This post has been updated and can be found here: Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions #41. Random railway related posts… Camrose Heritage Railway Station & Park Wandering The Alberta Central Railway Museum. Locomotives of the Great Sandhills Railway. If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means...
This Boler was found parked in a fenced-in compound in a gritty industrial area of Calgary, in June 2014. We’ve been seeing a lot of these 17 foot models lately, more then we would normally expect. You’ll notice we still use the old imperial system when referring to these trailers....
If you’ve been following the BIGDoer blog, you have no doubt seen some of our trademark “then and now” posts. For these, we take an old photo, postcard or scene from a film and visit the location seen to document how things look today and then post it all here...
This adventure we hike the lovely Bow River Valley, travelling east from the Seebe Dam (sometimes called the Kananaskis Hydro Dam or Kananaskis Plant) on our way to Horseshoe Dam and Canyon and to points beyond. It’s an easy trail, but don’t think that makes it uninteresting. It offers the...
There were once many grain elevators in Alliance Alberta, now there is but one, a huge structure built in the 1950s. It sits alongside an active railway line and while we believe the building was in use up until recently, its current status is to us a bit of an...
In this report we look at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in the tiny community of Courval Saskatchewan. Very photogenic, it is one of a handful of buildings still standing in what is essentially a ghost town, While needing a coat of paint and some other repairs, it’s otherwise in an...
In May of this year we found ourselves in southwest Saskatchewan. We were on a grain elevator tour, travelling far and wide in search of these fascinating prairie sentinels. In the short five days we had, we explored dozens of these structures and to fanatics like us, each was as...
Beside the Boler company there are and were many, many other makes of small fiberglass camping trailers. You might recognize the name Trillium which is the most popular brand and in fact there are more of them then any other. We’ve seen hundreds. The Triple E Surfside seen in this...
Today we hike up Volcano Ridge, a grass-topped hill located in the foothills of Kananaskis west of Turner Valley. In spite of its modest elevation, the views from the top are something amazing! One can see for many kilometres in all directions. Barren grey limestone peaks in the west are...
In this article we’ll be looking at two monster draglines, Bigfoot and Brutus, at the Paintearth Coal Mine in central Alberta. The original plan to was to view them up close – boys, even 49 year old boys, love their big machines and I was eager to document these ones...
There are four Picklejar Lakes, each of them lovely in their own unique way, all nestled in an amazingly picturesque valley. They are a popular destination for both hikers and anglers, and getting there is a relatively easy task. The trail up, for the most part has a moderate grade,...
The tiny community of Wrentham Alberta has two grain elevators, but for this report, we will for the most part focus on only one, the former Ogilvie Flour facility. A small but dedicated group, of which this author is now a member, is trying to rescue the endangered building. It’s...
Built just over a century ago, the massive bridge seen in this report carries the CNR tracks over the Bow River in Calgary, just east of downtown. Unlike it’s nearby neighbour, the CPR Bonnybrook Bridge, this structure did not sustain damage during the disastrous spring floods of 2013. I guess...
The holiday trailer seen in this report is known as K Line Mark (something) and will never be confused with a Boler. It in no way looks like one, yet at the same time it has many Boler-like qualities. It’s constructed of moulded fibreglass, it’s small in size and has...
This hike I visit Prairie Mountain solo. It’s a relatively modest sized bump, west of Calgary but still close to the city and it has pretty decent views from the summit. It’s a well used trail, so much so that I’ll only consider it as an objective at certain times...
The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service. From the 1907 book Songs of a Sourdough (US: The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses). This famous work is purely fictional, although some might say it’s loosely based on people, places and events Robert Service the poet (and then bank...
So here’s the challenge: take a scene from a movie and then track down the actual location where it was shot to document what things look like today. No biggie, that’s something we do all the time here at BIGDoer.com: In fact it’s in some ways one of our trademark...
This report we look at the Wanda one room school located in central Alberta. Despite its small stature, it was big enough to accommodate perhaps a dozen students give or take, it still served a very important purpose. Children in remote farming areas, much like their big city counterparts, needed...
This Boler was found completely by chance, as is often the case. We were driving about Calgary on some business when we caught a brief glimpse out of the corner of out eyes. Parked at a business only the top could be seen from the road, but that’s enough for...
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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