Category: Exploring History

The Parkdale neighbourhood of west-central Calgary was founded in the 1910s. Most growth, however, happened in the 1950s and in support of this a modest-sized business district sprang up in the vicinity of Parkdale Crescent NW along 3rd Avenue. Today, a few commercial buildings from the old days can be...

Here’s a retail complex that is no more and since we photographed it last spring has been demolished to make way for new development. We’re exploring Stadium Shopping Centre, in the community of University Heights in Calgary, weeks before it was to be leveled. Dating from the early 1960s, everything...

The Ogilvie Flour Mills firm once had a good sized network of rural grain elevators scattered across the Canadian Prairies. At the peak, latter half of the 1920s, there was a couple hundred such places (and change) in three provinces, with roughly a quarter of the total in Alberta. Had...

More than a summer ago, in world so much different from today, the Team was out exploring in the Wolseley Saskatchewan area. There it’s wide open spaces, charming little towns, much history and a pace more relaxed. It’s big skies above, limitless fields of grain and then there’s us, a...

It’s that giant silver lollipop thing west of the QEII you see when driving through Airdrie. You can’t miss it. And up there in big proud letters on that shiny metal sphere, for all to see…spell it out with me…A.I.R.D.R.I.E! Dating back many years this water tower hasn’t seen use...

There by the trees at a bend in the creek, in a scenic valley very un-prairie like, there’s remains of a charming old farm house. It’s been a while since it was called a home but within surely a few memories remain. Picture fresh bread in the oven, washing on...

WE’RE BACK! The memorial seen here belongs to a railway labourer that perished on the job over a century ago. What he died building, interestingly, has similarly gone away, the track on which he toiled pulled up and the line now abandoned. As goes the person, so goes the things...

With this post ends a special series. Seen through eyes of wonder, we take in the last of three little churches documented by the Team, belonging to Meota Parish. This one’s beautiful (they all are) and in addition is the most senior of the group. It’s been around over a...

Visiting with Ghosts: taking in a group of abandoned buildings, homes included, that long ago comprised as town of sorts, but today stands empty and forgotten. They’re saying… ”Good luck to you both, you do amazing work.” Laura Combden. More… This is Alderson. 80 Years Empty. A Forgotten Place Called...

Here’s a look at the second of three little country churches belonging to Meota Parish, all located a short distance from each other, a bit south of Calgary. There’s St James in Priddis, Christ Church out in the country near Millarville and this visit has us taking in St George’s...

Back when built close to a hundred and forty years ago, they called it Loganston. Out on the lonely Saskatchewan Plains, it’s a stone house, craftsman built, elegant in design and of which we’re in awe. The effort and skill that went into it is incredible! Empty and abandoned now,...

It’s five words seen time and again in the comments section of our website and our social media accounts when we post about an abandoned farm or ranch house: “if these walls could talk”. And it most certainly applies here. Take in this little stone house, abandoned on the remote...

We’re in one of the more sparsely populated areas of Alberta and even for us, people used to being alone, it feels isolated and remote. There’s not a soul about. So what’s located here? Let’s see…there’s the boundless plains, a single occupied dwelling, a few trees, the only ones for...

Almost a year ago we were given the opportunity to visit three little churches south of Calgary all connected to the same group. Just a short distance away from a million plus folks, each is hidden away in a pleasant small town or rural setting that feels far removed from...

This unending search for abandoned places has us visiting the Bishop House, well hidden away and in surprisingly good condition given the last residents lived in decades ago. It’s mostly empty inside and while the paint’s peeling and plaster falling away in places, it’s easy to imagine that with a...

Had they not been made of concrete, we suspect these remains would otherwise be long gone and the place but a distant memory. Here it’s massive walls and foundations, a monument to the past, when the railway was the driving force of the economy and stream locomotives were king. In...

Saskatchewan has us enamoured. With much history to explore and friendly folks, it’s a place to catch one’s breath, feel at home and revel in its sheer (and sometimes stark) beauty. There’s broad fields of gold, a charming street in some little village or stand there and stare at an...

They immigrated from all over Europe to work in Canada’s coal mines, something demonstrated by taking in the cemetery in Nordegg Alberta. The varied names found here reflect the numerous countries from which long ago they came – Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Poland and more. When calls a new life...

It’s been wiped off the face of the earth. Where once there was hope and promise, now it’s little more than an empty field. If not for close inspection it’d be easy to miss, but underfoot are subtle reminders of what was. Here’s a row of cellar-pits where buildings once...

It’s an old shed down on the farm, something utterly plain and utilitarian, right? Even to us folks always on the lookout for hidden history (so us), it’s worth no more than a passing glance…bet it’s full of spiders too! Then on closer examination – a reminder to always do...

We’ve sat on this one for a long time. When you have dozens of posts coming down the pipes some things are bound to get set aside for later. In the interim we’ve been doing research about the place as time permits, digging, prying and asking around but so far...

There’s not many of these little corner stores left. Where as long ago you could find them in nearly every “old” neighbourhood across the country, they have been in decline for decades. Finding one today is a rare delight and in Calgary, the few that are still in business can...

We’re equally at home in the mountains as we are the prairies. It’s all a wonderful playground of fun and learning, each with its own unique personality. Here’s a subject deep in the Alberta Rockies of Banff Park, well “Off the Beaten Path” an old Ranger’s Cabin that this day...

There are ghost towns. Then there’s Carolside Alberta, a community so totally wiped off the map that it’s become lost in time. While there’s odd little hints of what was here, if one looks real close, there’s not a structure left standing nor much else. Over there in the grass...

There’s a huge number of abandoned railways in Canada, thousands and thousands of kilometres worth. Only upon looking at old maps does it become clear just how extensive the network was. These disused lines are particularly common in the grain growing regions of the west but can be found across...