The vintage railway equipment seen in this post can be found at two separate locations in Medicine Hat Alberta. They’re lowly boxcars (the crazy things that fascinate us) and once a common sight on the rails. Leading obscure workaday lives they hauled less than glamorous loads and numbered in the...
Serenaded by a church service playing out in the building directly behind, our shot is lined up. A little to the left, angle up slightly, review the original image and then check it in the eyepiece. Comes a bit more fiddling, a grid check and if zoned in, and only...
An easy forest hike leads to a picturesque lake and it’s all yours for the taking. While ten clicks long it’s no more than pleasant stroll-in-the-woods, easy as pie and with no hills to speak of. This meandering loop is a great a place to unwind and take in nature....
It’s was a brief architectural design trend starting in the latter half of the 1950s, peaking the next decade then quickly falling out of favour. Often applied to larger institutional or commercial buildings, wave or zigzag roofs could be structural (even if not always so applied) and allowed a large...
School is most definitely out! Here’s a look at Viscount Bennett High (later Viscount Bennett Centre) in Calgary’s Southwest and it’s been closed for many years now. There, right beside a quiet little lane called Crowchild Trail (maybe you’ve heard of it?) and last an adult learning centre, it’s currently...
It’s always wonderful treat finding Bolers by chance. There you are wandering about doing whatever, your mind on something else, and rounding a corner right there in front of you, out of the blue, it’s a little egg trailer. Serendipity shows up and it’s pulling a little campers. Against the...
We make it mandatory to take a break from the road on long trips and if not done our bodies pay for it big time. This stop ‘n’ stretch finds us in Didsbury Alberta and to getting the blood flowing we randomly walk about. There’s plenty of historic buildings, and...
Presenting a little out of the way strip mall dating back over sixty years and a place of your author’s youth. Some friends lived nearby, classmates from Scott and/or Manning schools and what’s seen here once frequented by our teen slacker collective. Here’s a place little changed over time and...
The trailhead to Saskatoon Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass (Alberta) starts right in the town of Coleman. If you’re staying locally there’s no worry of a late start and you can be on the trail in minutes. Heck, we got to sleep in! This lump of dirt and rock is...
Here’s a little service station in a “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of town. We’re looking at Elnora Motors and it’s one of a handful of businesses in sleepy Elnora Alberta. They dispense fuel (right on the road), fix and maintain all makes and models and distribute parts. In...
Fortune seekers have been searching out the legendary Lost Lemon Mine for ages. Driven on by dreams of untold riches and fame, it’s said a curse will befall those who make the discovery. Many have tried, none have succeeded (that we know of*) and a few were never heard from...
Back when these buildings were new, the Crowsnest Pass of Alberta was a bustling place and business was brisk. Coal was king and the area home to numerous mines, with much of the working population employed in the industry. Today, it’s all a memory and now tourism helps pay the...
We’ve passed by many of the buildings seen here time and again but never really gave them much thought. Then one day while stuck in traffic and within view of a couple, a seed was planted. What’s the story with those crazy dated rooflines and how many buildings like them...
Hiking up little Missinglink Mountain by the east (or direct) approach is about as easy as it gets. A little (mostly treed) bump in the Kananaskis Foothills it has a lot to offer for minimal effort and surprisingly broad reaching views given its less than lofty aspirations. On topping out...
These random picks are some great fun and surprising in that you never know what will get posted. So far (knock on wood) it’s nothing embarrassing either and for that we thank our lucky stars! Here’s what we do, close our eyes (figuratively) and pick a card dump, subfolder and...
Here’s a random Boler discovery found during a social distancing, in-Calgary, bored-to-tears Covid lockdown walkabout. About the time of the first wave (so early 2020, yes we’re terminally behind in posting) we’d pick the most unlikely places to walk, to lessen the chance of bumping into too many people. With...
As the title proclaims, we’ve returned to Calgary’s Lynnview Ridge. Truth is we’ve been back numerous times since we first wrote about it some seven years ago, but this is the first since it was officially turned into a city green space. So what’s the deal? Well…we’re speaking of a...
Look for the sign on Highway #9 in Hanna, take a turn north on Pioneer Trail and in few moments arrive. Off to your right, it’s a group of historic buildings marking the Hanna Pioneer Village & Museum, a great place to spend a few hours. Ahead in this post,...
An invite arrives to be part of a documentary film being shot by Radio Canada (French language arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and it’s on the subject of ghost towns*. With zero hesitation the answer yes comes quickly and enthusiastically. Shot by videojournalist Vincent Bonnay, we’ll be joining with...
It’s every bit the mid-century service station archetype, even if it’s been a while since it functioned in that capacity. Sure, a few elements are missing now, the gas station sign and the fuel island, but the building itself little changed. We’ve seen old photos and it’s as built. There’s...
The CPR’s Lacombe Subdivision parallels Highway #12 for a fair distance east of the QE11. This track begins in its namesake community (with a connection to the firm’s N/S mainline) and terminates in Stettler where it connects with Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions (the Stettler to Big Valley tour train). A...
Our world’s magically populated with small fibreglass trailers (call it an obsession) and more pee-wee than most it’s the make seen here. We’re looking at a tiny Ventura made in Manitoba in the 1970s and given we’ve seen only a few tells us they’re not terribly common. It appears both...
We’re visiting the Rocky Mountain House Historic Site, an amazing place with a storied past and below it’s a little tour for your enjoyment. But before the photos allow us to share a little backstory and babble on about what you’ll see and when done, and only when done, come...
Be it urban or rural, be it big city or small town, be it prairie or mountain, we get out and hike. No matter where, no matter the season or weather, each week or so we set aside a day to put feet in motion. In our crazy world, it’s...
We take the circuitous route when possible and with this comes some fabulous unexpected discoveries. Case in point, it’s something really interesting (to us at least) found while exploring a small Alberta town, a Crown Supercoach bus. Made in Los Angeles California by Crown Coach these were once common in...
The Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin Alberta is home some amazing vintage machinery and documented here it’s earth movers on a grand scale. These humongous beasts date back as much as a hundred years and came from a number of mines across the province. It’s historic diggers for the win! Put...
Here’s a faded sign from long ago, oddly left behind when the business it was connected to closed decades back. Hidden away and only visible from the alley, we suspect few people even notice. We’re at a place once called Leong’s Food Store in Calgary’s Southwest and they operated out...
Historic buildings and vintage metal are equally a passion for us and this piece has both. Presenting historic Eamon’s Garage, a mid-century gas station at a small town museum and kindly showing up to pose in front, vintage rides belonging to members of the car club that own the building....
A series of ponds mark the site of the Birnwell Mine in Bow City Alberta. These scars from long ago are reminders of a time when men and machine toiled away in search of coal. There’s no buildings left behind, no old equipment either and it’s just these curious water...
A glance at the clock tells us it’s time to gather up our gear up and head on out. Tonight’s an extra special one (even by our standards) and we’re on assignment doing something a little bit different than usual for us. Our job this evening is a culture and...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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