DeWinton – De Winton – Dewinton – I’ve seen it spelled many ways. This small town, officially De Winton I am told, is close to and directly south of Calgary but it sees few visitors since it’s well off the main highway and can only be accessed by a back...
Welcome to Azure Alberta, home to a house or two, an abandoned rail line, and a single grain elevator, the subject of this report. This structure has been privately owned for around fifty years and this accounts for it’s remarkable condition. Used during that time as a grain storage facility...
This Boler trailer was spotted in Coleman Alberta, in the Crowsnest Pass in May 2012. It represents one of the longer length 17′ models, which seem to be a lot less common than their shorter cousins. Out of every ten or so short ones seen, we see but a single...
The KTAS D08 is one of the true classics. Introduced over a hundred years ago, this phone was produced in quantity for many decades after and even today, modern facsimiles of this iconic design can be found. Made by KTAS or Kjobenhavns Telefon Aktieselska (hope I got that right) in...
Pinball! Once a year at the Calgary Pinball and Arcade show, we get to play. And we do it old school, with real pinballs, the stuff to make a serious pinhead jump with delight. The classics are all there – Williams, Bally and Gottlieb – the good stuff (and some...
May is a tough time for us. The weather is nice and in the valleys everything is green and vivid and alive. Up high where we want to go however it’s often still winter and this severely limits our options. Knowing that, but having spring fever, we elect to scout...
The area just southeast of Calgary has a remarkable number of grain elevators still standing and this makes it an natural attractant to us history explorers. We’ll visit a number of towns in the region, some abandoned and forgotten, some alive with small populations, all very interesting. For this trip...
Perhaps half the Bolers we’ve seen appear in original condition, that is at least on the outside. The other half seem to have gone through some sort of rebuilding or refurbishment. Almost completely in pieces, this work in progress will likely become an example of the later sometime soon. This...
We’ve been meaning to do the Buller Pass hike for a long time. I’ve often been told just how spectacular the destination is and let me tell you, those people were right. The trail, from start to finish, does not disappoint. The route, known officially as Buller Creek trail, takes...
The ghost town of Retlaw is situated in the dry belt region of south central Alberta and sits along the former Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Suffield Subdivision branch. Well off any major highways the place is seldom visited and is accessible only by a dusty back road. What little that...
Rarely do we capture a Boler while on the road. Usually they quickly pass us by heading in the opposite direction, but here we are lucky and find one going the same way we are. This one has been customized with cowboys and cacti, offering up an interesting western motif....
Approximately forty years separate the two pictures shown and in that time the small town of Aldersyde Alberta has changed a great deal. Well, at least in the area around the railway tracks has and one would be hard pressed to say this is even the same location. But it...
What’s the story behind that mysterious huge brown complex seen off the highway between Aldersyde and High River? I don’t know how many times, on trips to South Kananaskis, that I’ve passed by the place and asked myself that very thing. I never seemed find the time to stop…until now...
Technically not all the trucks shown here are fully restored, but all are complete so we’ll include those ones anyway. This is a continuation of a previous report and here we showcase some fine examples seem at the Pioneer Acres Museum in Irricana Alberta. We could not photograph every truck...
Bannock did not originate with the indigenous people of North America, but it was embraced by them. It’s a simple and hearty flat bread of Scottish origins, that is super easy to make and travels well. And it’s surprisingly tasty. There are many ways to prepare it, but in this...
From a distance, a Boler and a Trillium look very similar and so it’s easy to confuse the two. Up close however, that changes. The Trillium is more square overall than it’s egg shaped counterpart – square shaped, squared windows, square-ish tail lights – all say Trillium. This particular one,...
Pioneer Acres in Irricana is an gold mine for those who love mechanical things, In spite of having a huge collections of trucks, machinery and bits related to farming and settlement of the area, this museum flies under the radar and does not seem to be well known. It should...
The Pat Burns Coal Mine is situated deep in the mountains far up the Sheep River valley, and is certainly is the most stunning location of any coal mine this author has seen. While the operation was ultimately a failure, it’s certainly a winner for explorers like us. What a...
The following report is a two-parter that combines some of our favourite activities, hiking and history exploring. This adventure finds us on the Sheep River Trail, a long distance route that parallels its namesake river for many dozens of kilometres. The section we followed takes us from the Junction Mountain...
This abandoned bridge caught us by surprise. We were heading for another such structure in the area, the old CPR span over the Bow River near Cecil Alberta, when this one came into view. When heading north on Highway 524 near Hays Alberta, this structure can be clearly seen in...
One could easily pass by this house and barn, giving it no thought at all. Looking much like every other farm, there is not much here to draw your attention away – it’s a nondescript farmhouse along a dusty old road. In other words, instantly forgettable. However these buildings have...
It’s amazing how often Boler trailers turn up in out of the way places. Like the one here, seen in the small town of Mossleigh Alberta in September 2012. Had we blinked we would have missed it and we only noticed it by chance (which begs the question, how many...
Mossleigh Alberta lays claim to not one, but three classic wooden elevators and this must be one of the last original elevator rows left in Canada*. All appear in good condition, with one recently being re-sided. I kind of ignored the latter, since it no longer looks original and does...
In hindsight I think it was a bit foolish to try this peak. Normally, it’d not be challenge, but for this trip I was dealing with a problem – pain, stiffness and soreness. You see some six weeks prior, Connie and I were involved in a serious accident after retuning...
Glenbow was a town. Once. Now it’s a open field nestled in a valley beside the railway tracks and the Bow River. Save for the one building still standing (barely), it would be hard to imagine anything was ever here. But on close examination, little details come forward. A pile...
This post has been updated and can be found here: CPR Bow River Bridge (Abandoned). They’re saying… ”…Chris & Connie do an amazing job on studying their subject matter.” Rik Barry (Time Air Historical Society). Remote… Taunton/Fortner Bridge. Green Door Ranch Then and Now. 80 Years Empty. If you wish...
We used to do something called the "pointless challenge" 🤪 and miss those days. It was so much silly fun and often frustrating as heck. In these we'd invite people to send in random photos of obscure locations, but not give any information, and then we'd track where it was and shoot something similar.
Most of these came from old family collections, as was the case here. Anyone up to resurrecting the series?
In hindsight, why didn't we pose someone in our shot?
Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster.
If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/ Thanks to Connie for making this post possible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: ca1970 and 2014. Posted by Connie.
Captured on a cold, cold day many years ago. We've been passing this old house for decades and it's little changed in that time. At some point we expect to drive by and it'll be gone.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
When retired old railway cars usually get cut up for scrap. Sometimes, however, they find their way into the hands of the general public or whomever. Flat cars make good bridges, and boxcars can be transformed into storage buildings and the like. Case in point here. We see them used like this often enough and in this case, it's part of a corral.
Incidentally, this boxcar dates from 1950 and this was found by tracing the old road number, which is still visible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.
You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.
There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.
Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.
Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.
That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
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