their little IGA. I could get a better value, in a larger urban centre… but you just can’t beat, how genuinely friendly people in Three Hills are!
These small town businesses are amazing and deserve to be patronized, even if costs might be a tad higher than in bigger centres. Good for you!
Fantastic!
Thanks so much!
Love this!
Still love the Alberta Wheat Pool colour.
Rather fond of the old mineral brown colours. But AWP colours are nice too.