Connie was scheduled to have a battery of routine tests done at the new South Heath Campus in southeast Calgary (it’s a massive building). Some of the procedures required her to take some medication which could impair her ability to drive, so of course I volunteered to be her taxi....
Located deep in a river valley in a remote part of the province, Finnegan Alberta is nothing more than a little point on the map and that’s likely all it has ever been. A siding on CPR branch line (long gone), there is not much to see here, nor was...
We were quite lucky to capture this trailer. It passed by on the highway and with only seconds to spare we were able to turn on the camera, spin around quickly to line up the shot, and get a single frame off. This brown bottom Boler was seen in the...
Here’s another in our series of Brokeback Mountain then and now reports, and in this set we see Jack and Ennis heading to a bar – a common theme throughout the movie and as the pair travel about, they visit any and every watering hole they can find. Played out...
The great floods of June 2013 will go down in history as some of the worst seen in this area. Heavy rains and snow melt in the mountains caused torrents of water to race downstream and nearly every community in Southern Alberta near a water course was effected. Like many...
Located deep in a remote valley in southeastern British Columbia, Corbin is home to a few residents, some summer cabins and one giant coal mine – you can’t miss the latter. Very near the Alberta border, the town was once tied to that mine which has operated on and off...
It’s been a while since we posted any phones here, so I though it time to show some. I’ve been keeping busy fixing them all this time, just for some reason I did not document it. This report covers two rotary phones brought in by the same customer Both these...
Sharing the field with a horse and another trailer, this little Trillium was spotted in the ghost town of Raley Alberta. What’s significant is that in the same frame is oldest grain elevator in all of Alberta , which we came to explore. The horse was kind enough to pose...
This adventure combines two favourite activities, hiking and exploring abandoned places. A short and pleasant trail meanders between the Crowsnest River and the CPR rail line taking us through woods and meadows, to the base of the historic Hillcrest-Mohawk (sometimes spelled Mowhawk) surface plant. While only a few kilometres round...
As is often the case we discover many Bolers completely by chance. We’ll be driving somewhere and out of the corner of our eyes we’ll see one, perhaps tucked away in an alley or in a back yard. And this is exactly what happened here and while driving around Coleman...
In the 2005 movie Brokeback Mountain, Cowley Alberta doubles for the fictional town of Signal Wyoming. It’s not surprising the producers selected the community and it does a fine job convincing us its a 1960s era small prairie town in Middle America. Many scenes were filmed there and for this...
We’ve been hoping to do this Superman then and now series for some time. In fact, we visited the site once before earlier this year but difficult conditions, driving rain, made the shoot a real challenge and the results were less then ideal. Retuning in June of 2013, things were...
Those who read this blog know we spend a lot of time in the Crowsnest Pass region of Alberta. We finds so much to do there – there are trails to hike, mountains and ridges to summit and lots of historical sites to explore. Plus, as it turns out, a...
The berm we see here, cutting across a farmer’s field, is in fact the grade of a proposed rail line, unfinished and abandoned before completion. Passing by it seems of little significance, but over one hundred years ago when it was built, there were great plans afoot to open up...
Deep in the south west corner of Alberta is the former town of Raley, home to the province’s oldest grain elevator. Built in 1905, this old timer sits along an abandoned rail line. Looking rough and neglected, I doubt many passers by (what few that do pass by) realize the...
Some would argue that Pacific should hold the title as the toughest all around truck ever produced. All business and with few frills they could be found hauling logs, transporting oilfield equipment, working on construction sites or in mines. The one seen here was an example of the latter, a...
For this trip we’ll tackle a nice ridge directly north of the town of Bellevue Alberta in the Crowsnest Pass. It has no official name that we can find, but some parts of it are along the documented Two Mine Trail loop and since we’ll pass one of the mines...
A short cut through an alley turns up a pleasant surprise, a nice Boler trailer seen in someone’s back yard. A menacing storm can be seen approaching from behind and soon it’d be raining – hard! This one was seen in June 2013, in Coleman Alberta in the historic Crowsnest...
Most owners choose to store their Bolers on their own property. These trailers are small and fit nearly anywhere and so you’ll see them in back yards, in alleys and on driveways. For those who don’t have the space, keeping them at a commercial storage lot is sometimes the only...
Abandoned in the 1950s, many old and decrepit coal cars can be seen scattered about the forgotten Commander Mine site (earlier the Stirling Mine) near Nacmine Alberta. Exposed to the elements, rot and rust are slowly taking over. Tossed aside when the mine closed, they fittingly sit atop the old...
Our goal this day is a modest lump of dirt called Eagle Hill situated in the Sibbald area of Kananaskis just south of the Trans Canada highway and bordering on the Stoney (Nakoda) First Nations Reserve. Coming into season early, you can often find us on this trail in the...
This post has been updated and can be found here: Dunshalt Alberta 1974 and 2013. More Then & Nows… 27 Years Apart with Alberta Prairie Ry #41. Grain Elevators at Carbon Alberta. Superman 1978 Then & Now: Below the Dam. If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here,...
Chris rushed in excitedly and showed me this comparison, but after a short pause, his look changed. It's that confused expression one gets just before the face-palm, when they realize something they did just doesn't add up.
One year shy of a century separates the two images but as it turns out, they're not even of the same building. The top is Westmount School and the bottom McDougall School, both in Edmonton and not far from each other.
It took this long to realize we'd been shooting at the wrong place all this time! The two schools were built in the same year and very close in design, so it's still an interesting comparison. We had a good laugh and we'll give Chris a mulligan on this one.
Looks like we're going have to head back for a do-over.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photos: 1924 and 2023. Submitted by Connie.
It's amazing how many of these Canada Centennial Maples Leafs still exist out in the wild across the prairies. We could fill an album with the ones we've photographed. It seems rural folks embraced patriotism with more fervor than their urban counterparts, but that's just an observation.
This example was found in a small Saskatchewan town. When they placed this up above the community hall there was a certain optimism that's not seen now. Today, only a handful of people call the community home, and it's that close to being a true ghost town. Almost sixty years in place and this memorial to a 100 year celebration is still here.
If our readers have found any of these while out exploring, please share in the comments. We'd love to see them.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2014. Submitted by Connie.
Billy Clark’s Cabin in Meadow Creek BC and it dates back over a century. Now at the local museum it formerly stood in a valley a little to east and on the shores of Duncan Lake (now Ducan Lake Reservoir).
Billy was a trapper, hunter, and woodsman. All he had was this tiny log house, a small plot of land, the surrounding wilderness, and his wits for survival. Nothing more. That spirit of self reliance seems to be a lost art today.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Submitted by Connie.
Both Chris and I both grew up in the malaise era for cars and get giddy when we spot one from that time out in the wild. It's like meeting an old friend. This '80s beauty was found out in a hiking area of Kananaskis and by all appearances, looks to be driven regularly.
The malaise era is marked by cars with uninspired design, quirky traits, hobbled performance and often questionable quality. Depressing stuff. This Cutlass is probably one of the better GM cars of the time, and both Chris and our son Will have owned examples in the past.
Have a malaise era story or photo to share? Post it in the comments!
Out in nature with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2023. Submitted by Connie.
We come over many rises on a the prairies and on doing so surprised by many interesting things. This one caused a double take.
This lonely locomotives sits at the then very end of track outside Leader SK and was out of service at the time. Guess they socked it away out of sight to forget about it. We found photos showing it in service the year before our visit but here it was cold and dead.
Since this photo was taken, the Great Sandhills Railway has extended the track across the road and set up some kind of transloading operation. In years passed, the track (under CP ownership) continued west all the way into Alberta, but that's a distant memory.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2014. Submitted by Connie.
The messages have been coming fast and often. No, the book we produced a couple years back is not being published after all, in spite of appearing on many websites recently. Oddly some are showing it with the cover from another volume altogether. Please don't order and it must be a glitch.
The other two books shown in our capture are available however (and are awesome) and were produced by some friends. Interestingly, Chris contributed to each and those you can order.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Submitted by Connie.
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