The Beer Parlour Project, by Chris Doering, Johanna (Connie) Biggart + Rob and Margarit Pohl. We’re channeling an unbridled passion to document old-time, small town hotels and hotel taverns. It won’t just be photos of these historic structures and we’ll be connecting with patrons too. The buildings, the people, the...
Contact Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie and the BIGDoer.com Society! If you’re adding to the story, have something interesting to say, spotted an error or omission, want us for a job, workshop or to purchase a photo or commission an article or commercially share one, who want...
Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie/BIGDoer.com Hundreds and hundreds of articles! Over one point three million words! Over 25k photos! Tens of thousands of hours invested! Tens of thousands of visitors per month! On the menu every day: Abandoned Places Hiking Adventures Vintage Machinery Historic Sites Then &...
It’s been a custom for years to offer a gift to anyone who is the owner of a subject that appears on this website. We’re a poor broke society, so it’s a small token, but we hope it shows how much we appreciated the opportunity. We have a blast photographing...
Presenting: Rosies and The Griffon Spitfire. Here’s a bunch of folks, friends, family and associates, getting together for a charity photoshoot (and admittedly a good time) with a sleek World War Two fighter as a backdrop. The girls are stepping into the past and playing the part of a storied...
Over the years we’ve explored hundreds of forgotten farm houses, in cooperation with landowners, and never tire of it. Here’s one in a building material we’ve not encountered before in such an application, and we think you’ll agree it’s something special. Something a bit odd and out of the ordinary,...
The building seen here dates back to the mid-1890s (one report says about a decade later) and on this visit in 2014, looked every bit its age. It must have been in the running as the one of the oldest buildings in the community, yet rather hidden away from the...
This history exploring gig can be demanding and tiring work. There’s the endless road, it just goes on and on and on; there’s the walking and climbing, the jumping of fences, dust by the dumptruck load, all manner of dangers to think about, bugs and heat, and wind and rain....
Here’s a nice hike on a wooded hillside overlooking the west end of Calgary. You’d see lots of urbanity if not for the trees, but every once in a while, they do thin and this allows a look out. Here’s a loop hike on Paskapoo Slopes and it starts from...
This post will explore one of Saskatchewan’s iconic “bowstring” concrete arch bridges. With their graceful lines, they’re a thing of beauty and are delightful subjects to photograph. They can be found all over the province and this example is located in the southwest quadrant. It’s close to ninety years old...
Ahead, it’s a piece called Grain Elevators of Consort Alberta and it contains two interesting photos from long ago. It’s Chris here and in the 1990s I worked oilfield “hotshot” trucking. On these travels, I’d pass many interesting places, but always under a time crunch. Stopping or even slowing down...
These old and decrepit coal cars were found scattered about the forgotten Commander Mine site (earlier and briefly, the Sterling Mine) in the Red Deer River Valley of Alberta. They were abandoned back in the 1950s, with the closing of the mine, and have been here ever since. Tossed aside...
This one’s nothing complicated and a relaxed stroll in the forest. It happens in the extensive West Bragg Creek trail network, in the foothills of the Rockies and just a little west of Calgary. Sometimes an easy going and easy access adventure is all you need. Let’s explore Moose Loop,...
Team BIGDoer first visited Coderre Saskatchewan in 2014 and a decade later made a triumphant return. On the follow-up visit there were parades, speeches by dignitaries and a holiday declared. Well, the town dog showed up to see the goings on but soon left to chase a leaf blowing in...
This post is originally from 2014 and presented in that context: It appears time is running out for the 100 year old Eastern (Deutsch-Canadier) Block on busy MacLeod Trail near downtown Calgary. Neglected and showing its age, the building has been vacated and boarded up recently. The future is uncertain...
Here’s an old post from years back, pulled from the remains of a badly crashed archive, fixed up, edited and made new again. The photos show a Fairbanks Morse model H16-66 locomotive and it’s a rare beast indeed. Today it’s one of two left. It’s first seen in High River...
There are four Picklejar Lakes, each lovely in its own unique way and all nestled in an amazingly picturesque cirque. They’re 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 and is...
Let’s focus attention on the little community of Carbon Alberta and more specifically, the town’s grain elevator row. Down there by the tracks, or in the present context where they and those structures used to be. Those prairie sentinels, the train station, the railway itself and the section house far...
In the days before 7-11s and Circle Ks (or earlier Mac’s), you might shop for convenience goods at local mom and pop corner store located right in your own neighbourhood. They were everywhere and a place to pick up a jug or loaf on the way home from work. The...
by Chris Doering · Published September 19, 2024 · Last modified September 20, 2024
Hiking the Bustall Pass trail should be on everyone’s bucket list and the scenery is so amazing that it’s difficult to describe. We’ve done it multiple times and it’s always mind blowing. Winter or summer, it’s just as awesome. There’s little wonder that it rates as one the best must-do...
The tiny-dot-on-the-map community of Robsart Saskatchewan goes back just over one hundred and ten years, had an early but brief foray with success, and today is a shadow of its former self. It’s home to many more ghosts than people and this made quite evident by simply wandering its empty...
This little adventure happened while we were out on BC’s gorgeous Vancouver Island late last year and for the first time in eons, we had nothing to do, report on or to document. It’s a lazy afternoon and served no purpose but to be fun. Greetings from Comox Fisherman’s Wharf,...
It’s abandoned, weather-beaten to all hell and found at a lonely prairie crossroads. Our subject, Notre Dame de Savoie Catholic Church is well over a century old now but last used for services some sixty years ago. So empty longer than used. It’s showing its age and keep in mind...
The two photos that make up this Then & Now were shot from the same position, but at least fifty years apart. It’s repeated here all too often, but it’s a great thrill to stand where an old photo was captured, and take one that’s similar. Call it weird. In...
Here’s something a bit different, a disused golf course and it’s right in the city. Located in an older Calgary neighbourhood, the facility, Highland Golf Course (alt: Highland Park Golf Course) closed down a dozen years ago now. Most of the photos seen here date back to February 2016 and...
Middle of Nowhere: a place far away from other people, houses, or cities (Merriam-Webster). Many spots in Saskatchewan are in contention here! Today’s subject might just claim that proverbial title, and it’s pretty far removed from everywhere. There are people in the area – just not that many – and...
Flashback to early 2013 and some bad snapshots! Farmer Jones Carz was a Calgary institution for decades, a used car dealer selling el-cheap-o transportation and doing it in an unashamedly quirky style. They sold vehicles that no other self respecting lot would touch and seemed truly proud of the fact....
It’s just a former rail siding, and nothing more, with the name of Oberlin Alberta. No town here. Its claim to fame, at least at the time of our visit in spring 1997, were the two grain elevators that stood along an abandoned railway line. Like so many other prairie...
Hello Rosebery BC! It’s the summer of 1989 and yours truly (for those who don’t know, this means Chris, half of Team BIGDoer, who’s writing this particular post) was single and living out in Vancouver BC. Awesome place in many ways, but too expensive and chaotic. Anyway…after working non-stop for...
Flashback to 2014! It’s a glorious Alberta day and our goal is to find and photograph a special location from the 1994 film Legends of the Fall. Target: the Ludlow Family Cemetery. There’s no roads to guide the way and only faint cart tracks or cow paths through the grass...
Flashback to 2014! The old train station in Manyberries Alberta has been around for well over a century now. Somehow it’s survived when so many others like it have been relegated to history and when visited by us being cared for by a couple that called it home. It sits...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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Bridge Hunting: Highway 13 Scotsguard
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Grain Elevators of Consort Alberta
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Commander Mine 1935-1956
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Prairie Sentinels: Coderre Saskatchewan
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Eastern (Deutsch-Canadier) Block (2014)
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Fairbanks Morse H16-66 (CPR #7009)
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Robsart Saskatchewan 61 Years Apart
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Notre Dame de Savoie Church (From 2014)
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A Corner in North Glenmore ~50 Years Apart
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Highland Golf Course – Fore No More
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Bay Island One Room School (1919-1950)
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Farmer Jones Carz – Closed 2012
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Prairie Sentinels of Oberlin Alberta
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