Rosebud Alberta Then & Now

The photographs used in this Then & Now post, showing an overall view of the the small community of Rosebud Alberta, date from 1982 and 2015 respectively. The location is a hill overlooking the village, which affords a good view of pretty much the entire place. No urban sprawl here. In spite of the thirty plus year that have passed between shots, not a great deal has changed, unless one considers those prairie skyscrapers in the background of the old image. There used to be many grain elevators here in town, as you can see, and now there is one.

The inspiration photo comes compliments of photographer Harry Palmer, well respected in the field and active for decades. Sadly he passed away a few year back but what he left behind is amazing. Much of his work includes awesome documentary style portraits of people and places all across Canada. We’re honoured that he allowed us use of his work. Where as his is true art in every sense, our photos in comparison are silly little snapshots.

If you’d like to contribute an old photo to be used in one of these T&Ns, contact us and we’ll guide you along. Many of the images used in this series are reader supplied and we’ll search out copyrights to make sure they’re useable. The best ones are those that come from family collections, but old postcards work well too.

The Rosebud area was settled in the 1880s but not until the coming of the railway in the 1910s did it become an established community. Like many prairie towns the population has ebbed and flowed over the years. Today just over a hundred permanent residences call it home.

Rosebud is noteworthy in that it’s home to a very active and popular theatre group. They own many of the old buildings there in downtown (a little distant from our shooting angle), repurposed and used for offices, accommodations, workshops and performance venues. We’ve gone to a show, then later spent the night at a local B&B and it was pure heaven. No TV, no internet and no distractions…ahhhhh.

The grain elevators in the old photo date from the 1910s and 1920s period and were gone by around 2000. The one seen standing today dates from a couple years after the first image capture and now used by a local farmer for grain storage. It’s huge and on our visit watched over by a group of noisy honking geese.

These elevators, those gone and the one still standing, remind us that farming was and still is important in the area. Up on the prairies surrounding this pastoral valley, it’s farm field after farm field extending off to the horizon.

The rail line that once passed though town ran right in front of those grain elevators, but is sort of hidden from view in the old photo. This line (Canadian National Railways, former Canadian Northern) was constructed in 1914 and closed about 2010, although the rails remained in place for a few more years. Traveling between Calgary and Saskatoon Saskatchewan the trains stopped running due to a lack of traffic and high maintenance costs. There’s a stretch here in the Rosebud River Valley that has dozens and dozens of bridges requiring constant attention. The valley walls move too, and slumping a common problem and so it has always been an operational headache.

The trains were still moving when we stayed in Rosebud and how nice to be rocked to sleep by the passing of a slow moving freight. We’re weird that way, but then it could have been the two-four we polished off. Kidding!

The Rosebud River in behind the elevators is hidden from this angle and it carved that valley here, one very scenic and un-prairie like place. Downtown has some cool buildings, but from our vantage point they’re hard to see. The old hotel is cool but you can’t stay there anymore. It’s used by the theatre group.

Other than the new houses on the left and the changes down by tracks, Rosebud overall appears much as it did. Things move slow here.

Many of the then photos used in these posts come from our readers, as did this one and if you’d like to contribute, send it our way. It need only show a street, town scene or some scenic vista. We’ll visit the location and do our very to shoot a similarly composed photo, then will post the results here at BIGDoer.com. It’s always amazing to see what’s changed and often times it’s eye opening!

Go deeper: (new tab): Rosebud Alberta and Photographer Harry Palmer.

Be sure to stop by often for new and exciting content posted every week!

They’re saying…

“Their enthusiasm and dedication to the history of our Province…Great work.” Brad Steck.

Some small town T&Ns…
Downtown Elk Point Alberta.
Unity Saskatchewan then & now.
Empress AB then and now.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: April, 2015.
Location: Rosebud, AB.
Article sources and thanks: Book: Akokiniskway, by the river of many roses (a history of Rosebud) and of course photographer, Harry Palmer.
We had to venture on to private land, with permission, to take our photo.

Little Rosebud Alberta over thirty years apart (orig: Harry Palmer).

The grain elevator seen in the now photo.

The Rosebud Hotel, hidden from view in both photos.

A noisy fellow.