If you are out exploring mountainous or wooded areas of Alberta and come across strange and curious brightly coloured cloths tied to trees, you have discovered a First Nation’s prayer site. We find these every now and then while out hiking or biking, some in what appears to us to...
The town of Forestburg, located in central Alberta, is home to three very nice wooden grain elevators. These types of structures as we all know are pretty rare, but this group in some ways is quite unique and interesting. For one they all sit alongside a still active railway branch...
Sunalta School is located in the Calgary community of Scarboro, just west of downtown. This fine structure was made from locally quarried sandstone, one of many old schools in the city built from this material and is just over a century old. We’ve been given an old photo from the...
We’ve spent so much time focusing on all those old wooden grain elevators that we’ve completely missed something – the huge inland terminals that reflect the current state of the Canadian grain industry and perhaps a new subject matter for this website. Maybe, just maybe, these modern hunks of concrete...
The Inglewood Wildlands Park, from the 1930s-1980s was the site of an oil refinery, the only remains of which include a small brick shed and some power line supports. The rest of the land is reclaimed and has been allowed to revert to a natural state. It’s hard to image...
While out exploring we take a quick break to document a slow moving local freight traveling along the CPR’s backwater Stettler to Lacombe branch. Three locomotives make short work of their small train, about ten cars long, which was spotted in the central Alberta community of Alix. Heading eastbound it’s...
This 13 foot Boler was found in an RV/motorhome storage lot in Lethbridge Alberta and appears so awfully tiny and insignificant when compared to all those huge camping trailers that surround it. In our experience it’s relatively rare to find Bolers in these lots as given their small size, and...
The world renowned Spruce Meadows equestrian venue operates, via a private contractor, a fleet of guest shuttles, comprised of vintage buses from the 1960s-1990s. These green and white beasts earn their keep taking people to and from parking lots and transit stations to the huge event facility located at the...
The fascinating things we find while out exploring the Alberta plains. Of course there are the ghost towns and abandoned farms, but we also stumble across lots of old, classic and interesting vehicles. Seen here is an odd-couple sharing the same patch of grass between two old wood buildings a...
We’ve taken two fairly random screen captures from the 1985 movie Journey of Natty Gann, ones we know were shot in an area we’re very familiar with and frequent, and then track down the locations seen to record how they look today. You might say this is a tall order...
The subject of this article is a fine old grain elevator found on farm north of Fort MacLeod Alberta. Formerly located in the small community of Woodhouse, not terribly far away, this tall and imposing structure was moved to this current location in the 1970s. We’ve been invited by the...
This post has been updated and can be found here: Shaunavon Saskatchewan ~70 years apart. More SK… Backroads Saskatchewan. Riding the Rails in SW Saskatchewan – Part One and Riding the Rails in SW Saskatchewan – Part Two. Coleville Saskatchewan Pool “A”. If you wish more information on what you’ve...
The Seebe Dam, called the Kananaskis Plant by its owner, is just over a century old and is located along the scenic Bow River west of Calgary, where the mountains meet the plains. We’re in the area for a hike and take some time to study this interesting old structure...
If you’ve driven the Crowsnest Highway, also known as Highway #3, through the Crowsnest Pass, you’ve perhaps noticed the “Little Church” in Bellevue on the north side of the road. Or maybe you missed it, it is after all quite small. This is the Back to God Chapel, aka Wayside...
Built in the mid-1890s and looking every bit its age, the old wood framed Chinese Laundry building (aka OK Laundry), in Fort MacLeod Alberta is under threat of being torn down. Leaning and sagging, the structure has clearly seen better days. Is it to be saved, or will it soon...
The massive railway bridge seen here has not been used for years and once belong to the Canadian Pacific Railway. It spans the Oldman River near Fort MacLeod Alberta and was partially damaged by the spring 2013 floods. This was just a cursory visit to gauge how the structure was...
This 17 foot Boler was found in small town Alberta and keeps a 1940s era International Harvester pickup company. The trailer wears a paint scheme that based upon our own rather casual observations seems to be the most common style seen on one of this size. Whereas the 13 foot...
Not a lot of years separate these two photos but in that time the change has been dramatic. The trains are no more and the row of elevators has been reduced to one.
Down by the tracks in Arrowwood Alberta, 1997 and 2015. Interestingly the then photo is from us and this a rare case of Team BIGDoer shooting both. It was captured by Chris back when he was doing oilfield hotshot.
The last elevator standing is a former Alberta Wheat Pool facility and dates from the 1970s. That's it's fairly modern is perhaps the reason it survived into today and it's now used by a local farmer for grain storage.
Check the comments to know more 👇
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Posted by Connie.
Spotted while documenting The Great Beater Challenge, 2021 edition! Here, it's a little diversion into the near ghost town of Orkney Saskatchewan to look at a disused Patterson Grain Elevator. The structure dates from the 1970s and was built with features foreshadowing those used in high throughput grain terminals of today. Fast load systems and the like.
Check out that vintage yield sign and we doubt it's really needed any more. There's no traffic on these streets.
BTW, we got to chase the Beater Challenge 2023 and we'll post about it soon.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2021. Posted by Connie.
After we drop off a couple rolls for processing, we'll call home! A little corner pharmacy, in a nondescript Calgary strip mall, and it's sort of lost in time. Shot in 2016 and we find anachronisms like this fascinating!
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. 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.
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