Category: Then And Now

Wayne Alberta From Above

Looking Down on Wayne Alberta

This is a reworked Then & Now originally posted ten years ago and takes inspiration from by Mike Dunham-Wilkie’s well known train photographs of Wayne Alberta. His shots are from 1978. We’re reusing our original now photos, but have revised and updated the info. Ugly and somewhat outdated, the piece...

Viking AB Telephone Exchange

Downtown Viking Alberta (w Harry Palmer)

Here’s a comparison look at one little corner of downtown Viking Alberta thirty four years apart. The expression “some things change and some stay the same” truly applies here. Certainly many things have vanished since the original image was captured in 1988, but the scene still feels the same. This...

Mewata Drill Hall

Mewata Armoury Downtown Calgary

Mewata Armoury is located at the west end of Calgary’s downtown core and a well known landmark that’s stood here for over a century. Architecturally stunning, this brick and sandstone edifice is a ceremonial and training base for a number of Canadian Forces regiments/groups. Built during World War One, it...

Crowsnest Mountain & Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake & Crowsnest Mountain

Almost seventy five years separates the two images shown here and outside one obvious change, the scene has an otherwise timeless quality. Emerald Lake & Crowsnest Mountain, in the Crowsnest Pass of Alberta, feature prominently in both and are a sight to behold. The then image is from a postcard...

Meeting Creek Train Station

Meeting Creek Railway Station

We’re visiting the restored Meeting Creek Railway Station in central Alberta and shooting a slight variation on our popular Then & Now series. It’s a perfectly delightful spring evening, we’re here all alone and since we’re shooting a general historic piece on the building anyway, let’s have a little more...

Kootenay Country Inn Cranbrook

Tri-Way/Kootenay Country Inn Cranbrook

Here’s a Then & Now look at the former Tri-Way Motel, now Kootenay Country Inn, out in Cranbrook British Columbia. Presenting two photos separated by about half a century and we’re going to chat a little about what’s seen. The business, and the whole scene for that matter, is timeless....

Canadian Pacific Railway Banff Park

Canadian Pacific Railway Banff Park

We’re deep inside Banff National Park armed with a vintage photo showing a train and our first goal will be to find the location seen. The person that supplied the image only had a hunch, but with a little detective work we felt confident it could be found. Using good...

Elevator Row Nanton Alberta

Elevator Row Nanton Alberta

Elevator Row Nanton Alberta: two photos captured down by the tracks (or former tracks, present day) and separated by close to fifty years. The railway line through town is history, that little shack is long gone, but some of the grain elevators seen in the then photo have been preserved....

Trout Lake British Columbia

Downtown Trout Lake British Columbia

We’re in bustling “downtown” Trout Lake British Columbia armed with a photo from about seventy five years ago to shoot a BIGDoer.com Then & Now. The fun’s about to begin, so give us a big WOOHOO! Our goal is twofold, and out of the gate we want to get as...

Silverton BC Waterfront

Silverton BC Waterfront (SS Slocan)

For your enjoyment it’s two photos of the waterfront in Silverton British Columbia separated by at least a century and similarly composed. The angles line up and it’s a good match! The mountains and lake present a timeless scene, but the SS Slocan, and the railway’s presence in the valley...

Fort Museum Fort MacLeod Alberta

Fort Museum Fort MacLeod Alberta

From 2014: While conducting research we stumbled across something interesting at a local archive unrelated to the subject at hand. It was an old postcard in among miscellaneous files and seemingly placed there by mistake. It caught our eye, however, and got the gears to grinding. We saw a project...

Old Highway Wardner BC

The Highway Bridge at Wardner BC

Presenting another epic BIGDoer.com Then & Now and in this instalment we’re looking at the old Highway #3/93 bridge over the Kootenay River at Wardner BC. The original photo dates back to the late ’60s and in the fifty some years that have passed, the scene is remarkably the same....

16th Ave North Calgary

Waiting on the Queen (Calgary 1973)

Waiting on the Queen: flashback to the summer of ’73 and her Royal Highness is paying Calgary a visit. On a goodwill tour of Canada, her stop in this city was one of many on what was a whirlwind trip. She was always a busy person during her decades long...

Sleepee Teepee Blairmore

Sleepee Teepee Blairmore Alberta

For a time, long ago, the Sleepee Teepee Motel was a local landmark in the Crowsnest Pass of Alberta. Located in the community of Blairmore, it was kitschy to the extreme and made to look as though a western fort with a First Nation’s encampment out front. With battlements, a...

BIGDoer Then & Now

Serendipity @ The Rock (Frank Slide)

The word of the day is defined as “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident” (dictionary.com). We’re talking about a special but unexpected aligning of the stars leading to good fortune. Incidentally, these extraordinary moments seem to happen to us with a frequency greater than it should. “Serendipity” at...

Cochrane Alberta Railway

Cochrane Alberta: Canadian Pacific Railway

We’ve got a railway themed T&N for you today and here we’re looking down at the tracks in Cochrane Alberta at the Canadian Pacific’s transcontinental mainline. The first image dates from 1984 and shows an eastbound freight at the edge of town, and in 2014 we visited the same location...

Old Bank Bawlf Alberta

Downtown Bawlf Alberta

We’re in bustling downtown Bawlf Alberta armed with a photo over a century old and have an idea to put it to good use. Cool plans at that! You guessed it right and yes, it’s Then & Now time! We’re looking down the wide main street (Hanson Street) of town...

Slocan Highway Tunnel

Old Slocan Highway

Here’s a Then & Now that had us travelling the West Kootenay region of BC and on the day of this visit, it was hot as Hades. Coming away feeling like a slow-roasted brisket, the amazing scenery and the experience overall made it all worth while. We were allowed use...

Currie Barracks John Bacon Collection

Currie Barracks Parade Square

We’re paying a visit to Parade Square at Currie Barracks, or Canadian Forces Base Calgary in more recent times. It’s located in the southwest quadrant of the city and just off Crowchild Trail. The first image takes us back to 1971 and shows a military ceremony taking place on this...

Carbon Alberta Road

Grain Elevators at Carbon Alberta

The grain elevators once located in Carbon Alberta, were in a scenic setting at the edge of town, and the emphasis is on once, as they’re all gone now. They vanished decades ago, even if our memory insists it doesn’t seem like that much time has passed. Where they stood...

Grain Elevator Rosebud Alberta

Rosebud Alberta Then & Now

The photographs used in this Then & Now post, showing an overall view of the the small community of Rosebud Alberta, date from 1982 and 2015 respectively. The location is a hill overlooking the village, which affords a good view of pretty much the entire place. No urban sprawl here....

Slocan Lake BC

Main Street Slocan BC

Just over eighty years separates the images used in this BIGDoer Then & Now, and while the mountains seen remain timeless, the foreground view shows much change. You’d never even know it was the same place if one were to only focus there. We’re along Main in little Slocan BC...

Lodge Hotel Edmonton

Edmonton Transit: The Lodge Hotel

Why in the world did they do that? It’s great the old building was given a new lease on life, but wasn’t consideration given to saving the sign? An iconic part of Edmonton’s Jasper Avenue since forever it’s now partially obscured by new construction. That new addition…well…the aesthetics are not...

Okotoks Alberta Train Tracks

Down by the Tracks Okotoks Alberta

This installment we’re looking at two scenes down by the tracks in Okotoks Alberta and captured fifty years apart. There’s been change, the passage of time guarantees it, and the only constants are two steel rails extending off in the distance. The trains still run, but the grain elevator is...

Bluebird Motel Postcard

Bluebird Motel Then & Now

We’re in Claresholm Alberta at the Bluebird Motel and comparing how the business looks today to an old postcard from about fifty years ago. Spoiler alert: it hasn’t changed! In this crazy fast paced world of constant flux, it represents a timeless scene. Our home one fall weekend it functioned...

Edmonton Transit Bus

Edmonton Transit: 95th Street

We’re standing on 95th, a tattered paper in one hand and camera long past its prime in the other. This can only mean one thing – that’s it time for another BIGDoer.com Then & Now, this one touching on a theme we really like, an ordinary street scene. Printed on...

Ford Dealership Tofield Alberta

Tofield Alberta (x2)

Come join in and imagine yourself a curious time traveller. Today, it’s two for the price of one and in this Then & Now we’ll show you some scenes of Tofield Alberta captured about forty years apart. It thrills us knowing we’re standing close to the spot where the original...

Foremost House Restaurant

Then & Now: Foremost Alberta

Channel your inner HG Wells and join us in Foremost Alberta for a little time travelling adventure. Armed with an old photo of the town showing Main Street we’re here to shoot another of similar composition from the same position. It’s a silly little obsession and we find it thrilling...

Elk Point AB Visitor's Centre

Downtown Elk Point Alberta

In the old photo it’s labelled Main Street, but today it’s 50th. No matter the naming convention, we’re in downtown Elk Point Alberta, early one Sunday morning and with not a soul about, shooting a Then & Now. We’ll do our best to duplicate the old image in composition even...

Water Tower Three Hills AB

Then & Now: Three Hills Alberta

What time is it? Time for another Then & Now, that’s what! In this one we’re looking at a location in Three Hills Alberta taken some seventy years apart and our only connecting element is the town’s water tower. Then, it functioned as the backdrop for some kind of community...

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