There were once many grain elevators in Crossfield Alberta, now there is but one. Standing fast against time and progress, the town’s very last “prairie sentinel” is also its newest, surviving as a private seed cleaning plant. It’s sits along side a busy rail line, as though waiting to load...
Can you spot the Boler in this collection of motorhomes and trailers? Sure you can! This a 17′ model which in my opinion is not as cute as it smaller cousin, the egg-shaped 13″ version we all know and love. This one was spotted in just north of Calgary in...
Our goal for this trip is the abandoned CPR railway bridge at Bullpound Alberta. Located in a remote section of the Red Deer River valley, far from any civilization, or even a road, getting there will require hiking in across empty featureless plains. Bullpound was nothing more than a nondescript...
The hamlet of Chancellor Alberta is tiny a dot on the map. It’s home to a handful of people, an interesting community hall and sitting alongside an abandoned railway branch line, an old grain elevator. The latter two structures will be the subject of this report. First up is the...
We called this the Wimborne farm, not because that’s the name of the people who lived here – we don’t know them, who they were or what’s their story. Rather, we simply call it this because it’s located near that small Alberta town. Like most abandoned farms we stumble across,...
Normally you’d only find us here either early in the spring or late in the fall, when more westerly trails, which are more interesting, are under snow or inaccessible due to seasonal road closures. With Connie feeling a little off due to her acupuncture treatment from the day before, she...
This bright yellow Boler was seen in the small town of Crossfield Alberta and it looks tiny and almost insignificant when compared to the massive motor home sitting nearby. In fact, the latter appears ready to devour its little neighbour. It’s not known (to us anyway) if this vivid colour...
The building we see here, doubling as Monroe’s Grocery in the film Brokeback Mountain, is actually located in the small Alberta town of Crossfield. In the movie the setting is Riverton Wyoming and both the exterior and interior were used in the production. In those scenes, main character Ennis del...
For this report we’ll show some of the assorted old trucks and interesting vehicles we’ve stumbled across while out on exploring. We did not go looking for them, but rather they were all discovered by chance while out travelling the back roads of Alberta and BC, on our field trips...
So many beautiful flowers – pink and red and yellow and orange blooms, all arranged around an interesting and and very unusual centre piece, a tiny little red and white Boler. How cute! This trailer was spotted in Fernie BC in September 2013. Boler: A small cute-as-a-bug fibreglass travel trailer...
Hanna Alberta was once a busy railway division point and the facility seen here, the old roundhouse and turntable, were used to service the steam locomotives that would work this section of line. This was an important place for the railway. Today the trains are gone, but the roundhouse remains....
If you like to find interesting things to explore and photograph, travelling quiet secondary roads is often very rewarding. You’ll always stumble across something delightful – ghost towns, old trucks and machinery, photogenic farms, striking landscapes. And then there are the Bolers. These trailers seem to turn up with amazing...
This trip was a bit of a disappointment for us. This was our third attempt over the years to get to the historic Dibble Mine site, via the gruelling and unforgiving Sunken (Lost) Creek hiking trail. And while we did get to our goal this time, it was a hollow...
This amazing day has us visiting the Headwall Lakes in Kananaskis, two lovely green pools nestled is a steep-walled valley, surrounded by grey and barren limestone peaks. Along the way we’ll hike easy logging roads, we’ll make your way across scree slopes and we’ll climb steep trails, all to get...
For this adventure we explore the surface plant ruins of the Hosmer Mines Ltd. operation in (where else) Hosmer BC. While the mine only operated for a half dozen years, a lot remains of it, including several substantial concrete buildings and a long row of coke ovens. Clearly everything here...
In early August, Connie and I were out exploring a lonely section of Alberta, the dry belt region southeast of Hanna. It’s a forgotten and empty place with few inhabitants, ghost towns and seemingly more abandoned farms then those that are lived in. In other words, it’s the perfect playground...
While biking the Cranbrook to Kimberley rails-to-trails pathway we found both a Trillium and a Boler (and a deer) not far away from each other, in the small community of Marysville. The old rail line here takes a high path behind the town and from this lofty vantage point it...
I’ve noticed that you always seem to stumble across a Boler when you’re not looking for one and that’s proven here. This example was spotted completely by chance (as is often the case), while we drove around Cranbrook BC in September 2013. It’s in the common grey and white factory...
It’s been many, many years…no…actually its been two decades since I last visited Moyie Falls near Cranbrook BC. I’ve been meaning to return and have made plans to do so many times over the years, but for one reason or another, something always got in the way that prevented this...
Kaslo BC is home to many gorgeous buildings dating back to the mining boom of the 1890s. The Kaslo Hotel is a standout and from that period. It's stunning but far too classy for ragged wanderers like us!
Seen while passing through town on the road to adventure.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2023. Posted by Connie.
St Francis in the Woods out in BC's East Kootenay region dates back over a century. It's sort of hidden away down a little backroad and is far removed from the modern world. While no longer used in a spiritual capacity, it still hosts community functions from time to time. Otherwise, silence rules.
Know more about this subject in a link posted to the comments.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2023. Posted by Connie.
The same stone house about a century apart and from almost the same angle. It came close to being a proper Then & Now, but interestingly, we didn't know of the old photo when we captured ours.
The house was only lived in for a few decades, starting about 1910 and abandoned on account of arid conditions.
A family of twelve (yes, two parents plus TEN kids) lived in this modest-sized dwelling. Those early pioneers were hardcore. A house in the middle of nowhere, farming conditions that at best were marginal, brutal winters, few neighbours, little of anything and a bus load of children to raise in a house the size of a garage. Give them credit!
Know more via a link in the comments.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2015. Posted by Connie.
The Fort Motel in Fort MacLeod Alberta, seen in an old postcard circa 1960 and again on a quiet evening late in 2023. It's one of many old style motor-court motels in this historic town and as you can see it's little changed over time. Too bad about that sign, though. The Fort Motel first makes mention in phone directories in the early fifties.
To know about our subject scroll down to a link in the comments. Hey Lethbridge Historical Society, thought you'd like this!
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Posted by Connie.
Just once we'd like to get a clear shot of the grain terminal in Cassils Alberta without a pesky train photo bombing the shot. 😜
Empress #2816 and it's seen last week on the Final Spike Steam Train as it heads east. We had wonderful luck picking more out of the way locations and completely avoided any crowds. There were only a few people present here but we saw footage showing rather chaotic scenes elsewhere.
We met a few old friends on this adventure, made some new ones and had a grand time. If we chatted along the way, it was so nice to meet you, and we invite any of our readers/friends to share photos they captured of this historic train. Drop photos in the comments and can't wait to see them!
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2024. Posted by Connie.
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.
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