Author: Chris Doering

Burnsland Military Graves

A Moment of Time

It’s a pittance really, a short one hundred and twenty seconds, a mere two minutes*. It’s what’s asked of you and I to give, come 11am November 11th, that you stop, and there in total silence and contemplation, you take that moment, no, embrace the moment, in honour of those...

Fisherville Grave Yard

Fisherville BC Cemetery

Deep in the mountains of the East Kootenays of British Columbia, up the Wildhorse River, there’s a special place, a town that used to be. This is Fisherville, dating from the 1860s and on this world for but a mere moment in time. It came and went quickly. And here...

Wardner BC SawMill Powerhouse

Wardner BC Mill Powerhouse

All that’s left is a concrete shell, remains connecting back to a huge lumber mill that once operated on this property long ago. We’re looking at the Powerhouse Building put in by the Crowsnest Pass Lumber Company here in Wardner British Columbia, about a century ago. Considered too expensive to...

Almudena Cathedral Stained Glass

Espaรฑa Day 1: Wandering Madrid

Already it seems like long ago. Back in time, June 2018, we’ve touched down in Madrid, C&C and our gracious hosts Chris’ sis Trina and her husband Grant (a huge shout out to both and big thanks) and we’re visiting Spain to take in the Camino de Santiago Trail. But...

1963 Pontiac Calgary

Roam at Night

Another in the Roam at Night series were we head out into town, picking some random area, no rhyme or reasons to it all and search out interesting subjects to photograph after dark. Here, it’s two vintage rides we found, one as old as your author and part of an...

King of Bolertown

King of Bolertown

It’s our own personal slice of heaven just outside Calgary. Where we’re standing, a firm, Team Trillium, manufactures those little Trillium Trailers you might see out there on the highway or in some campground. In production since like forever, they’re officially called Outback Trilliums today. And besides producing them new,...

Rowley Alberta School

A Rowley State of Mind

There’s this charming little ghost town out there on the Alberta Plains that like the mythical Scottish Village of Brigadoon springs to life, not once every hundred years, but one Saturday per month*. The people they come for โ€œPizza Nightโ€ and to partake in the ambience, all those amazing old...

11th St SE Blackfoot Market

Blackfoot Farmer’s Market Today

Given the sheer number of forgotten and abandoned places we get to visit (and we so love being that busy), it’s inevitable we cross paths with ones we’ve documented before. Quite honestly it’s sometimes hard to return as often the building or site is rarely as it was – for...

Amor y Espaรฑa 2018 BIGDoer.com

Off The Beaten Path en Espaรฑa

Let’s go back in time about a year, give or take. Rather unexpectedly an invite arrives from Chris’ sister, a most seasoned world traveller…โ€œCome spring, let’s go to Spain!โ€ Tales of hiking and adventure, travelling the legendary โ€œEl Caminoโ€, getting out, seeing the country, touching on what it’s all about...

Old Farm House Alberta

Where Nobody Lives

Presenting a most fantastic find, an old house and outbuildings, long abandoned, lonely and isolated, sitting there in a field with nothing else speaking of human habitation to be seen in any direction. And take in those stunning Alberta Badlands as a backdrop…a more picturesque setting could not be imagined....

Old Cabin Kananaskis

Lefthand’s Cabin

Deep in South Kananaskis Alberta, in a most scenic setting amidst wooded hills and rolling ridges there’s this tiny cabin. A most compact and sturdy dwelling, it was once the base camp for a Stoney Nakoda First Nation’s hunter by the name of Lefthand…John Lefthand we believe. Details are sketchy...

World's Biggest Gold Nugget?

Gold Prospecting Ain’t So Hard

The Wildhorse River in the East Kootenays of BC was historically one of the better gold producers in the province. Placer mining – panning or sluicing of gravels to separate โ€œalluvialโ€ gold – took place up and down this rugged waterway starting in the 1860s. In the first couple decades...

Grave Yard Moyie BC

The Little Cemetery Moyie BC

Moyie is a charming little town in the East Kootenays of British Columbia. Tied to mining for its first few decades โ€“ the St Eugene was a huge producer of lead and zinc, silver and gold โ€“ today it’s a sleepy little community with a retirement vibe, split by a...

Katie's Crossing Boxcar

Rail Equipment @ Katie’s Crossing

There’s this sleepy community, home to some four hundred folk, a most pleasant little burg just a short drive southeast of Edmonton. And sitting there, within sight of the busy Canadian National Railway’s transcontinental mainline is Katie’s Crossing, in business come on seventeen years and a great place to enjoy...

BIGDoer.com Boler

Summer of 2017

Presenting all the Bolers, and other makes of small fibreglass trailers, including our very first Armadillo (a real cutie), that we photographed during the summer of 2017. Rather than post these one at at time as we’ve been mostly doing, which clearly isn’t working given the backlog, we’ll lump them...

Deer Head Cafe Calgary

Deer Head Cafe

Here’s a little hole in the wall diner with seating for perhaps a dozen or two, old school, unpretentious, plain and simple with a blue collar working person’s vibe. It’s truck drivers, cement workers, those that swing a hammer or wield a wrench that frequent the place. No suits and...

SAIT Time Capsule

The SAIT Pinball

It’s a giant pinball (ball). Big and steel and glistening in the sun, it takes this here author back to the days when the game was the only thing on my mind. If I had a quarter, I was at the arcade. Skipped school a lot to partake in my...

Paddlers Upper Kananaskis Lake

Upper Kananaskis Lake Loop

Sometimes you plan for this and end up doing that. It’s the unpredictable rhythm of life. Like this…we hoped to hike up to Rawson Lake then take in Rawson/Sarrail Ridge overlooking Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, but a โ€œbear in the areaโ€ warning meant that objective was off limits. What to...

Brant Alberta Elevator

Brant’s Last Grain Elevator

We’re in Brant Alberta to take in this prairie skyscraper, taller than anything around, standing in a sleepy little burg down by the tracks and where there were others it’s now the last one. With some good timing, those amazing colours and that โ€œmoodโ€ one can only get as the...

Shonts AB Elevator

This is Shonts

There’s quite a contrast here. On one side there’s an ancient grain elevator, all old and weather beaten but still solid and unmoving, standing where built over a century ago. And on the other there’s a modern railway with a singular function, the moving of goods. Watch the freights run...

Pool Elevator Scandia Alberta

Scandia Eastern Irrigation District Museum

If you find yourself out near Brooks Alberta, turn south on Highway #36 just west of town and head on down to a little community called Scandia. They’ve got an extra special prairie-life themed open air museum there that you can take in. A vintage grain elevator and old train...

Capitol Hill Cottage School

Capitol Hill Cottage School

Today we’ll be looking at an old building in the Calgary Neighbourhood of Capitol Hill. It appears to be a house and is in a residential area, and there was a reason behind that, but actually it was a school. Dating back to 1912, it’s what’s known as a Cottage...

Gottlieb Mustang Playfield

Gottlieb’s Mustang

A message arrives from pinball technician, and dear friend, Gary Makota. He knows the Team loves documenting pinball culture, even if we don’t do it often enough, and invites us over to a customer’s home, with their permission of course, to take in a problem machine he’ll be working to...

Dino Provincial Park Fossil Discovery

Fossil Prospecting @ Dino Provincial Park

We arrive at the visitor’s centre in Dinosaur Provincial Park and check in. We’re booked to do a little โ€œFossil Prospectingโ€, a search for ancient remains in the scenic badlands and we’re giddy like a couple kids Christmas Morning. We’re that close to squealing with delight. We meet our guide,...

Roundhouse Hanna AB

Hanna Roundhouse Revisited

Our little group of history nuts has visited the Hanna Alberta Roundhouse many times over the years. In the past it stood there abandoned with an uncertain future and we fully expected when next we returned it’d be gone. Fast forward to today and the building (since late 2013), is...

Comfort Camping Dinosaur Provincial Park

Shoulder Season @ Dino Provincial Park

There’s a most extraordinary place, a hidden gem really, set below the boundless Alberta plains in a scenic valley, near the town of Brooks. We’re speaking of Dinosaur Provincial Park (A Unesco* World Heritage Site โ€“ it’s that amazing), down by the mighty Red Deer River. It’s here in the...

Railroad Bridge Bow River

Two Train Bridges

How about some bridges? Train bridges that is…it’s been a while. Here’s a pair, not all that far apart, both easily approached from public property, both about a century old, and both belonging to the same railway, although when built each was along a competing line. Take in these impressive...

Coleman Collieries Locomotive

Coleman Collieries #DL11

The Crowsnest Pass, way down south there near the British Columbia border is one of our most favourite places to visit. Can’t get enough of it. History, hiking and the outdoors all rolled into one…it’s pure bliss! And one fine evening we’re wandering the town of Coleman, a community built...

Edmonton Oilers Logo

Who are these so-called Oilers?

We’re running a tad behind (understatement of the year) in showing off our Boler finds. Heck, we’re still posting ones we photographed in 2016! It’s time to play catch up and for the next while we’ll generally put multiples in each article, instead of one at a time, until that...

Cold War Shelter

Cold War Bunker Revisted

The Team revisits a most interesting place, one we’ve been meaning to return to for some time now. Here, punched into the side of a solid mass of limestone at the base of a towering mountain, deep in Kananaskis, a most curious installation. Presenting, the Bunker dating to those crazy...

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