A Few Minutes in Stavely Alberta

The quaint little town of Stavely Alberta is found just over one hundred kilometres south of Calgary and to those travelling the #2, most noteworthy for its huge grain elevator there beside the highway. It can’t be missed and the tall blue/green structure looms over “downtown”, passing motorists and the surrounding prairie. So everything! You’ll spot it well before you arrive and remains in your rear-view for just as long.

We’ve passed by a gazillion times but don’t stop as often as we should. Stavely has some very photogenic streets and a fair bit of history to take in, yet here we are. It’s been maybe ten years when we last did a walk-about and thought now’s the time to pay a revisit (with some friends too). Before it happened during depths of winter and the Team nearly froze their heinies, but here we picked a nice warm late spring evening around sunset. It’s our favourite time of day.

Stavely has seen a hundred and ten years pass since its founding and has bucked the trend, compared to many prairie towns, and actually grown since the old days. Back when it hovered around three hundred to three-fifty, for decades, dipped a little after WW2 and since has risen to over five hundred. With growth comes a down side and traffic here is murder. Expect total gridlock should you visit.

There’s a number of open businesses in downtown, a grocery, bank, salon, post office and three eateries from the looks of it, among them. Then there’s the imposing Stavely Hotel and their “beer parlour” looked to be a happening place this evening. The hockey game’s on, don’t you know, even though winter at this point is a memory and I guess everyone came down to watch the action anyway.

Wait, what’s that? An Oiler’s devotee…here in southern Alberta…Flame’s territory? Really? Let’s get’m boys! Bet they’re no stranger to heartache, despair and abuse (wink, wink). Edmonton lost in the playoffs…of course…like no one saw that coming, eh? The rule is, you have to trash any opposing teams and their hopelessly delusional fans. Or fan, as in singular…in the case of… Okay, that’s enough.

All the open businesses seemed to have a fairly steady stream of patrons and while the town looks pretty quiet in our photos, we waited for moments without traffic. Still, 50th’s hardly Deerfoot or anything and we could have stood there for most of the evening unchallenged.

Many of of buildings seen are of of a rather substantial brick construction and most date from the mid 1920s. They were built after a fire swept through town, destroying most of the business district and the rules for new construction changed so it didn’t happen again. Before they allowed wood, but afterwards, brick or something else fireproof only. I guess we can thank that rule for the well-preserved state of everything in downtown.

This is by no means a full tour of everything in the community, nor is it that in depth, but instead just things that caught our eye as we strolled about. Still, we’ll drone on about whatever captures our interest and that you can count on.

At the far end of downtown (one whole one block in length) and offset a bit, we can see remains of an old service station. Data’s a bit sketchy but if we got it right, it dates from the early 1930s and named Beattie’s Garage. The road in fronts used to be the main highway through town, but it got rerouted at some point that same decade, and bypassed downtown. No doubt this meant a loss of business but still, Beattie’s remained in business into the late 1950s.

The structure has some rustic fieldstone work and it would be quite easy to imagine a couple globe pumps sitting out front. And grandpa’s old International pickup getting a fill.

Over there, it’s lot full of old tractors – bright yellow tractors – and this means we’re looking at the products of maker Minneapolis-Moline. Almost a Caterpillar yellow, it became the organization’s signature shade. Each tractor firm had company colours and it became a way for them to stand out among competitors. There’s green for John Deere, red for International Harvester, this M-M yellow, Red with yellow or white accents and later cream or cream and red for Canada’s own Cockshutt…you get the picture. It’s goes on and on.

Old farm tractors are hardly uncommon out in rural parts, so admittedly we don’t always pay them much mind. They might be used as yard art, or on display in a park, just sitting in some otherwise empty lot, some field, or whatever. M-M didn’t seen to have much of a presence in this country compared to other makes and so we spend little more time looking at them than if from a competitor. Minneapolis Moline advertised theirs as the “World’s Finest Tractors”.

Love that colour and our two regular readers will know what that means.

Unc’s machine shop repairs boat propellers – odd, how may boats can there be on the mostly lake-less prairies? This building once housed a video rental place – remember back when people used physical media? Neither do we.

That imposing grain elevator sits at the extreme end of the main street (actually 50th Ave) and blocks the highway from being seen or heard. It’s framed perfectly and holds title as the last grain elevator in town. There used to be many and now there’s one. Formerly an Alberta Wheat Pool elevator (later Agricore) it still wears the light blue/green company colours, but now privately owned. A local farm uses it for grain storage and it’s big one.

The structure dates from the early 1980s, making it a late comer in that regards. Times were changing and few wood grain elevators were built after this one and before the wholesale changeover to massive inland terminals.

There were once other grain elevators in Stavely, but of course, they’re all a distant memory now. It’s nice this one was saved and that it’s fairly modern no doubt helped. A standing grain elevator is pretty rare these days and whereas there used to something around seventeen hundred in the province, their ranks have thinned considerably. It’s under two hundred or something like that. This elevator has two large integral flanking annexes and this makes it a “double composite” for those in the business.

The old rail line runs out front and one can easily imagine how it used to be. Close your eyes and you can see a passing train and grain cars being busily loaded. But it’s only in dreams and in reality the last trains passed more than a couple decades ago. Stavely was along the CPR’s MacLeod Subdivision, a former grain branch that travelled south from Calgary to Fort MacLeod.

Rails were laid in the 1890s and this very early in the railway boom period. Interestingly, the arrival of steel was often concurrent with the founding of a town (so, with one came the other) but here there was a bit of a gap. This line closed and soon pulled up around the turn of the century.

The town offices share space with a bank and located in a building dating from 1920. Until the local government moved in it housed a bank exclusively and did so since day one. Next door a small structure (from 1925) displays a curious sign on the east wall reading “Adams & Bright Cut Rate Drug Store – 7 mi east of Holcomb on Route 50 – Doctors appt. available in our store.” Holcomb – where the heck is that? Well, it’s in Kansas and actually along old route #50, so they got that right.

This is from the mid-’90s miniseries “In Cold Blood”, and with Stavely standing in for some community close to Holcomb in the story. Filming here up north offers many advantages and Canadian towns can easily double for US locales.

That old siren at the volunteer fire brigade has seen a few wars and quite dented up. When it goes off you’ll hear it, everyone else in town will hear it and even people the next town over will hear it.

The grocery store further up the street operates out of fine old building. It too appears to date from after the fire and presumably home to various retail businesses over the years. We couldn’t track down any specific info in old history books or directories, but it looks the part.

The Stavely Hotel is also from the 1920s and earlier known as the Yukon. At the time they touted it as “The best between Calgary and Lethbridge” but we’re not sure if it’s holds that title present day. Maybe the Bell just down the highway in Claresholm does…or something like that. Old photos show the building has only changed slightly over the years and looking much as it does today verses back when new. It replaced an earlier hotel, of wood, that went up in flames in that fire mentioned.

Interesting story: we stopped in one time for lunch with a friend and all around amazing photographer John Sharpe back in the early 2010s. That’s the first and only time we patronized the business and while we didn’t have time this visit, we think we should drop by again. In John’s honour – he passed on a few years back and we always remember the good times we had out exploring together.

Okay, who wants to join us later this year for a cold one and plate of ginger beef?

Stavely’s main street is actually called 50th Avenue and this might seem curious given the modest size of the community. There were two schools of though when it came to naming conventions for streets of little prairie towns in the old days. For some, main was usually called Main and the cross street down by the railway, typically the most important intersection, called Railway (go figure). Simple, right? For some communities, and it happened a lot, it was 50th and 50th instead. The inflated numbers were a way to make the place sound larger, and therefore more important, than it was. You sneaky people, you.

Stavely seemingly broke with convention here, however, and their (once) most important intersection called 50th and 52nd. 50th and 50th here in town happens at the main business street and the old highway, so up from the railway. We’ve never done a serious tally, but the use of Main and Railway seems more common than 50th and 50th in small town Alberta, but still, both are commonly seen.

The road calls but we’ll be back in Stavely sometime and of that we’re certain. No doubt we’ll find some new angles to photograph and places to chit-chat about for posting here. No point getting it all in on one visit and we like that the potential for more gives us a reason to come back. Even if sometimes it takes a while.

Know more about the town (new window): Stavely Alberta.

They’re saying…

”Chris and Connie are the real deal – their adventures are truly interesting and fun!” Justine Cooke.

Random awesomeness…
Ogden Block – Hong Lee Laundry Calgary.
Great Beater Challenge 2021.
Retro Service Stations: Lakeview Husky.

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Date of Adventure: June, 2022.
Location(s): Stavely, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Allan Brooker, Byron Robb, the book: Butte Stands Guard – Stavely and District, Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society, plus Municipal Affairs Alberta.

A dejected Oilers fan at the Stavely Hotel.

A former service station.

From Minneapolis-Moline, the “World’s Finest Tractors”.

Sunset on Unc’s Machine Shop.

The Main Street (50th Avenue) in town.

Sunset is a magic time and Stavely a magic town.

Stavely Grocery is one of a handful of businesses here.

For the local volunteer fire brigade.

Sign comes from the ’90s mini-series “In Cold Blood”.

There were once many and now there’s only this one.

The Town Offices are housed in the building in back.

Really…in southern Alberta Flame’s country?

Many buildings here are of brick (read the post to know why).

It’s still in business and perhaps it’s time to pay it a revisit too.