The Soup

Today’s selection includes mountain vistas, coal mining remnants, old pickups and even older airplanes, along with a charming small prairie town bank. Each soup posting will showcase random pictures taken from our adventures.

1) This is the view from the Powderface Creek hiking trail looking to Nihahi Ridge, a long unbroken wall of rock situated to the west. This trail, which spends most of it’s time in the forest, is not terribly exciting but still makes for a good outing. And once at the pass you are rewarded with the nice panoramas seen in the photo. This trail often comes into season reasonably early and so most of our visits to it are in the spring. Taken in early June 2012.

2) Beaver Mines Alberta is a former coal mining town just south of the Crowsnest Pass. Once a bustling community with its own railway, the mine shut done in 1915 taking it and the town with it. Here we see a coal slack pile (coal slack = junk coal) where the tipple once stood. This area is interesting enough to support a full article and I’ll be revisiting the site as some point. This picture is from October 2012.

Be sure to comment on this post (below pictures).

3) Seen at the Pincher Creek Alberta airport in October 2012 is this fascinating old airplane. There were two of them actually, both appearing to be the same model, but one was hidden from view. This is a Lockheed L-188 Electra “Long Liner”, a former passenger plane built around the late 1950s, and now used an as a firefighting air-tanker. It has been modified with an underbelly tank which is clearly seen in the photo. This company has an extensive fleet of these vintage Lockheed aircraft, including one example that was once the team airplane of the LA Dodgers.

4) Now the town library, the former Canadian Bank of Commerce building in Gleichen Alberta is an imposing brick structure. Situated along on main street, as any self respecting banks should, this building is very similar in design to countless other bank buildings seen across the Canadian prairies. It’s not sure when this example was built, however this author has found pictures from 1908 where it can be clearly seen. Gleichen is large enough to warrant a report of it’s own and while we had no time to stop this September 2012 day, I am sure we’ll return to document the fascinating town.

5) International Harvester was better known for its farming equipment or large trucks, but for a time it also produced small pickups (and an early SUV, the Scout). More likely to be seen in rural areas, these trucks were well known for their durability and robust construction. The model seen here is known as the International Travelette and was a crew cab version of their standard pickup line. While four door trucks are common today, back in the 1960s when this model was made, they kind of were unusual and were rarely seen. While I don’t know much about old vehicles, this one seems in good condition and would probably make for an interesting restoration project. This photo was taken in Aldersyde Alberta in September 2012.

Soup is made from an interesting mixture of ingredients. Our soup will be a random medley of images taken from our adventures. These are not duplicates from other posts but rather interesting single and one off images that don’t fit in anywhere else.

Check out this post…
Genealogists don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

If you wish more information on any of these pictures, by all means contact us!

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Powderface Creek trail

Nihahi Ridge as seen from the Powderface Creek trail.

Beaver Mines Alberta

Beaver Mines coal slack pile.

Lockheed L-188 Electra

Lockheed L-188 Electra.

Gleichen Alberta bank

The Canadian Bank of Commerce building in Gleichen, now the town library.

International Travelette pickup

International Travelette crew cab pickup.

4 responses

  1. Stan says:

    Hello:

    I am interested in the old 1968 International Pickup. I had one like that at one time and loved it. Do you have any information on it? Looking forward to a reply.

    Best regards,

    Stan

    • ChrisBigDoer says:

      Hi Stan, I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it other than where it’s located. None the less, I’ll email you with what I know.

  2. Tim Swaren says:

    LOVE the pic of the old CIBC bank in Gleichen. Here is a pic of the old “Former” CIBC bank in my hometown of Donalda, AB. It closed in 1997 and is now an art gallery. Has been designated an Alberta Historical Resource. Was built in the 1920s. It is of wooden construction as opposed to the Gleichen bank.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/51941451@N05/7114463775/in/photostream

    • ChrisBigDoer says:

      Awesome, I saw your bank in 1996 – Donalda was were our steam train stopped for dinner before that line was later abandoned. I love these small town CIBC banks, many are similar in appearance but all are gorgeous.

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