Dorothy’s Elevator, a new angle
It’s been photographed…an awful lot. Not that it should come as a surprise, the little grain elevator in Dorothy Alberta, a near ghost town in the Red Deer River badlands, is one photogenic building. Standing there, right beside the highway, in this lovely valley setting, below the sprawling plains, one can’t help but be compelled to start clicking away on seeing it. It begs to be shot.
Most people take their pics from the side of the road or from “downtown” Dorothy (home to two camera-friendly churches). More adventurous types might follow the gravel road that climbs the valley to the south, and take their shots from a viewpoint up there. Us, we wanted something new, something completely different. How about the valley top to the north? Don’t think anyone’s done it that way. And since there’s no road up there, only pasture, it’s a good bet we’ll be breaking some new ground here. Feet, get in gear – we approached from a well road up there.
So, here, for your approval, shots of Dorothy’s circa 1920s “Alberta Pacific” grain elevator, closed and abandoned in the 1950s, now roofless, having lots it’s top in a windstorm a couple years back, in all its glory. Plus the nearby bridge, love it, with some obligatory shots of Team BIGDoer thrown in for good measure. Enjoy the views. They’re pretty darn good and we sure liked presenting them to you.
Read more about the elevator…
Dorothy Alberta.
Dorothy Alberta, the little grain elevator in the valley (long winded title).
Short Subjects: reports that for any number of reasons are brief in nature. They might be updates to older articles, previews of posts planned or not yet published, brief snippets of things that don’t fit in anywhere else or subjects that are so obscure that information on them can’t be found. Or sometimes we just ramble on about Lord knows what.
If you need any more information on what we talked about here, by all means contact us!
Date of adventure: May, 2017.
Location: Dorothy, AB.
The sad roofless grain elevator in Dorothy Alberta.
Looking back at Connie.
These blanketed the ground – our subject in back.
Dorothy’s bridge deserves some attention too.
Nice views from this, a new and different angle.
That trademark yellow shirt is hard to miss.
The “Mighty” BIGDoer-mobile awaits.
We were there, parking in the lee side of a building waiting out the hailstorm, when the roof blew off. A granddaughter in the back seat watched in amazement as the roof flew off, crashing to the ground. A remarkable moment for her. She was quite excited about that.
Yikes! That must have been one damn crazy storm.
There’s so many photos of Dorothy’s elevator – and yours is from a unique angle! Love it!!
So glad to hear it’s been met with approval from all our readers. That angle rocks, and it looks like we’re the first to do it. We love to get creative…and to work for it.
We often drive through Dorothy on our way to Calgary….
these are such beautiful shots!
Thank you, we take pride in offering up some nice pics…and a story to accompany them. Drop by BIGDoer.com often!
I’ve seen it a few times from the other side of the valley, this looks better.
Thanks, we always like to mix it up and do things others aren’t doing. Keep those comments coming.
Such a shame that this elevator hasn’t been repaired – it’s one of my favourites. Neat shot from high up.
All they need is money, a hard thing to come by these days.
I remember that storm and going to see it with the top gone and the restored Catholic church had its shingles blown off.
It must have been quite the wind. To do that! Wow.
Ah what a beautiful place. We took lots of pics there!
Everybody takes pics, lots of them. The place is super photogenic!
Been there , seen that may times , always drawn to it.
Easy to fall under the spell…
I will never get tired of any view of Dorothy. Very nice!
Thanks and we agree! We’ve been met, however, with lots of “not another shot of the elevator in Dorothy”. Then oddly many of them go on to turn around and say, on second thought, they like the new approach. Thanks, as always, for commenting.
Great work I really like this. I’ve often wondered about shooting this one from the top and now you’ve done it!
BTW… is it really possible to ‘love’ an elevator too much?
I bet a lot of people have thought of that angle, we’re just the first to put in the effort. It’s a nice angle! It’s been shot to death, that elevator, including photos taken by us, but we never tire of seeing the pics, no matter who took them. Still a lot of people moan, “not another Dorothy elevator picture”. That’s not us though.
That is quite a hike up there, the south side is easy. There is a road going right up to the top.
Yes, that’s a good angle too. Have seen the photos from up there – nice. Might have to check it out sometime myself.
Definitely a different viewpoint!
We like that approach…do it different of don’t do it at all. Thanks for commenting!