Monthly Archive: May 2014

Beachcomber camping trailer

Not a Boler – a Beachcomber

The Boler-like trailer seen here is called a Beachcomber. This model must be rare based on how few we’ve stumbled across in our travels, This is only the second we’ve encountered in the many years that we’ve been playing the Boler spotting game – remember in that game we also...

Portreeve grain elevator

Prairie Sentinels – Portreeve Saskatchewan

It’s the spring of 2014 and we’re on a grain elevator tour of southwest Saskatchewan. We have a short five days to take in as many of the structures as we can. This stop we’re in Portreeve, exploring the last remaining prairie sentinel in town. This was the third elevator...

Kananaskis Bull Creek Hills

Bull Creek Hills

Our first summit of 2014! Yeah! This day’s objective is the Bull Creek Hills, located in the foothills in the southern half of Kananaskis Country. It’s an interesting and not terribly hard climb and along the way you’ll pass through dense woods and hike up grassy open slopes. Once at...

17 foot Boler

Trans Canada Boler

While returning from our great spring 2014 Saskatchewan grain elevator tour we spotted this Boler trailer travelling westbound along the Trans-Canada Highway. It’s a 17 foot model, the less common variant of the two that were originally made, the other being smaller, cuter and 13 feet long. This (very wet)...

Paterson Grain Prelate SK

Prairie Sentinels – Prelate Saskatchewan

The elevator seen in this article is located in the tiny community of Prelate Saskatchewan. It’s the second β€œvator” we explored in the province this trip, and would be one of many we’d see on this glorious five day weekend. It’s located along an active rail line and according to...

Leader Saskatchewan grain elevator

Prairie Sentinels – Leader Saskatchewan

The small town of Leader was the first stop in our spring 2014 Saskatchewan grain elevator tour. Located in the southwest corner of the province not terribly far from the Alberta border, it’s home to one traditional wooden prairie sentinel. Under threatening skies we explore and document the building, the...

Moose Jaw Hotel Grant Hall

Moose Jaw SK then and now – Hotel Grant Hall

In this latest then and now (special Saskatchewan edition) we look at the stately Hotel Grant Hall in downtown Moose Jaw. The first image is from an old postcard from the late 1930s or thereabouts and we return to the spot where it was shot to see how things look...

Empress AB/SK sign

Empress Alberta – then and now

We’ll be supplying our own pictures for the then elements seen in this report. It’s not often we do this and typically our readers supply them to us from their own collections. Our subject is the CPR’s Empress AB train station and we look at it first in 1998 and...

Honey Boler

Honey Boler

Spring is here (finally!) and we’ve been spotting a lot more Bolers lately. An example is this “Honey” model seen in Calgary (May 2014), as usual found completely by accident while driving around. The trailer is hitched up to a car and looks ready for the weekend. I am told...

Mighty BIGDoer-mobile

Calgary Transit then and now – Elbow Drive part 3

This post has been updated and is found here: Calgary Transit Elbow Drive 40 Years Apart. More like this… Waiting on the Queen (Calgary 1973). Edmonton Transit: The Lodge Hotel. Calgary then and now – Ogden Road. If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means...

Yellow Boler trailer

Bottlehouse Boler

This bright yellow Boler was spotted in traffic, in Calgary, next to the Bottlehouse Pub, under gorgeous blue skies, in May of 2014. It’s the eighth one we’ve documented this year and is the first of two we’d see this day. Now that camping season is finally here, we expect...

Canada Malting elevator Beiseker

Prairie Sentinels – Beiseker Alberta (CNR)

The two prairie sentinels seen here are located in Beiseker Alberta and sit alongside the CNR’s north/south Calgary to Edmonton secondary line. As far as these structures go, both are fairly new and modern in design, a relative term, when compared to traditional style elevators. Each of them are still...

Rockyford rodeo grounds

Brokeback Mountain then and now – Childress TX rodeo

In the highly acclaimed production of Brokeback Mountain, Rockyford Alberta doubles as Childress Texas (and a couple other places, but that’s another story). We visit the town’s rodeo grounds, which play an important part in the movie, to see what they look like today. Since the film was released less...

Goat Mountain and Yamnuska

Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge – then and now

Come with us as we visit the front range mountains of Alberta to duplicate some scenes from the 1987 TV movie, Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge. Incredibly, we are supposed to believe the setting is Kansas. Really? Kansas? Mountains? What in the world? It doesn’t matter anyway. The location is gorgeous...

Thing Addams Family

Blackfoot Farmer’s Market

This report, we’ll be looking at the Blackfoot Farmer’s Market. Or rather what’s left of it. Once touted as Calgary’s oldest such concern, it’s closed now and the grounds abandoned. We’ve only known it since the mid-1990s but one thing I’ve noticed since the beginning, it was never a terribly...

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