Author: Chris Doering

Vanguard 1700 Boler

Vanguard Neonex 1700 Boler

A few factories in Canada were involved in Boler production at various times and making sense of who built what and when is sometimes a tall order. Depending on the year and/or model, they could come from plants in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta or BC. There might have been others too....

Camrest Motel Camrose

Camrest Motel: In the Heart of Rose City

Welcome to the Camrest Motel, Camrose Alberta and please enjoy your stay. It’s a budget friendly kind of place, down by the tracks, in the old part of town and a little run down. You know, it’s the digs you might find us staying at when on the road and...

Victory Block Inglewood Calgary

Calgary Inglewood Haskins/Victory Block

Presenting two photos of the same building, but captured many, many years apart. The location is Calgary’s historic Inglewood community and our attention is focused on the the Victory Block (former Haskins Block) built in 1908-1910. While there’s been change from era to era, it’s minimal and the building appears...

Alexandra Bridge

Alexandra Bridge Fraser Canyon BC

Alexandra Bridge Fraser Canyon BC . Coming soon! We’re working on the write up for this piece and it’ll be posted shortly, so check back again later. Know more about the bridge (new window): Alexandra Bridge Fraser River BC. Stop by often for fresh and interesting content being posted regularly....

Mine Rails Reused

Makeshift-a-Palooza: Mine Rails Reused

When money’s tight necessity spawns creative solutions. No one was more dirt poor than the lowly coal miner of old and when something was needed, they upcycled, recycled or salvaged something and made due. Or you did without and those are the only options. Here’s a simple and straight to...

Coleman Miners Hospital

Coleman Miners’ Hospital 100 Years Apart

This time we’re in the Crowsnest Pass of Alberta and our subject for this comparison, albeit off in the distance, is the former Coleman Miners’ Hospital. It and the hill in back are the only things visible in both images to tie the two eras together. A hundred years sperate...

Cathedral Grove

The Giants of Cathedral Grove (BC)

The location is Vancouver Island in British Columbia and specifically MacMillan Provincial Park. It’s a little east of Port Alberni and this spot home to an amazing stand of massive trees many centuries old. These are the giants of Cathedral Grove and we’re happy to show you around. Today’s subject...

Mother's Day Hill Summit Wine

Reach Us!

Contact Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie and the BIGDoer.com Society! For logged-in users only. If you’re adding to the story, have something interesting to say, spotted an error or omission, want us for a job, workshop or to purchase a photo or commission an article or commercially...

Odessa SK Rail Car

Read Me!

Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie/BIGDoer.com Over one million words! Over 1720 articles! Tens of thousands of photos! Tens of thousands of comments! On the menu every day: Abandoned Places Hiking Adventures Vintage Machinery Historic Sites Then & Now Comparisons Train Stuff And Random Fun Things Quick FAQ:...

Have we sent you a print?

Have We Sent You A Print?

It’s been a custom for years to offer a gift to anyone who is the owner of a subject that appears on this website. We’re a poor broke society, so it’s a small token, but we hope it shows how much we appreciated the opportunity. We have a blast photographing...

Photographer Rob Pohl

Rosies & The Griffon Spitfire

Presenting: Rosies and The Griffon Spitfire. Here’s a bunch of folks, friends, family and associates, getting together for a charity photoshoot (and admittedly a good time) with a sleek World War Two fighter as a backdrop. The girls are stepping into the past and playing the part of a storied...

Drab Calgary Winter

Another Drab Calgary Winter

Let’s face it, winter in this city isn’t always pretty and with each chinook things turn brown and dust covered. A new dump of snow freshens up the scene, but soon after those warm winds melt it all away, and it’s depressing and gloomy again. That’s how it plays out...

Polish Hall Coleman

Polish Hall Coleman Alberta (1927)

Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass has a storied history of coal mining and well into the 1950s, it drove the economy here. Back then everyone and everything had a connection to the industry. Period and end of story. People came from all over the world to work underground in the valley and...

Historic Revelstoke Courthouse

Historic Revelstoke Courthouse (1913)

The impressive structure shown here is found in a pretty-as-a-postcard mountain community out in British Columbia. The place is Revelstoke, our subject dates back to 1913 and built in the the Neoclassical style popular of the era, around the world, but not something you’d expect to find out this way....

Abandoned Deck Plate Bridge

CPR Bow River Bridge (Abandoned)

It happened on a gloomy day, overcast and blustery, but challenging conditions be damned. Adventure calls and even biting, wind driven sleet unable to put a damper on the fun. Appearances suggest there’s little to see out this way, but sometimes things are hidden and need searching out. Our subject,...

Glory-Jo Grand Union

It Continues: Grand Union Coleman AB

It Continues: Grand Union Coleman AB . Coming soon! We’re working on the write up for this piece and it’ll be posted shortly, but in the meantime enjoy the photos below. It’s another installment of the Beer Parlour Project, from Team BIGDoer and art photographer Rob Pohl, and we’re visiting...

Grain Elevators Turin AB

Grain Elevators of Turin Alberta

While only thirty seven years separate the photos in this Then & Now, the change has been dramatic. Our subjects today are the grain elevators of Turin Alberta and if this comparison demonstrates anything, is that nothing is forever. That’s even out in rural parts where time seemingly stands still....

Pilot Bay BC Smelter

Pilot Bay Smelter Remains

Something curious can be seen from the Kootenay Lake (BC) Ferry, there on the east shore and a bit south from the of line of travel. Down at lake level. It appears something industrial once occupied the site, but clearly long ago. There’s not much left but it looks real...

Silver Creek Mine Dump

Silver Creek Coal Mine Skunk Hollow

We’re a bit unsure about this comparison. Presenting a Schrodinger’s Then & Now, if you will, that may or may not show the same location roughly a century apart. The old photo is of the Silver Creek Coal Mine in Skunk Hollow Alberta, that much is known, but there’s contradictory...

Mount Begbie Revelstoke

In the Shadow of Mount Begbie

It happened last summer and memories of this amazing adventure filled journey remain fresh. Imagine a week of epic fun, times a million, spent camping out and playing in the Shadow of Mount Begbie in Revelstoke British Columbia. We hiked, we explored, we searched out history, abandoned things too, we...

Calgary Christian Assembly

Two Buildings in Inglewood

Two Buildings in Inglewood: one photographed solely because of its a gaudy pink colour (doing Barbie proud) and the second recalled from childhood memories. These were captured while walking about one of Calgary’s older neighbourhoods and the former’s a church and the other a home, but in the past also...

Nose Hill Hike

Nose Hill Park Centre Loop

Calgary’s Nose Hill Park is a vast urban green space, one of the biggest in the country as it turns out, and this hike sort of a best of tour. There’s natural grasslands, aspen groves, sweeping views and many hidden things to discover. The old wrecked car, a glacial erratic,...

Molly Hughes Mine

Molly Hughes by the Lake (Ag-Pb-Zn-Au)

Today we’re looking at remains of a silver, lead, zinc and gold mine on a rocky shelf almost at water level. While worked for decades, overall production in terms of volume were quite modest, but the ore nice and rich. This is Molly Hughes by the lake and we’re happy...

Dunshalt AB Railways

Dunshalt Alberta 1974 and 2013

Dunshalt Alberta might appear on maps but there’s really nothing there. None the less it’s the focus of this piece. At one time two competing railways crossed paths here but that’s history now. We’re not that far from the big city of Calgary, but it feels like the middle of...

Church Home

One Frigid Sunday Morning

We can’t begin to tell you how chilly it was this blustery and bleak Sunday morning. Biting, icy, frigid, finger numbing, snotsicle forming, Winnipeg cold. Yes, that bad. But there’s a Boler to photograph and we’re obsessed so brave the low temperatures for a snap or two. Can’t feel any...

Garbage Gobbler Trash Can

Highway History (BC): the Garbage Gobbler

Trash receptacles like this were once a common sight along British Columbia’s provincial highways, at rest stops and parks. This army of cartoonish monsters were part of a campaign aimed at children to keep the province beautiful and litter free. That was long ago and they’re gone now, but this...

Thorsby Hotel 1929

It Continues: Thorsby Hotel Thorsby Alberta

On this warm summer’s eve the The Beer Parlour Project is a bit SW of Edmonton and paying a visit to the Thorsby Hotel, Thorsby Alberta. The project is a collaborative effort between Team BIGDoer, art (film) photographer Rob Pohl and we’re in search of a special vibe. We visit...

Canal Flats BC Mill

Random Pick (x3): Magnesium Chloride

The random pick subject today is…Magnesium Chloride. What the? Where do we start? First, these photos were never really meant to be shared, but taken just for us, then by chance were picked for this silly series. We literally close our eyes, select an image (or three) from our collection...

Section Man's House

The Sectionman’s Home (Middle of Nowhere)

This sectionman’s home stood in the literal middle of nowhere and depending on your take that might be either a downside or perk of the job. If you were to ask us, we’d lean more towards the latter. It’s really out there in the sense that the nearest anything, civilization...

Barrier Lake Kananaskis

Baldy Pass to Lusk Pass Loop

The route described here, the Baldy Pass to Lusk Pass Loop, is an enjoyable outing in the forest and offers up some nice views. This area has been harvested of trees over the years and as such there’s many open places where one can look out to beautiful wooded hills...

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