St Peter and Paul Church is found along a dusty Alberta backroad and in a spot well off the beaten track. It’s in a picture-perfect setting and the idyllic scene presented here is straight out of a painting. There’s delicate, wispy white clouds and powder blue skies, fields of golden...
This icy cold day we visited Fish Creek Park in Calgary for a little hike. Keeping chill thanks to mother nature! We’ve come prepared, but still, it’s no picnic…wait it was a picnic. These low temps meant we had the place pretty much to ourselves and while usually busy, it’s...
Flashback to 2014 and we’re exploring out near Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. Ahead and to the left…a childhood memory…a Bonanza Steakhouse? Steakhouse? That’s a stretch. It’s been at least twenty years since we’ve seen one and we thought them extinct in Canada. Remember: you’d pair a shoe-leather slice of Chuck and...
What’s this? The ghost sign of an old Radio Shack store? Really? That firm closed down in Canada decades ago and any memories have long been relegated to the deep, dark recesses of the mind. Such connections to the past are usually hidden away in the subconscious and remain dormant...
(2013) We spot a berm cutting across a farmer’s field south of Fort Macleod (Alberta) and this piques our curiosity. It looks railway related, and as it happens that’s indeed true. At the time we didn’t know of any lines in the area (we’re often blissfully unaware), but with a...
The building seen in today’s post is located in Lethbridge Alberta and in the neighbourhood of Staffordville. It was a grocery store for much of its history, with numerous owners over the years, but it’s now a home. Weโve come armed with an old photo showing it in 1980 and...
Bella the what? Boler…a cute retro camper made in Canada. Like many, this one has a name and it’s just a thing…usually something fanciful or silly, but meaningful to the person doing it. Although it may seem peculiar to those outside looking in, it makes perfect sense to members of...
We’re in Union Bay British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, and looking at the remains of a giant wharf used for transloading coal. So, from trains onto waiting ships and barges. It remained in use from the 1880s into about 1960 (or 1961) and most everything removed a few years after....
This short in-town walk begins in downtown Turner Valley (now part of Diamond Valley, a little south of Calgary) and heads up to a bluff atop โSnob Hillโ. From up there you get a good view of the town’s historic gas plant. This walk is a pleasant diversion when you...
Sometimes it’s fun to go in with no set plans or goals in mind. Who doesn’t love the pure and unadulterated joy than comes with discovery? Today, and for the whole day, we’re hitting up Denman & Hornby Islands out in the Strait of Georgia on British Columbia’s West Coast....
Presenting two comparison photos of the same intersection in Calgary, but shot sixty-three years apart. The dates are 1961 and 2024. There’s been plenty of change, but would anyone expect anything less in a city with such explosive growth? New replaces old and it’s a brutally swift process. Today’s Then...
We’re going to do a little walkabout in the former company town of Ioco British Columbia and snap a few photos. Chris, along with two dear friends, were exploring out on the West Coast just over a year ago and this post came as a result. These other fellows are...
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… If you’re asking the hard questions, please consider making a donation first… Or ____ We usually respond quickly during the work week, but weekends and holidays are for adventure. More… BIGDoer.com on Facebook BIGDoer.com sitemap
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...
McKinnon Flats is a recreational area down by the Bow River and a little southeast of Calgary. More than anything it’s a launching point for personal watercraft, but there’s trails to walk or bike as well. Nice place for a picnic too, or to take in nature. The access road...
Roughly ninety years separates the two images seen in this then and now post. Today we’re looking at the former Canadian Pacific Railway station in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, seen first in a vintage postcard and then how it appeared in 2014. This fine old structure looks as good today as...
Kart World or Kart Gardens? The folks that ran this Calgary family-fun business sure made things confusing and a sign in front lists BOTH names. No matter which you choose, the place is now closed and the site (on this visit in 2014) was quickly falling into disrepair. You’ll hear...
Flashback to May 2014: the Team is on a grain elevator tour of southwest Saskatchewan and having a blast. We saw and documented more, but it’s Prairie Sentinels that we came for. Many were visited and the one seen this day is found in the small town of Cadillac (south...
In this Then and Now attention is focused on the old Dominion Bridge Factory in the Calgary neighbourhood of Ramsay. The first photo is undated but we believe it’s from 1960 (we’ll explain) and ours is from 2014. There’s many buildings in the complex but in the photos only one...
Many towns across the prairies once had small community airports but the numbers are thinning. Included in the tally is the one in Hodgeville Saskatchewan, the remains of which include a road sign, a concrete foundation and one standing structure. The latter was presumably the office and control centre (the...
The spectators gather, drinks in hand and the engines roar to life. Brave warriors with their metal steeds take position and the flag drops. Let the CARnage begin! There’s the acrid smell of grease and stinking exhaust, the sequel of tires, the sickening sound of tearing metal followed by shrieks...
Here’s a nice in-town loop hike that’s easy and offers up lots of variety. There’s parkland and natural woods where you’ll forgot you’re in the city. Underfoot it’s paved pathways and dirt singletrack. This is the Bowness and Baker Parks Loop, which also includes a foray into Wood’s Douglas Fir...
All but a couple burials in this forgotten coal town cemetery date predate 1917 and many of the grave markers have been lost to time. Nature’s reclaiming the site and much of everything remaining is well hidden by the underbrush. Still, there’s old metal fences and more resilient grave markers...
Railway archaeology: โThe study and enjoyment of relics from past eras of rail transportationโ (Wikipedia). It’s a bit of an oddball pastime and rarely is there a wow factor, but still it’s something we love. In this post we’ll explore remains of an abandoned section of the Crowsnest Subdivision in...
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...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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Johanna (Connie) Biggart:
St Peter and Paul Church 1918
Anonymous:
Radio Shack Westbrook Mall (Calgary)
Anonymous:
Ghost Railways: Fort Macleod Alberta
Anonymous:
Berte Georgeโs Williamโs Grocery Lethbridge
Rob Pohl & Arturo Pianzola:
Union Bay (Vancouver Island) Coal Wharf
Rob Pohl & Arturo Pianzola:
1 Day: Denman & Hornby Islands (BC)
Wilfrid Lambo:
Crossley Slides: A Corner in Erlton
Rob Pohl & Arturo Pianzola:
Ioco Port Moody BC (Ghost Town)
Anonymous:
Historic Fort Macleod After Hours
Anonymous:
Ghosts of the Crowsnest Subdivision
Franco Media:
Moose Jaw SK Train Station (~90 Yrs Apart)
Anonymous:
Kart World or Kart Gardens? (2014)
Ross Hamilton:
Prairie Sentinels: Cadillac Sask
Anonymous:
Dominion Bridge Calgary (Ramsay) ca1960-2014
John Kinnear:
World of F.E.A.R Figure-8 (Abandoned)
Dale:
Forgotten Coal Town Cemetery
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